- Everything starts with your one core argument to the market - this is that, but written down
- You are writing this letter with one specific person in mind - if you can't picture yourself going to lunch with this person, it's not specific enough
- You will have other sales letters later on and you can think of them as blog posts - but create one foundational one to start
- This is meant to be USEFUL - not a document that just explains what your company does, no one will care about that
- This should be written like you are having a deep conversation with a friend
- Founders and Co-founders really should be the author of this
- If this letter is too broad it will not be successful
- Don't focus on length - focus on highest quality delivered in the easiest to understand method
- It doesn't need to be perfect at the start, just get it done - you will come back and iterate many times over the life span - but it's pulling all of your foundational copy research together so it's a key asset
- This is the voice of your business - this is where all of your domain expertise and CORE arguments come into play
- Implementing these quickly allows you to test the market and find the nerve of your audience, which is crucial to the sales process, so focus on speed and iteration mindset here
- This will be used in many other aspects of your business such as landing pages, outbound copy, video sales letters, marketing, etc.
- Focus on value and simplicity
- A useful, unique insight is the cause-effect relationship between a new activity and its benefit
- Writing is one of the most essential skills you will need to develop to be successful in business
- Post on socials and get feedback ASAP
- If it doesn't work and this doesn't convert...simply rework it and repeat
- This is what a lot of people don't understand. The marketing is completely separate from the sales and product and price. The headline and marketing needs to bring people in the door and create belief and demand. The sale needs to solve a specific problem for a price. The mechanism needs to deliver on the promise made during the sale. There are 3 moving parts.
- Niche-Specific Headline
- Proof (Establish Credibility)
- Who This Is For?
- Main Argument
- Background Story
- Valuable Insights
- Insight Summary
- Compare Alternatives
- Benefits & Outcomes
- Features & Vehicle (How)
- Call to action
- Q&A Below The Letter
Niche-Specific Headline
- Without a strong headline, getting attention will be difficult. Marketing has nothing to do with your offer or vehicle for change. Even if your offer is fantastic, if the headline or marketing message is wrong, it will remain unheard of
- Monetary benefits are always extremely helpful, you should always be able to derive monetary benefits from your offer in some way. Beyond that health is next, and time freedom after that.
- The best headlines are promises made that are derived from either your case study outcomes or research outcomes. Just take a look at your best case study, and use the transformation that took place
- BE RISKY - it's okay to take heat here or mess up, it happens, but you need to find the points of resonance or you will never know what you need to build to
- It is bait, it's a huge claim, it is meant to get eyeballs, so you can explain your case from there
- If you don’t have case studies yet, use the transformation that you witnessed via 2nd-hand evidence
- If you are still unsure, start by crafting the most appealing headline that you can think of in that niche
- When you are testing something, it doesn't need to be true just yet. Or you can use second-hand evidence as I said. When you are actually marketing something, YES it absolutely must be true. This is where people get confused...They are scared to make claims that are not true yet, however, without making these early claims, you won’t find the point of resonance, and you won’t be able to build something that meets the market at the point of resonance. Once you find the point of resonance, get on your horse and bust your ass until the claim is true...otherwise, you are a fraud and a liar.
- Marketing is different from sales and the sales are different from the vehicle. The headline and marketing needs to bring people in the door and create excitement and demand. The sale needs to solve a specific problem for a price. The vehicle needs to deliver on the promise made during the sale. There are 3 totally separate parts at play here
“How {company name} Went From {state 1} to {state 2} in {Timeframe} Using {Vehicle}”
“How to go from {State 1} to {State 2} in {Timeframe} Using {Vehicle} without {old way}”
Proof (Establish Credibility)
- Once you have the attention - you need to immediately back up your claim to provide credibility for them to even consider getting more information from you. This part is crucial to keeping the attention.
- They will not listen to you unless they know you are credible and that they can trust you
- In order to do this, you need to immediately drop proof, provide evidence in a convincing manner, and establish the backbone for the rest of your argument
- You will use case studies, screenshots, videos, pictures, testimonials, interviews, quotes, financials, whatever you can to quickly and clearly outline the proof behind the big claims
- Cold-hard data doesn't sell, but it's great to quickly breeze through here just to establish the right footing with the customer who's ANTICIPATING bullshit based on the headline
- Do this part quickly but do it right and it will make you convert much higher
- Here's an example of how {client} went from {state 1 + evidence} to {state 2 + evidence} in {timeframe} - list picture, video, or source.
- Here's an example of how {client} went from {state 1 + evidence} to {state 2 + evidence} in {timeframe} - list picture, video, or source.
- Here's an example of how {client} went from {state 1 + evidence} to {state 2 + evidence} in {timeframe} - list picture, video, or source.
Who This Is For?
- This sections can be as long as you need it to be
List out your niches deep-seated desires, fears, failures, enemies, suspicions, and any market trends
Desires:
Fears:
Failures:
Enemies:
Suspicions:
Market Trends:
Then take each of these individual sections and start creating sentences and paragraphs that stack these bullets and combine the different aspects into arguments for WHO this letter is for.
