Fast Food Copywriting

If you’ve only written a handful of sales letters or maybe even none, you could literally drive yourself crazy trying to get everything perfect the first time. What background color should you use? What template should you use? What font? How many graphics? What color should your headline be? There are tons of factors to consider when writing your sales letter, but the good news is you don’t have to get it right the first time.

What do I mean by that? I mean pick something and split test it. I’m a firm believer that the words you say on your sales letter are a lot more important than the way it looks. Is it important to have a professional-looking webpage to make yourself look more credible? Of course it is. But when you’re making changes, it’s more important to have a headline that grabs attention and says something than it is to change designs. You should be split testing the words on your sales letter, not the graphics.

An easy way to figure out what your sales letter should look like is to look at your competitors. What do their web pages look like? Do they all stick to certain colors? For example, when I look at many internet marketing sales letters, I see mostly white and blue. But when I look at Forex or stock trading sales letters, I see a lot of green and yellow. I’m not sure why this is but if most people in that niche use those colors, then most customers in that niche are used to seeing those colors as well and you should follow their lead. And when it comes down to it, choose a template and stick to it.

You don’t need to be slowed down when you want to launch a new product or write a new sales letter waiting for graphics to get finished. Have a design made for one product and reuse that on all your other sales letters to give all your products consistent branding.

The background color on your sales letter really doesn’t matter that much. You should instead split test important headlines, words, components, and phrases; imitate what your competitors do; and stick with the template. Focus on what really matters?getting a sales letter written in record time. I want to show you how to do this at www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

Although your sales letters should be aggressive and should make a strong argument for why people should buy from you, it is possible to go to over the top. We have all seen sales letters like that. They show money flying around; they show pictures of beaches and Lamborghinis. And if you have someone write the sales letter for you and it ends up being too crazy and not believable enough, there are steps you can take to make the sales letter more down to earth by removing clich?s, by adding in your proof, and by simply deleting the bad sentences and paragraphs that are causing the problems.

A clich? is a phrase that has been copied and repeated so many times that it loses its meaning. An example of the clich? is the saying, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.” We’ve all heard it so many times that it becomes cheesy. If you see headlines or phrases about making piles of cash or about making money in your sleep, those are things that you’ve heard over and over on late-night infomercials and on web pages everywhere. If you see a repeated phrase like this that’s this cheesy, get rid off it.

The one thing you can add to a sales letter to tone down the cheese factor is to add a proof. If you have a sales letter that’s talking about making money with a video, show your real numbers and show how much money you’ve made with the videos. Show how many views that YouTube video got you. Show how many clicks you got from marketing videos. If you’re making a product about building a list, show how many subscribers you have especially if it’s a moderate, not a huge number. Just the fact that you are sharing your own personal results, as opposed to some general results, will make your copy a lot more real.

And finally, if you see a sentence that’s just too far gone that you can’t do anything with or that says nothing, delete it. It’s okay to take a five-page cheesy sales letter and reduce it down to a one-page sales letter that has all the facts. I give you permission to do this.

And that’s how you convert your hypey sales letters into factual and believable ones: Remove the clich?s, add your own proof, and delete the bad sentences. Write copy correctly the first time at www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

You’ve written a sales letter. Maybe you’ve even made a product. Maybe you’ve even created a lead capture page and now have people on a mailing list and it’s time to send them automatic e-mails to convince them to come back to the sales letter and hopefully buy. You might know how to write webpage sales letters, but what’s different about copywriting in e-mails?

E-mail copywriting is shorter but it has many similar elements such as the call to action, but it is important to keep in mind that e-mail copywriting is not a magic bullet. E-mail copywriting is very different from copywriting for a webpage because you’re limited in the amount of space you have. Theoretically, you could write an EM message that’s pages and pages long, but your average subscriber is not going to read it. The point of your e-mails is to get people to read it, click it, and end up on your sales letter. And that means you should write the very minimum amount of text to get people to click. My most high-converting e-mails have been the short ones that were the vaguest and the weirdest. You’re not going to make sales directly from your e-mails. You’re going to convince them to click to the webpage, and then they will buy.

