Getting your prospect’s attention is probably the most crucial part of your sales letter. If the first few words don’t do the job, they’re gone. That’s all there is to it. People today have very short attention spans. I want to thank Ray Edwards at the Warrior Forum for reminding me of this stuff. I so take it for granted these days but it’s important to remember that those first few words can make or break your sales letter. I’m going to share my three favorite ways to get a prospect’s attention.

Probably the one I use the most is the personal story. I’ll tell the prospect about my years of hell with whatever the problem is I’m having before I finally found the answer that I was looking for. The reason this method works is because the prospect can identify with you. They’re in the same place that you were in not too long ago and because YOU have found a solution, they believe that they have found a solution as well. I would say about 90% of the sales letters that I write use this approach. Now naturally, if you don’t have a personal story to tell, you can’t use this method. So that brings us to method number two that I use.

My second most used method is to go directly to the prospect’s problem. In other words, I’ll state, right at the beginning, what their problem is. For example, if they’re suffering from a spouse snoring at night I’ll say something like, “Your spouse is snoring at night, keeping you up forever and ultimately putting you in a foul mood the next day because of lack of sleep. This problem is not going to go away by itself.” I’ll then go on into more detail of how the snoring is wrecking their marriage. I’ll then offer the solution. This is a very effective way to grab the prospect’s attention as it vividly reminds them of their pain. I use this opening about 7% of the time.

Finally, the remaining 3% of the sales letters I write, I use an approach where I will state my fabulous offer right at the beginning of the sales letter. The reason I do this so seldom is because in most cases, the offer really isn’t the strongest part of the letter itself. You always want to go with your strength. If it’s a great story that people can relate to, go with that. If it’s not, go with whatever is. The benefit of leading with a fantastic offer is simple. If it’s really one that is impossible to turn down, such as free use of the product for 90 days, in many cases, the prospect will immediately go down to the buy now button without reading anything else. But again, the offer has to be pretty terrific if you’re going to lead with it.

There are many other ways to get your prospect’s attention, but these three work very well for me.

Try them sometime…You might be surprised by the results.

To YOUR Success,

Steven Wagenheim

Want to write copy just like the pros? Visit my site at http://www.bcipe.com/ and discover killer copywriting tips that have allowed me to write my own copy for years and earn myself a 6 figure a year income selling my own products.