Want to know what my biggest pet peeves of copywriting are? Keep reading and you'll find out. These are the things that, at least for me, kill sales letters. You may or may not agree, but if you're just starting out, you might want to take some of these suggestions to heart. They may very well prevent you from writing a sales letter that totally bombs out.
One of my biggest pet peeves is too much hype. Yes, I know that your sales copy has to sizzle and be compelling. But there is a fine line between compelling and pure hype. These sales pages that make these outrageous claims are the past. As a matter of fact, if you're going to sell your product through Clickbank, they won't even allow you to make any income claims at all. The world is cracking down on all these get rich quick schemes and sales letters that make it sound like all you have to do is push a button and you'll get rich in a day.
Another one of my biggest pet peeves is a wimpy call to action. The world out there is a different one than we saw prior to the dot com bust. People don't just believe anything that they read anymore. They're more discriminating. They analyze things more. They don't buy so easily. So the days of having a call to action like "Click below to order" isn't going to work anymore. You need to be very firm with what you want people to do. And when you give them a call to action you give them ONE call to action. Don't give them a half a dozen things to do. That is only going to confuse them.
But my biggest pet peeve of them all is the wimpy headline. Heck, I see some sales letters that start off with "Dear Prospect" and don't even have a headline. Let me put this in terms that you can understand. 80% of your sales will be determined by how compelling your headline is. If your headline is wimpy, you're going to lose more money than you can possibly imagine. The reason is simple. People won't bother reading the rest of your sales letter. And make your headline as specific as possible. Instead of saying, "Discover How To Make Money Online" try something like, "Discover How An Out Of Work Truck Driver Banked $12,963 In His First 60 Days". That's the kind of headline that paints a visual that prospects can relate to.
Hype, wimpy closings and wimpy headlines are my three biggest pet peeves.
Make a note of them and DON'T do them.
