The "7 Minute Sales Letter"

You're One Great Sales Letter Away From Your £1 million Business.

Many of us write content for emails, direct mail, websites, advertisements etc. and get
frustrated that we receive little or no response. We often blame the targeted audience, the
timing or the method of delivery. The real reason is usually that the content is unstructured,
uninteresting and lacks the keys points needed to excite the prospect and lead them to
take the desired action.

I was recently on a conference call with leading marketing coach, Taki Moore, and he
shared his secrets to creating a '7 Minute Sales Letter'. I now want to share this with all of
you because I think this is an essential tool to building a successful business. I credit and
acknowledge Taki for this fantastic simple and common sense content.

There are two types of copy to create. Long copy and short copy. Long copy consists of
pages of text, is complex and often covers a topic in great depth and detail. This article
may give a few light tips for this type of copy but it intended to have a greater impact in
short copy, which consists of paragraphs only.

Let's start with the 5 principals of creating the '7 Minute Sales Letter'. After all this article
should give you the basics to create your own effective sales letter in 7 minutes or less.
• Cut the fat - most of us start to waffle and we lose the interest of the reader. So we need
to eliminate 97% f our normal content!
• Connect with one problem - be specific. Taki gave us an example of the supermarket
aisle. Above each hangs a board that we look for when we shop. If it said something
general such as "Food" or "Cold Stuff" would we know which to choose? No! We want
clear precise labels so we can down just the aisle we want. Choose just one problem
and clearly label it, e.g. "Getting paid on time", "Identifying a bad apple in your team"' etc.
• Be the trusted advisor - eliminate the hype. Focus on the problem, describe and
communicate it with emotion. You need to build trust and give honest content here. The
better you can articulate the problem the more credit your prospect will give you for
solving it. You really want them to emphasise with the problem and say 'that's me'.
• Future pace that benefits - this sets the next step and makes it exciting. You need to
build the excitement so much so that they really want a sneak peak, like a child with
presents at Christmas. The easiest way to do this is by 3-5 bullets that clearly show
'what's in it for me'. There are three types of bullet:
•! Benefit bullet - a simple what you will take away or learn etc. and how
•! Blind bullet - this is what we will show you, but not tell them how
•! Double bullet - double punch
• Sell the next step - this is most important. Stick to just one step, e.g. ?

Now, the point of this article is give you the basic knowledge and skill to create a
successful sales letter in 7 minutes or less. You know have the principals, the next step is
to give you the winning formula.

The letter formula consists of 5 ingredients. If you are short of time it is essential to include
ingredients (1), (4) and (5). So here they are:
• Headline - this should be catching and attention grabbing. Click here to request our
headline bank for some great and famous examples that you can use to inspire your
own.
• Sub-heading - this can be used to set the promise or guarantee of what useful
information will be given etc. It helps incubate the excitement factor that we tales about
earlier.
• Connection copy - this is your chance to articulate the issues and problems and add
emotion to the message. Remember that most of us buy on emotion and then justify that
choice with logic.
• The Silver Bullets - these should be clear and simple outcomes that you will deliver.
Remember 3-5 only and consider the types we discussed earlier. These must really
excite your prospect and create an overwhelming sense of wanting to be part of the
solution or to sneak a preview of what is coming next.
• Call for action - a sales letter without this is a wasted opportunity, it will leave your
prospects all excited with nowhere to go. You need to give them that next destination,
that next step to take, you must guide them on this, no I mean lead them. If you don't
they will be lost and feel disappointed. Your call to action response should be
measurable. It can be a 'call me now', 'click here' or 'book now to receive discount', as
just a couple of examples. Make the action easy to follow and instructive.

Another top tip commonly used is PS and PPS. This is a golden opportunity to tell you
prospect amount some added value in an informal and low pressure way. These should
reinforce the previous content and be focused on the outcome of the letter.

I have shared just the basics of creating a successful sales letter. Use these and you will
immediately see a difference. I did. I sent out an email within a few hours of listening to
Taki's conference call and within one hour I had booked an additional 50% attendance to
my upcoming seminar.

Knowledge is useless without action. So try the tools and structure given here and see
what difference it makes. Let me know how it works out by commenting on this blog right
here.

I look forward to hearing of your successes.

Simon

PS. If you want to know more about getting massive results from you marketing look out
for our new Marketing System Academy.

PPS. This online eLearning academy will be launched soon and will be a great way to
work through the essentials of successful marketing for your business in a simple, industry
specific structured format. We will let you know when registration for membership is
available.