Even though the big difference between e-mail and webpage sales letters is that e-mail messages are much shorter, you still do have to draw in people’s attention. But the most important thing about an e-mail message is the call to action. You need to have one call to action just like in a sales letter, which means only have the one URL to go to. You could mention the URL multiple times in the same e-mail message, but the URL itself needs to be the same throughout.

The confused mind never buys. The only action someone should be able to take when they’re reading your e-mail message is to click over onto your sales letter. Even though e-mail messages are the same in some ways and are different in some ways than a webpage copywriting, keep in mind it’s not a magic bullet just like you can’t write any old sales letter and expect it to convert; you can’t just send the e-mails and expect them to get people on your webpage.

You still need to have something interesting to say. You still need to provide exactly what the mark it wants and you still need to have a good argument about why someone should listen to you. Keep those things in mind when writing either a webpage sales letter or copywriting for e-mail.

I want to give you all the steps you need to write a successful and profit-pulling sales letter at www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

A copy critique is where you have a copywriter look at your sales letter and tell you what to change and what to split test. A copywriter might give you a re-written sales letter. He might give you notes or might even give you a video going over the sales letter. I’ve even been a copy critique where I have been on a webinar with a copywriter and he has presented his thoughts and proposed changes right in front of me so I could ask questions.

But why would you want to get a copy critique? First of all, it’s cheaper to write copy yourself and get a critique than it is to have someone write the entire sales letter. And because you wrote the first draft, it is in your voice and makes all the points you want to make. Even if the person critiquing your copy is not a great copywriter or a copywriter at all, it’s good to have a fresh pair of eyes looking at your sales page. It’s good to know what the every man or even someone who is not necessarily in your niche thinks about your copy.

Another important thing about critiques is that you can see where readers get lost or where your most awkward phrases and headlines are just by seeing how someone else looks at your copy and reads your words. If your sales letter is converting poorly, it might be because of something that’s very easy to fix.

You’re going to notice in these copy critiques that you can usually re-write sentences or even remove words or huge chunks of copy and make it flow a lot better. Or you might even rearrange certain elements and introduce your solution earlier or later, or introduce a certain problem at the beginning or end of sales letter. But whatever needs changing on your sales letter, it always helps to have another pair of eyes look at your work. And remember, that even if you don’t agree with that copywriter’s changes, you can always split test the original sales letter versus the one with the changes and see which one makes you more money.

You need to have a sales letter first before you can split test anything so I want you to take part in this training and discover how to write your very own sales letters, www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

You have one product to sell and maybe even a great sales letter for it. But should you write more than one sales letter, each one going after a different demographic or with a different selling angle, to suck in new buyers? I’ll give you the answer right now.

When many people come to me with the thought of multiple sales letters for one product, I asked them, “Have they made any sales yet?” When this question comes up, most people are simply thinking too big. If you haven’t made any sales from just one sales letter, you are not yet ready to have other sales letters. Take that one sales letter. Get it critiqued. Get it revised. Split test it and make some sales before moving to multiple sales letters. This way, you can perfect just one and figure out what gets people to buy instead of guessing. Create one good sales letter, not a bunch of bad ones.

Remember that a better solution than having multiple sales letters is to have a follow-up sequence that handles different objections or to have a longer sales letter that gives more details about your offer. If you simply have to create many sales letters, consider having the same text sales letter but record a different video sales letter that you place inside of that for your different markets. This way, you won’t spend tons of time writing these extra sales letters. And above all, ask yourself, “Why did you get this idea for other sales letters?” Is it because you don’t believe in the copy or the product you’re offering and you feel like this is the only way to fix it? Did someone else get this idea in your head to try to make you pay them more for copywriting services? Or are you trying to use this as a loophole to avoid split testing?

You don’t need to split test huge dramatic differences. Split test just one variable, long or short copy; a different headline, removing the subheadline or a different offer or a different call to action. Multiple sales letters is probably not the solution for a low-converting webpage.

