The Missing Sales Component of Most Websites

I find it really scary when I surf around the web at times. What I've noticed is that fact that almost no one uses sales letters! Can you believe that?

People think that magically their web pages are going to sell something by just having a link to a product with maybe a one line description and a shopping cart image beside it. It absolutely astounds me that people can think this way.

There are millions and millions and millions of products and services sold through direct mail every year and everyone of them is through a sales letter. If you think about it, there are also millions of products and services being sold through sales people every year. They are using a sales script and they know how to sell you the product.

People have to be sold! It is very rare to have what we call "lay downs". That's someone who just comes in and says "I want to buy this product and whatever it costs I just want to buy it." It does happen, but it is extremely rare.

It is an absolute MUST to create sales material for your products at your websites and for other online marketing ventures. It can be as simple as a having small, wonderful, compelling description beside the product if you have a big mall with a shopping cart. You need a really good description that can get people interested and excited about the product. Or it can be a full sales letter... including information on how the product or service came to be and all the benefits of getting it and so on and so on. You have to get people excited about your products and show them the benefits of owning the product. If you don't do this, you will be out of business before you even start.

Some people think "I'll keep it short and just put up a couple of bullets or short sentences just to get them interested, because people won't read long copy." That's totally incorrect. It's wrong, wrong, wrong!

If you have something interesting to say, and something that will solve a problem they have... something that is of benefit to them, they will read whatever you have to say for as long as it goes. There is only one catch. Letters can never be too long, they can only be too boring. As soon as your letter gets boring, it is too long. So as long as there's something interesting to say, as long as you have a benefit to give them, something they can get excited about... as long as you have a story to tell, the letter is never, ever too long.

Don't get caught up in the thought that you can sell your product with a one line sentence. You need to sell it. To sell it you need to show benefits to your potential customer. And to show the benefits you probably need more than one line. Talk about their hot buttons and show them why they should have that product. Why it's a great value, why it's a great price. Talk about the multitude of other things covered in the course when we talked about writing copy.

The idea is create value. People buy value. If they think it is going to solve one of their problems and it's worth $500 to them and your product only costs $50, do you think they are going to buy it? They are absolutely going to buy it! You have to create value for your product. You have to create a perceived value so that they feel the product is worth the money to them is the way to do this, no matter what you are selling.

Here are a few other things you can do:

• Use lots of bullets
• Create lots and lots of value and benefit for the product
• Use lots of success stories telling about the results that have been obtained from using your product or service
• Use testimonials
• Have a powerful opening
• Create a great closing
• Offer a guarantee
• Answer the most commonly asked questions
• Overcome the most common objections
• Paint a picture or show the results customers can or will obtain by using your product or service.

All these things are covered in the course. If you want to get information on the course, go to http://www.marketingtips.com/tipsltr.html The bottom line of all this is that you MUST have sales material at your site. Don't just rely on an itsy bitsy one line description for each of your products and think that this is what will sell it... It won't. People won't buy it. People need to be sold on a product or service... so it is very important that you do this, otherwise you are destined for failure.

Time and time again people are convinced they have lots of sales material... when I go and check out their site I don't see enough. So just remember...