Written by Claudia Austin

Sales letters and sales copy are the internet marketer's most important tools. Effective writing skills can help you generate a significant increase in sales or new business leads. Your sales letter copy is what stands between the customer and a conversion or a sale of the product or service you want to promote. Because the sales letter makes the first impression to the customer, many marketers just like you who don't have expert copywriting skills hire professional writers to craft high converting sales letters for their campaigns, but hiring professional writers to do your copywriting for you can be very expensive and if you are new to internet marketing you may not have a budget for hiring freelancers. That leaves one option - improve your own writing!

Not only is it advantageous for you to develop your own copywriting skills to save money, but it is important for you to avoid publishing poor business writing. Poor writing may cause lasting bad impressions that can never be undone. Bad business correspondence can cause the customer to buy from your competition, and even worse, cost you a contract or your entire business.

Try to follow these 10 steps to improve your copywriting and sales letter skills:

1. Know your audience. Don't begin writing any copy until you have identified your target audience. Imagine yourself in the shoes of the recipient and try to visualize what this person's life might be like. What needs, goals, and challenges does he have? What problems does he face? Research your audience to gain an understanding of how you can help them. If you can empathize with your target audience, your writing will become more effective, and more persuasive.

2. Do not use passive voice. Instead, use a strong, active voice. "The meeting was called to order" is passive. "Aaron called the meeting to order." is active. You should not leave your reader wondering who is doing the action.

3. Express confidence when you write. Be decisive and explain exactly what the reader should expect from your business and the products or services you are promoting.

4. Write in a conversational tone. When you write in a formal and bureaucratic way, you may alienate your readers. Only write formally if you're writing to a bureaucrat or someone who holds a high position which requires formality. Make your writing as inviting and personal as possible. This can be done by writing to a person that you visualize as an ideal customer. Pretend you are sitting down with this person and having a casual conversation. Write your copy with this one person in mind and you will positively engage thousands of readers who will feel that you are writing directly to them!

5. Make of list of the product features, then convert them into benefits. Engage your customer by listing the benefits of the features you offer instead of listing the features alone. The reader is interested in how the product can help him or solve a problem he has. Write from your customer's perspective and what will interest him. Make sure to generously use "You" and "Your" in your business copy if you want to make more sales. Don't let your ego about your business get in the way of getting sales.

6. Give accurate facts and do not include testimonials if they have not been given directly to you.

7. Write the most important points you want to make in the first few sentences. You can also significantly increase sales by simply including a powerful P.S. at the end of the letter that summarizes the main point in a fresh way. This creates a sense of urgency and can add further credibility.

8. Ask the reader to take action in several places in the letter. Don't expect the reader to know what you want them to do next. Tell them what they should do next.

9. Use words or phrases that add excitement or create a picture in the reader's mind. Make the reader feel the excitement of skiing down a mountain or visualize driving a fast car down Main Street. You will generate many more sales by using this technique. Uninteresting sales letters will lose a reader's attention and he may not finish reading your letter at all!

10. Print out your document and read it out loud to catch sentences that seem awkward or don't flow well when spoken. You may also see errors that your computer spelling and grammar check program might not detect.

You may decide to use these 10 steps alone or in conjunction with copywriting software. Knowing these basic rules and using software which can offer templates to get you started can make high converting sales copy for new marketers much easier. Look for software that will help you generate attention getting headlines and not require too much HTML knowledge. Software that takes you step-by-step through the sales copy process is usually better for a beginner.

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