You’ve  chosen your affiliate product and put some basic affiliate marketing tools in place.  Now it’s time to  turn your mind to one of the most critical ingredients for success – mind blowing sales copy.

For those not familiar with the term, “sales copy” is simply the text that you put on your web page in order to convince your visitor to take action (like making a purchase, for example).

Writing good copy is not something that comes naturally to most people and it can seem daunting at first.  Fortunately, it’s a subject that you can study and a skill you can quickly develop.

The Sales Copy Formula

The methods used to write awesome sales letters  follow a tried and true formula which dates way back to the early days of print advertising when the internet hadn’t even been conceived.  Follow the formula and you stand a good chance of success.  Fail to follow it and you are almost certainly doomed to failure.

If you take some time to look at sales copy on other sites, you will quickly notice that good sales copy always includes the following (with slight variations):

1.  An attention grabbing headline – The purpose of the headline (which always appears in large font right at the top of the sales letter) is to suck your reader’s  eyeballs out of their head and draw them further into the copy.  Without an effective headline, it doesn’t matter how great the rest of your sales copy is.  The visitor will have already left your page to go elsewhere.

2.  A sub-headline (optional) – The sub-headline  should maintain the interest created by the headline and act as a natural transition between the great big attention grabbing headline and the body of your sales letter.

3.  The body – The body obviously must continue to hold the reader’s interest and should:

a) introduce or discuss the problem.

b) raise the promise of a solution to the problem (”What if I told you there was a product that was guaranteed to…?”).

c) describe the solution to the problem.  The solution should be backed up with examples, data or consumer testimonials.

d)  make an offer.  (Include your affiliate link, possibly offer bonus products and (or) a time limitation to further encourage the prospect to take action, your signature and, where applicable, a guarantee. )  This is where you really pile it on!  Anticipate every objection that your reader might have and pick them off one by one.  Pile on the bonuses, talk about the guarantee, include a couple of P.S.’s which further enforce that there is absolutely NO risk in accepting the offer!

With every word that you write, keep in mind that great copy  ALWAYS evokes a desire for more information or for ownership of the product.  Your reader should be emotionally compelled to fulfill a sense of need.  If you rely on appealing to intellect as opposed to emotion, you are unlikely to make the sale.  Remember, people buy products that they believe will MAKE THEIR LIFE BETTER.

Emphasize “Benefits” over “Features”

In order to appeal to emotion,  follow the 70/30 rule  -  at least 70% of your copy should emphasize the “benefits” that your reader will achieve by purchasing the product while not more than 30% should be devoted to the “features” of the product itself.

“Benefits” are the improvements that the prospect will see in their life if they make the purchase (”six pack abs”, “more energy”, “more money”, “more time with friends and family”, etc.).  “Features” are aspects of the product which add to the product’s appeal and perhaps differentiate it from other products on the market (”includes over 100 great recipes”, “uses 10% less energy than the competitor’s product”, etc.).

Benefits appeal much more directly to a person’s emotion and although I’ve already said it above, I’ll say it again -  it’s always emotion (i.e. feelings) and not intellect, that drives consumers to take action.  You should use features to support the benefits and give the reader  even more reason to make the purchase but always, always, ALWAYS  focus on the benefits!

Finding Inspiration

To come up with ideas for your sales copy, browse other  sites that are selling products in your chosen “niche”.  Read the sales copy carefully and ask yourself:  “If I were the customer reading this, would I believe that the product advertised was the solution to my problem?  And, if so, would I feel compelled to take action and buy the product RIGHT NOW?”  If so, you are probably looking at good sales copy and you can use it as the basis for your own.  You don’t want to copy it word for word but you can definitely model your own copy after it.

If you find that you’ve got writer’s block and are having a difficult time getting started, there’s a simple cure – just start writing something!  Anything!  It doesn’t matter how great it sounds the first time around.  Just get a rough draft of each of the 4 parts of your sales copy down on paper.  Compare it to other sites.  Compare it against the formula set out above.  Get your friends and loved ones to read it and offer suggestions.  Then keep refining until you’re comfortable that it’s ready to go!

Don’t “Re-Invent the Wheel”

One last word of caution that comes from my own personal experience.  When first starting out, it’s easy to lose sight of the formula and try to do it your own way.    I did this with my first sales page a few years ago because I wanted it to be less “dramatic” and more “professional” than the other copy that I had seen out there.  Big mistake.  It was professional alright but it was seriously lacking in emotional appeal and sales suffered as a result.  Avoid falling into that trap.  Don’t try to “re-invent the wheel”.  Remember that good copy always follows the formula set out above for one simple reason -  it works every time.

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