Write your own sales letters in seven easy steps, www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

Here is what you should do instead. A common piece of advice you hear from many copywriters is to maintain what’s called a swipe file. That means if you see a sales letter you like, save it to a folder. If you see subject lines, headlines, or bullet points you like, save those to a special folder. If you see graphics you like, videos you like and so on, save those to a special folder. But swipe files are bad and here’s the reason why.

First of, adding and retaining it to a folder just adds clutter to your life. You’re collecting every little piece of copy you see and you’re probably only going to apply a small percentage of that. And the worst part is that even when you do apply some of that, you’re going to look like an imitator. Many people simply take someone else’s headline and change a few words and call it their own. But especially if you’re swiping from a sales letter in the same niche as you, it’s going to be very obvious where you got that headline from.

What do you do instead? You get to the root of that headline. I’ll give you an example by looking at the one-legged golfer headline. It goes like this: Amazing Secret Discovered by One-Legged Golfer Adds 50 Yards To Your Drives, Eliminates Hooks and Slices? And Can Slash Up To 10 Strokes From Your Game Almost Overnight.

Instead of changing a few words, think about what that headline did. You can pick and choose many things from that headline. For example, can you notice it delivered three benefits? Do you notice it added real number such as 50 yards or 10 strokes? Did you see the visual imagery it put in that headline, for example, one-legged, hooks and slices, slash? And it promised a time-based deadline which was “almost overnight.” It even shrouded the whole thing in mystery by beginning with the phrase “Amazing Secret.” Do you see how extracting the ideas from the headline instead of the words themselves can give you a much better and much more unique headline than you had before? And the final thing to do, instead of having a huge swipe file is to simply have a list of phrases you like.

You might have saved that one-legged golfer headline to use later. And once you decided to deliver a headline that have three benefits?a deadline, numbers and some kind of secret that was promised?you should then throw that phrase away because you probably won’t use it again. That is what you should do instead of having a huge swipe file. Copy only the things you need; get to the root of what that sales letter or headline did; and then throw away phrases once you are done with them.

Have you been writing sales copy wrong this whole time? Do you even know how to do it? Go to www.fastfoodcopywriting.com to find out how to write sales letters the correct way.

Video sales letters have been making a comeback. If you don’t know what it is, a video sales letter means that instead of having a text-based sales letter with paragraphs, headlines, and bullet points, you instead have a video on a webpage with a “Buy” button underneath and that’s it.

When you run a video sales letter, your points can be more impactful. Think about it. On a written sales letter, people can skim or stroll past your headlines, but in a video sales letter, you can make a statement; place it on the screen and depending on your settings, people might not even be able to fast forward past that point. That means that they can get your whole argument from start to finish without skimming or picking and choosing what they want to see.

How do you do it? First, get Camtasia recorder for your software. This will record what?s on your screen and it will capture the sound of your voice. To speak in your computer, get a Logitech Clear Chat USB headset. A USB headset is better than most microphones because it is distant at just the right amount of space away from your face; it does not pick up background noise, and because it’s USB, it bypasses your sound card and gives you better audio quality.

Finally, use PowerPoint to display the texts and graphics you want to show when you record this video sales letter. Then, make a series of slides explaining the problem people are having, what your solution is and what’s inside that solution. But most of all, be yourself. Ad lib some of the presentation. Speak in your own voice.

You get major points from a video sales letter by showing as much of your personality as possible; that way, you will be relatable, sincere and genuine.

Find out all the winning ingredients you need to have in a sales letter of any kind at www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

When you create a sales letter, the question will probably come up, “How detailed do you want to make it?” Do you want to mention tact and cool details? Do you want to mention the advanced features of your product or service? Or do you want to mention and promote the magic dust and get people in based on the quick-fix solution and then sneak in the real information they made?

When you create a sales letter that’s detailed and meant for the small crowd, you can get very specific. But you run the risk of alienating people who don’t necessarily know what you’re talking about. Let’s say you were offering a WordPress training course. You wouldn’t necessarily want to mention advanced things such as API hooks or Widgets not because they’re too detailed, but because they aren’t exciting.

