Information Marketers depend on sales pages to do their selling for them. The following is a quick overview of what you should include in your sales letters.

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.