Are Sales Letters Effective?
If you’re an experienced Internet marketer and someone tries to sell you a certain product through a newsletter, you will probably not take that person/product seriously. But the average Internet user is NOT a marketer and that’s definitely something worth keeping in mind.
Most of the people who are selling ebooks, for example, are huge fans of long sales copy. Are all of them idiots? Do they like losing money over and over again? Think about it: the fact that sales letters have been used for a very long time says a lot and it should be obvious that they at least represent:
An Alternative Worth Keeping in Mind
There are lots of examples of extremely successful products which have been promoted exclusively via long sales copy. The world’s most popular copywriters charge tens of thousands of dollars for a lander and yes, there are always people who are willing to pay that much.
As experienced marketers, we might think that those sales letters we come across a lot are pathetic (most of them are) but maybe others don’t consider them pathetic at all. Maybe a lot of people are not willing to buy a certain product unless the landing page contains lots of details about it (something along the lines of “What? You want to convince me to buy your product but are only willing to write a few paragraphs about it?”) and that brings us to the most important questions we, as marketers, need to ask ourselves:
Should I Promote My Product Through a Sales Letter?
It really depends on your niche, on what makes your potential customers tick and at the end of the day, split testing is the only way to know for sure. After you come up with a series of concepts for your landing pages, throw some traffic at them and see what sticks. A lot of times, the results are surprising to say the least.
Just remember to always focus on quality, not quantity. If you have 30 crappy landing pages, all of the split testing in the world won’t help. Always choose copywriters and designers who know what they’re doing (you can definitely tell based on their portfolio or “street cred”) because otherwise, you’ll end up wasting valuable time. After all, is trying to save a buck really worth it if you’d be wasting time which is worth tens or hundreds of times more than what you’d end up saving?
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Focus, Focus, Focus
If you’re a person with an above average IQ, you probably have several amazing ideas each day. On the one hand, it’s a huge advantage but on the other hand, it’s also something that can work against you if you’re not careful.
No matter how successful or well organized you are, a day still won’t have more than 24 hours and your budget will probably never be limitless either. Yes, it’s true that you need to diversify but that doesn’t mean that you should go overboard. Spreading yourself too thin is just as bad as keeping all of your eggs in one basket.
In Case You Forgot: Focus, Focus, Focus
Most people get really excited about a project at the beginning but end up being distracted at one point or another. The brainstorming process is almost always a lot of fun but when you start implementing everything, things tend to get a bit boring. It’s like that for everyone and it’s perfectly understandable.
While it is understandable, that doesn’t mean that you have to start finding excuses. So you have great ideas? Well, what good will it do if they don’t materialize? Writing stuff on a board or on a piece of paper is great and everything but making money would be kinda-sorta nice too, wouldn’t it? If you always jump from one idea to another, you’ll end up with a lot of “concepts” but no money in the bank. So, what’s the solution?
You’ve Guessed It: Focus, Focus, Focus
Keep your eyes on the prize and be sure to set goals. Reaching a goal always gives you a nice little boost, probably more than enough in order to make it to the next one and so on. Don’t forget to reward yourself, keep it fun!
Ok, so focusing is important. But does this mean that you should let ideas with a lot of potential go to waste? Of course not, be ready to always write a great idea down. Be organized, you’ll thank yourself later on. Notepad is your friend, seriously! Why complicate things? Create a folder, call it “ideas” or something and whenever you think that you’ve discovered the best thing since sliced bread, open notepad or an editor of choice for a moment and let your imagination run wild. Then get back to work, rinse and repeat. That’s really all there is to it.
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The Comfort Zone = One of Your Biggest Enemies
Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a rocket scientist in order to make $200 – $300 per day online. Anyone with half a brain can pull it off and even if you’re a complete beginner, you’ll probably be able to start making $6k – $9k monthly without working all that hard fairly soon.
Starting out is always hard but once things are on the right track, you’ll have your first “hey, I’m making some decent cash by only working a couple of hours/day” moment. You’ll be able to start taking advantage of all the free time you have at your disposal and that can be extremely dangerous.
Oh Really? Why?
Three words: the comfort zone, the place which keeps most people from tapping their true potential. Human nature at its best! After all, why hustle and hustle and hustle when you can make enough money to live a comfortable life without working all that hard? Time to take your foot off the pedal, right? Wrong!
While it may be true that you’ll feel “content” at the beginning, it’s only a matter of time until regret starts kicking in. Sure, your life is fairly comfortable but what will happen when you find out that the guy you’ve been talking to on AIM back when both of you were beginners is now banking $3,000 per day while you’re still stuck at the $250 level?
Why Sacrifice the Future for a Comfortable Present?
The opportunities you have now will not stay around forever. Maybe you’ll come across better ones but you probably won’t. That’s why the ability to make the most of what you have is ultimately what separates winners from losers. If you can make $500 per day, make $500 per day. Even if it means not hanging out with friends as often watching less TV! Guess what: your friends will never pay your bills and neither will your favorite TV host.
Never make the mistake of letting the comfort zone hold you back. It’s easy to let the thought of making money without working all that much seduce you, especially after you’ve invested a lot of time in a certain project and think that you’ve had enough. Once you make one compromise, others will follow and it’s only a matter of time until things get out of hand. Is being content really enough for you? It definitely shouldn’t be!
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