Learn From Other People’s Sales Letters
June 24th, 2009
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by BobTheTeacher · Filed Under: Business Building · Copywriting · Product Reviews · Website Graphics
When I first heard about Swipe files, I was shocked. As a former high school teacher, I have always had an aversion to plagiarism.
But then it was better explained to me (so now I can explain it to you, too).
A swipe file is a collection of marketing materials that you use to get ideas for how you do your own marketing. Unlike what I initially thought, swipe files are not intended for you to rip off word for word other people’s hard work.
Instead, you let other people’s creativity spur on your creativity. In fact, studying other people’s sales letters can give you a nice shortcut in one of the toughest skill sets that you have to master for business.
Let me be more specific… Let’s say you’re stuck with writing a good headline for your website or salesletter. You could write down a list of 25 headlines, figure out which one sounds the best, and then use that.
Or you could get more geeky and split test 3-4 of the ones you think will work the best (if you know how to set that up).
Or you could take a look at some of the sales letters that persuaded YOU to buy, and deconstruct them, swipe them and put your own spin on it.
Change it enough to make your own, while using enough of the original psychology behind the words to keep their effectiveness.
You could look at direct mail pieces (Omaha Steaks are some of my favorite to study), or sales letters of the successful internet marketing products you see being pitched about.
Beyond the words, your swipe file also includes things like color choices, font styles, backgrounds, table widths, bold and underlining, use of …, etc.
Within emails, you take a look at the subject lines to get you to open them; how they use the From/Reply address for credibility; or even the structure of the email (how wide is the text).
Done ethically, swiping becomes your library of study materials in copywriting, marketing, and persuasion.
There are a few people I’ve been studying for the last year this way, and they happen to be good friends of mine, too (we’ve cruised together, many chats at seminars, phone calls and teleseminars together).
One is Erik Stafford, known as the Faster Webmaster. And another is Mike Morgan (the Morganizer – because of how well his sales letters convert). They were behind the recent Launch Tree promotion, and their new collaboration is Direct Response Marketing 2.0 (DRM 2.0 for short).
A couple of days ago, Mike called my cell and told me how excited he was about this particular project. Mainly because instead of just being the behind-the-scenes-guy who wrote the words, he’s actually one of the product creators.
And when he told me Erik was doing the graphics AND was one of the product creators, I knew that I had to study everything they did.
This is more than them just being my friends. Seriously – Erik has won a handful of ADDY awards with his marketing, and Mike’s salesletters have generated a lot of money.
So you can bet that I’m looking very carefully at their sales letter for DRM 2.0.
What I’m noticing are:
- How they’re split testing 3 different headlines (go to the page, and refresh)
- How they’re using bulleted benefits throughout the page
- How they’ve constructed an offer that is so insane people feel like they are truly missing out if they don’t take them up on it (free + shipping offer for a complete course)
- The blue “Johnson boxes” that explain the modules and the bonuses
- The call to action links throughout the letter, hitting emotionally significant triggers
And I’ve just started studying it.
Another excellent sales letter that’s being promoted right now is Russell Brunson’s MicroContinuity System. For the same reasons above, you should study how Russell communicates his message. But also notice how he adds video to the process for added credibility.
You also should take a look at how he presents his offer (it’s the point of the program as well). Part of getting great results with your marketing is knowing exactly how to present your offer to your customers so they understand how much value they’re really getting for such a low price. They should feel that way whether you’re selling something for $10 or $10,000.
Internet marketing and make money offers aren’t the only things you should be studying. You can also learn a lot from fitness products. Even if you’re in a completely different niche, you can see how people are using the same influence concepts and emotional hooks to help readers understand the value of their offers.
One example is from my accountability partner, Scott Tousignant. I’ve been brainstorming with him the last week or two about his sales letter, and it’s become really strong. You can see it at FatLossQuickieExperience.com.
Here Scott is connecting with a very specific target market – work at home moms and dads – who want to get into better shape. Instead of just focusing on how they look, though, Scott’s putting fitness goals into monetary terms. This appeals to his target market; the better shape they’re in, the more productive and profitable they become.
He’s also making sure that his offer is an overwhelming value for what people invest in his program.
And unlike the other two letters I’ve already mentioned, he’s relying on personal photos and action videos to help tell the story. This goes to show you don’t have to get all fancy with the graphics – just use the right words in your headlines, the offer, and points of emphasis.
Take a look at how they’ve put it together, print out the sales letter, and see if you can learn some significant copywriting lessons by studying the entire page.
Add them to your swipe file, then use what you learned on your next sales letter or marketing materials, and see how much your results improve.
