Copywriting Ideas for Your Sales Letter

For a lot of people, the idea of writing copy for their sales letter fills them with dread. They then either make a half hearted job of the sales letter (always assuming that it's not used as an excuse to procrastinate on the product launch) or hire in an expert to write the sales letter for them.
Copywriting is a skill that can be learned and the good news is that you don't have to be the world's greatest copywriter to make at least some sales.
These ideas should help you write at least a half-way decent sales letter for your product.
1. Wear your customer's shoes
Your potential customers are going to be thinking "what's in it for me?"
After all, if there's nothing in the product that they want, why should they buy it.
That means taking off your product developer hat and stepping into your customer's shoes.
Personally, I like to write my sales letters as soon after I've finished creating the product as possible. Or, if I'm creating a case study, even before the "product" (watching me do whatever it is I promise in the sales letter) is created.
The easiest way I've found is to dissect the product and talk about each section.
Since quite a few of my products are split into several short videos, I tend to talk about each video and write two or three paragraphs about each video.
But if you've created a PDF or Kindle book which has chapters or sections you could treat each chapter in the same way.
Just talk about what your customer will get or achieve once they've done each section.
2. Tell a story
Stories are powerful.
Our mind goes into a different place when we're being told a story and our natural anti-sales defenses drop.
So if you're able to tell a story in your sales letter, do so.
That's why a lot of internet marketing sales letters tell the (usually) rags to riches story of the author - how they were struggling with whatever it is their product solves until they discovered the magic bullet that they're about to sell you.
The same goes for products like weight loss - the pictures tell the story of how slim you can get just by buying and consuming whatever miracle product is on offer. Probably without exercising or any form of self control.
So if you're able to weave a story into your sales letter, you're much closer to getting the sale.
3. Be a trusted advisor
Outwardly, most of us hate pushy salesmen, even if we buy things from them.
But we prefer to at least think that we've made the buying decision ourselves.
The closer you can get to being the trusted advisor, the better.
This may mean that your sales letter includes warnings not to buy your product if the potential customer isn't the right fit for it.
That can work well in a lot of markets and is something that's well worth including if at all possible.
Gaining the trust of your potential customers can set you apart from the crowd and is well worth doing.
There's even a school of thought amongst some of the top copywriters in the world that you should give away your best ideas in the sales letter itself. The logic behind this is that people will assume that if they get those ideas for free, they'll get even better advice in the paid-for product