12 Steps to Write Your Online Sales Copy

When you're going to launch a money-making program on the 'Net, the first step is to write your sales copy. Yesterday I listed 8 writing tasks necessary for an online campaign:

1. Sales copy
2. Email marketing messages
3. Thank you pages and thank you autoresponders
4. Survey questions & survey results report
5. Press releases
6. Video tips
7. Blog posts
8. Updates posted to social networking sites: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, MySpace, etc.

Each task is different, requiring you research and write different elements. However, all of them must be written to grab the attention of your targeted audience of readers and persuade them to take action.

In the case I'm using as an example, our Law of Action 2.0 program, here are the 12 steps I went through to compose the copy for the sales page at www.actandattract.com:

1. Defined the target audience of prospective buyers for the program
2. Listed the biggest challenges of these people (pain)
3. Outlined my own story to show I understand the issues, the problems (connection)
4. Presented what happened to me to solve the problems (credibility)
5. Explained why I wanted to teach this solution to others with my partners (reasons why, values)
6. Listed the biggest benefits of the program
7. Listed the features, what's included
8. Included sample testimonials of others who already benefited from this (social proof)
9. Answered possible objections with FAQ list
10. Stated a call to action - asked them to register
11. Included urgency through price discounts & bonuses
12. Summarized the pain, the problem and the solution & gave guarantee

If you've not been trained to write sales copy that is effective in getting people to sign up for your program, you'll need to learn how to do this. There are many copy writing courses available on the Internet. One of the best is with Lorrie Morgan Ferrero, called Red Hot Copy.

Once you've learned the basics, try writing your sales copy, but get some help. Get it reviewed by a professional copywriter.

Most professional copywriters are expensive, and for good reason: Great copy sells and makes you money! Consider this: if you'd like to make money on the 'Net, and if your product, program or services could make tens of thousands of dollars, it's worth getting a copy review. The revisions you make will pay off in the short and long term, and what you learn can be applied to all future sales copy you write.

To learn to write great copy, read these related posts in the category Writing Great Copy, and consider Lorrie Morgan Ferrero's copywriting classes.
 

Comments

[Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad]

I just reread this post and need to clarify one thing. In this case, for this particular program, we felt we knew the pain points of our targeted audience at the outset. I was able to write the sales copy making some assumptions about their biggest problems based on previous surveys we had already done.

So we ran a survey after the sales copy was already written and published. This subsequent survey was used to get blog fodder, stimulate interest in the topic, write the press releases, and contributed to the curriculum content.

In a way, the survey was part of the marketing and promotional activities as the results were used to promote the program we were delivering.

For many people, however, the survey should precede the writing of the sales copy.

[Inchirieri Masini]

very useful steps! Cheers