Bob Jenkins
p.s. What do you learn from these sales letters? Post with a comment below what you like (or don’t like) about them…
9 Responses to “Learn From Other People’s Sales Letters”
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| Bob Jenkins is an internet business marketing teacher, with ten years experience teaching teenagers and teachers. He is the creator of several online training courses that teach you how to get better customers and increase your profits. Specializing in social networking strategies for business and creating information products from teleseminars, Bob can help you use internet marketing tools and strategies to promote your business online. |
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Hey Bob,
Spot on with your swipe salesletter analysis above.
Something I learned from copywriting both my own
projects and for other people, using the structure
behind the salesletter helps immensely to beat the
blank page blues. (saved DRM 2.0 in my swipe file
upon launch yesterday)
Also a recommendation to peeps using salesletter
swipe files, notice how quickly people like Mike
Morgan get to the point and launch into a
gripping story.
Thanks for sharing today Bob.
Sincerely,
Matt
P.S. Indeed, the offer is THE single most important
part of the salesletter.
P.S.S. After having been inside DRM 2.0 and going
through the complete course, it’s an absolutely
awesome primer for those not in the know yet. And
for those already in the know, you can pick up
a couple sword-sharpeners for your salesmanship
sheath just like I did.
P.S.S.S. PS’s work extremely well in salesletters
to catch the skimmers and reiterate the offer/value
Hope peeps can take value from this and USE it!
Hey Bob:
Wow … what a coincidence!
I actually just responded to a post on another blog
bemoaning the amount of pitching on Twitter.
While that’s true, the tone of most of the comments
was so anti-pitch, I had to contribute a note that
said I actually welcome pitching (in moderation) on
Twitter for exactly the reasons you present here.
There is literally (and I am not exaggerating)
thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars
in free marketing education out there if you
simply do what a great baseball hitter does:
Follow the pitch all the way to the plate.
And by that I mean not getting sucked into the
offer (although some of these folks are so good,
its hard not to), but by observing: the design of
the sales page, the copy, placement and sequencing
of videos, the pre-launch process, the freebies
given away.
Yes, Russell’s launch is a prime example. Another one
I am watching is a video launch by Keith Wellman.
He is leveraging ustream to answer questions, which
is something I have thought of doing.
Anyway, terrific timing, and great insights from you.
Rob
Hi Bob,
I love that you talk about swipe files because I’m a big advocate of the practice. I have swipe file folders for headlines, for sales pages, for squeeze pages, and for promotional emails.
I can then bring them out when I want and break them down so I can see all the elements involved and how they work. It’s a great self-education process.
I’ve always been a fan of Erik Stafford’s work, and I’ve already got his latest in my swipe file. It might sound strange, but there’s always something comforting about reading Erik’s sales pages. The information flows, the Johnson boxes are well organized, and the potential buyer knows what they’re getting.
I haven’t had a chance to look at Russell’s yet, and thanks for telling me about Scott’s.
Peggy
You are exactly right about Russell’s sales letter. He has some of the best sales copy that I have ever read. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he actually has the goods to back up every word of it.
Thanks Bob for reminding about the swipe file. You had mentioned it before and it was something I haven’t implemented. Thank for the samples and the reminder.
Hi Bob
Keep forgetting about that darn swipe file! Thanks for the reminder!
You are spot on when you say swipe files are great learning tools. I picked this up from John Carlton, but I must admit, I haven’t used it as much as I should. I’m steadily putting swipe files together to be able to refer them.
Thanks for the links to the 3 in this post. I’ll have a really good study of all three.
There are no end to the people who are selling how to sell. Nothing like selling an intangible. It’s sort of like Amway: when the believers wnat ot see something concrete for a concrete service and not some info about how to get info, well then it’s all going to come to a halt.
How many are actually in a bujsiness with a specific hard good in a specific field, not a niche to sell how to sell?
Until then it’s jsut another Twitter form 500000000 other people who are trying to sell how to sell.
Thanks Bob,
As usual your timing is impeccable. It is said that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Thanks again, teacher for the swipe file knowledge. With so much to learn and so little time, I simply can’t get by without my swipe file. In fact, my swipe is getting so large, eventually I may need a swipe file to keep track of my swipe file info. Just kidding of course. But to be able to keep all your pertinent information regarding copy writing, for example is a must to any serious marketer, online or offline. But the combining of online and offline strategies certainly shine new light on successful marketing techniques. What I enjoyed learning about each specifically, was the fact that each sales letter was different but similar in their ability to grab the reader, engross him, and lead him down the path through addressing a particular concern of that target market, great content and added value. I loved the way they used various headlines, sub headlines, and bullets to grab the reader’s attention, even for the scanners. The use of strong content in the opening paragraph is also a thing of beauty. I do admire Johnson boxes immensely when used together with the underlining of certain words and phrases along with knowing when to bold to emphasize a point. This is simply brilliance in action to me. When done correctly, it’s like poetry in motion. I’ve learn so much from these sales letters and I’m so grateful.
Thanks again,
Zeek