The very first step is to just ask. Call or write to your clients and ask them to tell you if they would be willing to give you a review of your product or service. It’s very important that you don’t just say “Will you give me a testimonial?” Ask instead if they will tell you about their experience. Ask them to be specific, and get their permission to use their name in your marketing.

Even with such a personal, specific request, you’ll often get responses that basically say they love you and your product. In actuality, you’re looking for results. You need testimonials that will prove to anyone reading your sales letter that you can help them. Also as effective are testimonials from well-known industry experts – these lend you credibility even if their testimonial doesn’t give specific results.

So to aid in that quest, here is one of the easiest ways to get powerful testimonials:

A few days after you’ve delivered your product or completed the service – once you’re fairly certain your client has consumed your information – send out a notice that you have a special gift for them. Let them know you’re asking for their feedback to be sure they were satisfied, and they’ll need to complete a short survey.

If you’re doing this online, simply send them an email with a link to a web page. If you’re doing it offline, send a postcard with the web page address on it. Be sure the url is easy to type.

On the webpage, thank them for taking the time to let you know what they think. Let them know their responses will be used to improve your products and marketing, and they might even be a case study on your website. Emphasize that there are no penalties for negative responses.

Ask them to enter their name, city and state, country, and, if appropriate, business and website.

The survey itself should be brief. Three or four questions is plenty. For example:

• What was your biggest challenge before you signed up for [product name]?
• What results are you seeing after having used/applied
• Who do you think [product name] would benefit most?
• Do you feel like you got your money’s worth?

These questions are just examples and obviously won’t apply to all situations. Make your questions relevant and easy to answer. Don’t be vague, but also don’t be intrusive.

Use your headline to arouse the reader’s curiosity. Your goal is to make them ask “Really? How do you do that?” or “Wow, I’ve got to see what they’re talking about.”

Another effective technique to use in making your headline compelling is using the word “you.” When your prospective client can imagine your product or service helping them, you’re on the right path. Most people care about what’s in it for them – so tell them.

Some marketing professionals teach that your headline should be a long paragraph, full of benefits, that gradually points the reader to the sub-headline. Others denounce this headline structure and say it’s just fluff and you only need a short headline. As with all of your marketing efforts, the only way to know for sure is to test.

Your sales letter headline should be formatted in a font that is larger than the rest of the your message. It should jump out from the page and draw the reader’s eyes. When the headline blends in with the rest of the page, the prospect has no idea what they’re looking at, and will likely stop reading.

Take advantage of things like color and style to really make your headline stand out. Many of the most effective headlines are red; this really catches the eye. Make your strongest points noticeable with things like italics, bold, and highlighting. Also, enclose your headline in quotes and capitalize the first letter of each word.

Testing your sales letter headlines is critical. Often, when your sales letter is not converting well, simply changing the headline can have a major impact. Split testing is very helpful in showing you how well one headline does versus another.

Your sales letter serves as one of the salesmen of your business, and putting together a powerful sales message can mean the difference between success and a going out of business sale.

1. Headline

Each and every one of your sales letters must have a headline. The headline should immediately grab the attention of your website visitors and promise them a benefit. This is critical; if your headline is weak, your prospective clients won’t bother reading the rest of your message.

2. Sub-headlines

You should have multiple sub-headlines in your sales letter. The first is immediately after the headline, and serves as the "hook" to convince your prospect to keep reading. It should support and enhance your main headline. Then throughout your sales letter, use sub-headlines to transition from one thought to the next. The best sub-headlines are additional benefits to be gained by the purchaser of the product.

3. Greeting

Since you are writing a letter, you should use a greeting that begins with “Dear friend” or something specific to your market like "Dear fellow gardening fanatic." Many marketers omit this part of the sales letter, but it’s very important that your prospective client knows you’re talking to them.

4. Introduction

The first paragraph of your sales letter should really pull your prospect into the sales process. It should make them want to find out more about what you have to offer. Address the problem that your product will solve and show them the benefit of working with you.

5. Empathize

Demonstrate to the reader that you understand their pain. This is an excellent place to tell a powerful story that engages your prospect’s emotions. Let them get to know you a little bit and help them understand that you know how they feel.

6. Solution

Introduce your solution to their problem by telling them that it works. Briefly tell them the results that people have experienced by using your product or service. Then use testimonials (see #9) to reiterate the results.

7. Graphics

Nice graphics of your product go a long way to improving your sales conversions. The operative word here is “nice.” If you don’t have the ability to create high-quality graphics, hire someone to do it for you. You want to leave your visitor with a positive image of you, your product, and your company.

8. Benefits

Throughout your sales letter, emphasize the benefits the prospect can expect from using your product or service. Benefits statements should draw on emotion, not logic. List benefits in bullet form to make your letter easier to read.

9. Testimonials

A testimonial is a statement from one of your clients or business associates that provides proof that your claims are true. Use testimonials throughout your sales letter to show your prospective client the benefits being received by your other customers. In all of your testimonials, put the client’s name so the prospect understands it came from a real person.

10. Offer

Your offer is where you tell the reader what they will get when they place their order and how much it costs. Provide a complete description of everything they will receive – and describe it using benefits statements. The offer is where you implement scarcity and exclusivity: statements like “I’m limiting the sale of this course to only 20 people because you’ll have my personal time and attention helping you to [benefit]” encourage the prospect to complete the purchase right away. Please note that if you say it, it must be the truth. Don’t be dishonest in your offers!

11. Bonuses

Offering bonuses as a sales incentive works wonders in increasing the perceived value of your product or service. Most people enjoy the thought of getting something for free. Be sure your bonuses are valuable and will complement the main product. In listing the bonuses, provide a compelling description of the item and let the reader know what the value of the item is.

12. Guarantee

In everything you do, offer a guarantee of satisfaction. Let your prospective client know that there is absolutely no risk in doing business with you. There is nothing worse than developing a reputation as someone who doesn’t stand behind their products. If you believe your product will truly meet the needs of your clients, show them. If you don’t have confidence in your product, go back to the product development table.

13. Call To Action

Walk your prospect through the ordering process. Let them know how to order, what they can expect from the ordering process, and how and when they will receive their product. Above all, ask for the order!

14. Signature

Close your sales letter as you would any other letter. Put a graphic of your signature – not your legal signature as you would sign a check, but a legible handwritten signature - on the sales page. Below your signature, place your name and your branding statement.

15. Post Script

Use 2 or 3 post scripts to reinforce the benefits of purchasing and using your product, and restate your call to action in each of them. Post scripts are very powerful because some people skim sales pages, look at the headline, the sub-headlines, the offer, and the post scripts in order to make a purchase decision. Use them wisely.

With this guide, you can begin to construct powerful, sales-pulling sales pages. This is just the beginning though. You’ll need to spend a lot of time testing and tweaking to get the results you want from your sales letters.