How to Write Great Copy to Increase Your Readers' Attention

When it comes to closing sales, few things are more important than retaining the readers' interest. If your readers become bored early on by a lackluster sales letter, there's almost nothing you can do to jolt them back to life. Instead, they will probably leave before they read even a quarter of your pitch.

To the contrary, if you grip readers from the beginning and ratchet up the pitch as the sales letter goes on, readers will have no choice but to stick around. And they will do so not to give you the benefit of the doubt, but because they truly believe that not buying now means that they will definitely be worse off.

So how can you retain readers' interest and encourage them to come back? I personally suggest that you take the following five steps:

1. Cover the benefits and features of your product in order of importance. Start with the most important benefit of your product. And as the sales letter goes on, continue to list the less and less important features.

Indeed, you may have seen this approach elsewhere. This style of writing is used in newspapers very frequently. The idea is to focus on retaining a person's interest for as long as is possible.

With newspapers, you can start by reading the first few paragraphs. If the story looks good, you may continue on until the end of it. If you get sick of it early, you at least got the most important pieces of information before moving on.

This works well with newspapers; and it works well with sales copy, too. It allows the people who are most motivated to buy to stop reading early and buy; and it allows those who are hardest to persuade to continue on until you have had the chance to make a sufficiently strong case for your product.

2. "Edit down" your sales letter. Virtually without exception, sales letters are too wordy and contain too many filler sentences. Unfortunately for sellers, having a lot of filler usually does nothing to further your pitch.

So, once you have finished constructing your sales letter, read through it a second time. Wherever possible, make an attempt to squeeze out any filler material, so that your sales letter becomes increasingly potent with each revision.

3. Push readers forward right before you attempt to pitch your product. While your benefits should be listed in order of importance, it is still vital that you don't let the sales letter lose steam over time. Instead, you should move from listing the final benefit to shocking your readers with a surprise; and then making your attempt to close out the deal.

In general, try to make sure that your sales letter doesn't lose steam over time. Instead, focus on supporting it through the introduction of additional benefits, so that it demonstrates the robustness and usefulness of your product; and, at the same time, entices readers to become increasingly excited about it as they near the end of the sales letter.

4. Use bonuses to keep readers interested. After you have finished detailing all of the great benefits of your product, start throwing in bonuses as you work your way to the final pitch.

Bonuses can go a long way towards spicing up your product pitch; and converting unlikely buyers into definite buyers.

5. "Introduce" your product at the end of the pitch. Instead of opening your sales letter with the name and purpose of your product, open your sales letter with a problem that the reader has. As you go, suggest how that problem could be overcome by subtly alluding to strategies and methods detailed in your product.

Finally, once you build a strong case for the category of product in which your product falls, introduce your product as the solution for all of the aforementioned problems.

In summary--retaining reader interest is a vital part of crafting a successful sales letter. Follow the tips I outlined above; and you should be successful in your Endeavour to keep your sales letter lively and effective.

About the Author

Visit Brian's website, http://www.StudyStudent.com and learn how to write effectively for school and business, including lessons on how to write a dissertation.

Author (bskcom). Submitted on Fri, 6 Aug 2010 Time: 5:14 PM

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