Those Are Features And Not Benefits!

On the other hand, if you wanted the opposite extreme and mentions about how WordPress can help people blog and write things onto a webpage, that’s not specific enough to justify the advantages of using WordPress versus having a regular webpage.

What Do You Do Then?

You meet people in the middle. You have the right information on your sales letter so it is still accessible to the newbie, but advanced users will know what you are talking about. It is okay to leave out a few elements that people will find on the inside of your training because it’s good to have some surprise bonuses. Certain topics just can’t be made exciting. Put the exciting topics in your sales letter and leave the least exciting ones out.

Don’t make it about appealing to the smart or the dumb crowd. Just give people enough information to make a buying choice and nothing else.

I want you to apply my step-by-step formula for creating a sales letter in less than 90 minutes, www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

These days, when you’ve been hearing all the hype about video sales letters, you must be thinking, “Should I still go to the lengths of writing a long sales letter, reduce it down to a short sales letter, or remove words entirely and present a 100% video sales letter?” I am going to give you the advantages of all three and which you should use.

The thing about long sales letters is that they provide all the information and all the objections that people need to know before making a buying decision. Even though long sales letters might put you to sleep if you read them from start to finish, the average person is not going to do that. They will read enough to make a choice; then skip down to the bottom to buy.

A short sales letter is great because it doesn’t take you very much time to create the sales letter. You can get right to the points and tell them what they’re getting. The only problem with this is you can’t have as much of a buildup with long copy which means you can’t explain the problem very much and you can’t get too specific about what exactly is inside the sales letter.

Finally, when you create a video sales letter, people can’t necessarily skip ahead as easy as with a written sales letter. If they skip ahead, they’ll miss very important things. That means that if you want to have more information in a video, your video will have to be long. And if your video is longer than 9 minutes, you’re going to lose potential buyers.

What’s the answer then? You should create a long form sales letter that tackles people objections. And then remove words out of it and split test long versus short copy. Once you have found the winner, take whatever information is in the long or short sales letter; create a 100% video sales letter and split test that. That way, no one can tell you your sales letter should be longer, shorter or video-based. Now you have optimized your sales letter based on your own traffic.

Robert Plank wants to show you a simple plug-and-play system for creating sales letters at www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.

If you want to be hired as a copywriter or even known as someone who understands what they’re talking about, you should have a copywriting portfolio. In other words, you should have some kind of directory or list of screenshots showing your work demonstrating to someone what sales letters you have written. But if you have no portfolio, how do you build it up? You create your own sales letters; you work free or cheaply; and you re-write other popular sales letters.

The great thing about writing your own sales letters as opposed to someone paying you upfront for them is that you have no trouble looking for work, you get to keep all the money, and you can see exactly how well it converts. You don’t have to fight with anyone over creative control. Just have a product or get one made, and then write a sales letter showing that product off.

Another good method to getting real sales letters made is to work for free. If you explain to someone that you’re a new copywriter and you’re trying to build your portfolio, work for someone for free; and if they have other sales letters that need to be written in the future, you can charge for those services.

If you are a good listener and you know what questions to ask when it comes to making sales letters, your clients will write most of the sales copy for you. It’s just going to be up to you to know what questions to ask, how to position it, and how to put the story together in a way that’s exciting and keeps people’s attention.

One way to do this that combines the best of both methods?making your own sales letters and working for someone else?is to find sales letters that are already converting well such as on Click Bank and make them convert even better. You don’t even have to prove this convert better. Just make them look and sound better. Go to a sales letter that you know gets lot of traffic and apply a different template to it. Re-write the headline. Re-format the text or the story so it’s a lot more entertaining. And then you can simply add that to your portfolio.

Those were three ways to build up a portfolio of the sales letters you have written to give you more credibility, to easily get clients, and to even get better at copywriting through practice. Create your own sales letters for your own products, work for a low rate or free at first, and re-write popular sales letters.

Take advantage of my seven-step sales letter process right here at www.fastfoodcopywriting.com.