Examples: Now, who is this for? If you are trying to get to your first 100k in recurring revenue, hire a team of commission-only killers, and have something interesting to talk about at your next Christmas party, then stick around.
If you are worried about leads drying up, then stick around. If you suspect that the angel investors aren't in it for your own benefit, or that it doesn’t take $1million to get your initial product built, then stick around.
If you are pissed off that you wasted $85k on a Facebook ad agency, or that your CRM isn't being used for shit, or that you can’t book a calendar to save your life, then this is for you.
If you hate time wasters, short-term mindsets, or the idea of living a boring 9-5 life, then this is for you.
Now, who is this for? If you are trying to {achieve business desire}, {achieve business desire}, and ultimately {achieve personal desire}, then I suggest you pay attention.
On top of that, if you are worried about {fear}, weary of {suspicion}, or that {fear or suspicion} will happen...then stick around.
If you are pissed off that you {failure}, had {failure} happen in the past, or that {enemy} is going to do {fear} again, I'd also keep reading.
If you hate {enemy}, have tried {failure}, or have been noticing the massive shift in {market trend}, then this for you.
Main Argument
- The best arguments are usually somewhat contrarion, but hold a lot of truth to them
- This is the one thing your audience NEEDS to believe in order to buy the rest of what you are telling them
- This is where you can introduce the vehicle that you use to deliver the big claim. You can also position yourself as the best and/or only option to deliver the solution to the problem
- The Vehicle here is NOT your product
- KEEP this short. If you can’t say it in 3 sentences, then it’s not concise enough.
- Don’t try to say too many things at once. Say one thing. One clear concept. The one main argument that you are fighting for. What's your core principle.
- Example: You can build your coaching business to $5 million dollars in 2 years if you use the right technology, have a predictable traffic source, and create the right structure for your team.
However, most entrepreneurs are running dry on leads and are damn near out of money from trying to test ads they don't even know how to run.
We are the only people dedicated to solving this particular problem for entrepreneurs.”
“Here’s the truth:
You can achieve {desired outcome (BIG CLAIM)} using {vehicle - don't list your product here}.
However, there is a {problem} because of {reason}...
Let me explain why we are the best/only people dedicated to solving this problem for {niche}.”
Background Story
- The best way to establish credibility here is to position yourself as an expert in this particular area, but you cannot do that by straight up bragging about achievements
- In order to do this in a humble way there's an easy trick
- Tell the audience something you are terrible at that is COMPLETELY irrelevant to the topic at hand, and voice a lot of humility with it.
- Then after sharing something you suck at, you can confidently open yourself up to share that, on the other hand, you found yourself at home with this PARTICULAR niche
- So list something you suck at that's irrelevant, then list something you're great at that is relevant
- Another great tactic to fleshing out the story is being humble when sharing your story and your beginnings..."it wasn't always this way...", put yourself in their shoes and vice versa
- People take an average of all the achievements you list out, so it's better to list ONE amazing, killer achievement, than 1 killer one and 3 lukewarm ones.
- List ONLY the things that will stand out like crazy - I always suggest one related to your personal life and 1-2 related directly to this line of work
STORY LINE:
- Brief backstory and personality
- Establish that you are in expert in a field
- Show the problem you encountered
- Share how there's no other solution around
- Describe how you created our own solution
- Explain how well the solution worked
- Share your new mission for helping others achieve the same results
For those who don't know me my name is {founders name}.
Growing up, I spent a lot of time fascinated by {something related to line of work}...probably too much.
And I've gotta be honest, I'm probably one of the worst {list something irrelevant you are really bad at} on the planet ...luckily for me, that's not the path I ended up going down.
After {list some big trials and tribulations in your life}, I was able to have some huge breakthroughs and ended up going on to {list a MASSIVE personal achievement}.
Once I finally landed in {this field}, I knew I was home.
I had some early success, {list a MASSIVE achievement related to this field}, and honestly I figured it was beginners luck.
That's when I was tasked with {list a big desired outcome you were tasked with achieving} and I knew I had a big problem on my hand {list the big problem you were faced with}.
I looked everywhere trying to find a solution to {big problem}. Even the books on this topic weren't really relevant in today's day and age.
Finally I decided to take matters into my own hands and ran a series of experiments to {solve problem}
Things worked so well that I {list achievement of a massive desire of theirs}....
People were very intrigued by how I was able to do this in such a short amount of time so I knew I had something special on my hands and decided to run with it
Now we are helping tons of others {implement this same solution to get these results}.
Valuable Insights
- A valuable insight = cause-effect relationship between an activity and a benefit relative to a person that only you (or a handful of people) know of
- These are ALL the core concepts that form your main argument and overall thesis on what you are offering
- Again, here is not the time to mention your solution...you are still painting the picture
- How to find a Valuable insight:
- Action = {doing what}
- Old way of doing {action} =
- Old result because of doing it that way =
- New way of doing {action} =
- New result because of doing it this way =
- Valuable insight = the cause-effect relationship of doing it THIS NEW way compared to the old way
- Think of these as the benefits to your company, not the features
- AGAIN - do not mention your product, you are just giving the road map here as to WHY.
