Is your sales letter performing as well as you’d like? Is it converting well enough to produce a nice stream of cash straight into your bank account?
No??
Then perhaps your sales letter is failing to do one fundamental thing that MUST happen before any kind of sale is made….
Build rapport.
Rapport is demonstrating you understand your prospect… you’re “with him”… and you have a solution to his problem.
Most sales letters I see fail miserably at building rapport. Right off the bat, the headline misses the mark. Even if the headline and lead are right, the sales letter is focused too much on “selling”… and not enough on making a genuine connection.
Real life salesmen understand that rapport comes FIRST. People prefer to buy from those they know, like, and trust… which is why building rapport in print is just as critical as it is in real life encounters.
Rapport begins with the very first word you write. That’s why researching your target prospect and understanding as much about him as possible is critical preparation work to writing a sales letter (or any marketing piece, for that matter).
Here are a few ways to “get to know” your prospect and begin to understand him on a deeper level….
- Conduct and analyze surveys with your target audience.
- Study their demographics, interests, and other profile information.
- Hang out with them, befriend them, or interview them to get a feel for who they are and how they talk.
- Walk a mile in your prospects shoes by imaging what his life is like, what problems he’s having, what he’s thinking on a daily basis, and what he’s feeling about those thoughts.
Only after you’ve invested this preparation time are you ready to begin writing…
Tomorrow, I’ll demonstrate how to write your sales letter in a way that builds rapport. Stay tuned…
-Joshua Aaron Stanley
P.S. Download “How To Generate More Leads & Make More Sales Using The Subtle Power Of Covert Written Persuasion.”
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Looking forward to the “how” and really do need to study my own customers more.
For a long time I’ve been sending surveys for my diet and exercise software asking if people like the various sections (nutrition, workouts, schedules etc). Yes they do, which is nice.
However ask me who is my typical customer and I really can’t say! Male, American, mostly credit card but some paypal. There ya go.
For my next survey – “Who the heck ARE you?” lol
I suspect most are around the same age as my, early 40’s but perhaps I’m just “projecting”?
Alan
Actually, that’s not a bad idea! Use a survey tool like SurveyMonkey.com or AskDatabase.com and send it to your database asking basic demographic questions: gender, age, marital status, occupation, etc.
Ask about their interests, what they subscribe to, what they watch, what they’re a member of, etc.
This will give some important clues to who they are. And in the future, as you write a message to them, you’ll have a better understanding of who they are.
I’m working on a complete course on “How To Create Your Core Marketing Message” where I cover this sort of thing in much more detail. It will be ready soon.
Well I already have a good survey script on my site, works well. I’ve figured out what I’m gonna do, as I’m moving away from the idea of a free demo towards direct selling..
I give existing users free updates.
“Here’s the link to the latest version – the other side of this little survey…”
:o)
A.