- Provide evidence after providing the insight
- Provide Q&A style bullets to answer questions to make it applicable to THEIR scenarios in their heads...they will be wondering if this will work for them too
Repeat this section for as many valuable insights and benefits as you find necessary!
Action 1: {doing what}
- Old Way
- The old way involves ...{list the old way of doing that thing}
- Old Result
- {list the old result}
- New Way
- The new way of doing {action} is...
- New Result
- {list the new result}
- Valuable Insight
- So as you can see {list the cause and effect relationship}
- {list the evidence}
- Common Questions
- What about [my situation]?
- Does this work for [insert]?
- How should I do [insert]?
Insight Summary
So, as you can see, all you need to do is [insert action step 1], [insert action step 2], and [insert action step 3], etc.. and you can [achieve desired outcome from headline].
Compare Alternatives
- Basically here you are just shitting on the competition
- Explain the other alternatives someone could attempt to achieve their desired outcome
- Remember to highlight their results, their timeline, or their price {better, faster, cheaper}
“Now there are a few ways to achieve this:
Option one is to [insert alternative - do it yourself, use a competing solution, etc..], however:
[insert the problems with alternative 1]...
Option two is to [insert alternative - do it yourself, use a competing solution, etc..], however:
[insert the problems with alternative 2]...
Option three is to [insert alternative - do it yourself, use a competing solution, etc..], however:
[insert the problems with alternative 3]...
Or you can use [your solution] and achieve [big benefit - which better, faster, and cheaper.]”
(include another quick case study here as proof and as an example if you have it)
Benefits & Outcomes
- Unlike the key insights section, here we are explicitly listing our key benefits that are far superior to any of the competition
- Benefits and outcome are important to introduce before features are explained. The benefits and outcomes answer the question “What does it do?” and the features answer the question “How does it do it?”. Without first understanding the “what does it do?” question, the prospect won’t understand how the features tie into the benefits.
Here’s what is going to happen when you work with us:
You will be able to do [insert outcome].
You can even [insert outcome] in [timeframe].
You can finally get rid of [negative result - benefit]
You can forget about [negative result - benefit].
You will feel [insert emotion - benefit] because [explanation]
Features & Vehicle (How)
- You've made a ton of promises and a lot of great arguments, NOW it is time to finally explain how the hell you are going to deliver on all of this!
- You want to make sure here you aren't just dumping features...they only care about how it works in relation to actually getting them the results they are after, so how does it tie in
- Also when you're selling - it's best to not get into the weeds or too technical on things, keep them high level and don't reveal the secret sauce all at once
So how does it work?
Before, when you wanted to [insert job the feature does], you would have to [insert old way]. But now, you can use this simple [feature] to [achieve outcome] without [negative consequence of old way]. Do you see how easy that is? [Insert image/or video demonstration]
Before, when you wanted to [insert job the feature does], you would have to [insert old way]. But now, you can use this simple [feature] to [achieve outcome] without [negative consequence of old way]. [Insert image/or video demonstration]
Before, when you wanted to [insert job the feature does], you would have to [insert old way]. But now, you can use this simple [feature] to [achieve outcome] without [negative consequence of old way]. [Insert image/or video demonstration]
There's a few other tricks of the trade - but you get how it works
Call to action
- Here is the area where you finally get them to take ACTION
- There's tons of tactics here like scarcity, urgency, price comparisons, risk reversals and so on...
- If you are selling DIRECTLY from this page and it's low ticket. I suggest adding a few of those and fleshing out the rest of the offer and pricing options on this page
- Otherwise - for most of you, I suggest summarizing and leaving one very clear call to action. The rest of the "selling" can be done on the phone.
So I know that's a lot of information but let’s summarize what I covered...
I just showed you that it's actually possible to {achieve desired outcome from headline}, if you follow the right steps and implement the correct solutions.
What we offer at {your company} is very simple:
{list in simplest terms what exactly you offer}
and here's what comes along with that
[Feature/Item 1]
[Feature/Item 2]
[Feature/Item 3]
[Bonus] (optional)
[Warning] (optional)
[Guarantee/Risk Reversal] (optional)
All you need to do is [insert call to action] [Book a strategy call with our team].
We look forward to speaking with you 😎
Q&A Below The Letter
- Attaching the Q&A is very important because if someone goes through the entire letter or sales video they will certainly have questions right off the bat
- The more you are able to answer these questions up front, the less you deal with later, and the more likely they are to take action
- A LOT of conversions happen from reading the questions and answers
- This is the spot you can handle all of the objections without even speaking to them yet
- Ideally, you want to map out EVERY single reason a customer wouldn't buy from you (objections) and then answer them here
- You can gather these questions over time on calls and list some prelim ones here to begin
- This section can go as long as needed
- Write your answers in a human way - explain how you thought similar things when you first started, don't drop the story telling here. Flesh these out and be candid. Give them the truth and the raw experiences you've had as answers
- There's really only ever 5 objections
- I can’t afford it
- I don’t trust you
- It’s not going to work for me
- I don’t need it
- I don’t have time
Question: {whatever in the world they want to ask}?
Answer: {give a killer answer that would make them feel comfortable}...you get this gist here