Cold Email: 20 Point Starter Blueprint for Any Long Form Sales Letter, Video Sales Letter or Sales Webinar

Sales copy is all about structure

It doesn’t matter what type of sales copy you’re writing, there’s a specific blueprint or framework that’s already proven to work.

Following this blueprint will ensure you have all the elements of a strong sales argument and that you present things in the most logical order.

For example…

You have to prove you’re credible and trustworthy BEFORE you can make a good case for why a prospect should buy your product.

You have to make a good case for why a prospect should buy your product BEFORE you can present them with your offer…

You have to present your offer BEFORE you can trivialize your price.

It will also help you to be more efficient and complete your sales copy more quickly.

I learned this from the legendary copywriter, Clayton Makepeace, whom I had the good fortune of studying and working with early in my career.

So why reinvent the wheel?

Step-By-Step to Your First (or Next) Profitable Sales Promotion …

#1: Grab ‘Em by the Eyeballs

The job of your headline is not to sell your product, be cute or funny, or win awards.

Its only job is to seize the attention of your best prospects and stop them dead in their tracks. Then get them to read the next sentence of your copy.

The best way to get anybody’s attention is to use a “pattern interrupt” and say something unexpected and surprising. Another great technique is to combine the most compelling benefit with something to spark their curiosity.

#2: Support and Expand on Your Headline

Once you’ve seized their attention, you’ve got to quickly reinforce what you wrote in the headline and further stoke the flames of curiosity with immediate benefits.

The first five or six paragraphs following your headline are crucial. The opening copy must flow as a natural extension of your headline and overall theme.

A weak opening kills readership, but a strong one saves you from other weaknesses.

#3: Establish Credibility

One of the biggest challenges is getting people to believe you. That’s why proof and credibility are the backbone of your sales copy.

The hallmark of every great copywriter is the lengths to which they’re willing to go to understand their product, their market, and their prospect. The more proof and credibility you provide, the more belief you create.

All of this is accomplished through research, because it’s through the process of discovery that you’ll find everything you need to make your copy believable and credible.

#4: Bribe Him to Read This

Once you have their attention, you’ve got to work hard to keep it.

Obviously you must never waste a second of their time with idle chit-chat or off-topic rambling. You’ve got to stay on point and quickly fulfill the promises made in the headline.

But it also helps to offer some form of bribe just for reading your promotion. A promise of some secret or tidbit of information that will be revealed within the promotion itself.

#5: Deliver Value

The simple act of reading your promotion should leave them with a feeling that you’ve given them tremendous value simply by having crossed paths with you.

But it’s a fine line to walk between giving away too much value and not enough. The most common mistake made by rookie copywriters is to reveal too much information, so they no longer need you.

Help them to understand the problem that your product solves and why your product is the best way to solve it. Prove why you’re the one to get it from. Then close the deal.

#6: Present Your “Big Promise”

This is where you begin to reveal the major benefits of your product.

Up to this point, you may not have even hinted you’re selling a product yet. Now it’s time to transition into explaining how your product will give them the benefit they want, or the solution to their problem.

Again, this is where being a top-notch researcher pays off. In order to formulate a big promise that grabs your prospect, it helps to know what promises have been made successfully by other advertisers.

#7: Prove Your Point

Your prospect has heard it all before. They’ve seen a lot of promises from a lot of people and most of those promises haven’t amounted to a row of beans.

So the natural reaction, when they read your big promise, is “I’ll believe it when I see it!”

That’s why you must immediately follow your big promise with clear and compelling proof that you can deliver. This is a great place for stories, case studies, and demonstrations.

#8: Snapshot of the Future “Him”

Once you’ve delivered overwhelming proof, make it real for them with “future pacing.”

You do this by painting vivid word pictures of what their life will be like once you’ve fulfilled on your big promise.

How will it feel for them once they’ve achieved their desires and are living their dreams? What will it be like for them to be free of their fears, frustrations, and failures?

#9: Present Your Product and Prove Each Benefit

Present your product and its unique selling proposition. Convery that they’re going to get the big promise fulfilled by buying your specific solution.

This is where you go from saying “I have a solution for you” to “it’s all part of ABC Product.”

Demonstrate how your product fulfills the promises you’ve made. Be sure to make it believable by establishing proof and credibility that you can deliver.

#10: Make the Offer

The success of your promotion lives or dies on the back of your offer, even though you’re probably not getting to this step until the last 25% or so of your promotion.

Present the offer in a way that sounds as risk-free and slanted toward the buyer as possible. Explain the great lengths you’ve gone to in order to over-deliver and make sure they get the result you’ve promised.

You want them ready to whip out their credit card right here, right now.

#11: Trivialize Your Price

It’s not enough to have made a really compelling offer. You’ve also got to illustrate how great of a deal they’re getting at this price.

Explain all the blood, sweat, and tears that went into making this available. Tell them if you were to deliver this value to them in person, it would cost 100X what you’re charging.

Make it sound like they’re getting the deal of the decade — and they should be!

#12: Add Value

As if everything you’ve done for them isn’t enough already, now you’re throwing in even more value.

Add extra bonuses. Pile value on top of value. If they thought it was a great deal before, now it should feel like the deal of a lifetime!

#13: Relieve Risk

And yet, there’s still doubt. Will you ACTUALLY deliver on the promise? Have you been piling on real value or just “stuff”?

It’s up to you to counter this objection. And the way to do is to ensure that YOU are taking on the risk of the transaction, NOT the buyer. So this is where you present your guarantee. The bolder, the better. The longer, the better.

The good news is that people are actually less likely to take you up on a longer guarantee, in most cases. For example, you get fewer refunds from a 1-year guarantee than a 30-day guarantee.

#14: Sum Up

At this point, you’ve made it a no-brainer proposition. So point that out, and lay it out again.

Quickly sum up the details of the offer. What they’re getting, at what price, and under what guarantee conditions. Remember to tie it back to the big promise you’ve made, which should really be a continuation of the narrative from the headline down.

All you’re doing here is making sure they remember everything they get as part of this incredible deal you’ve put together especially for them.

#15: Ask for the Sale

Finally, once you’ve tipped the scales so heavily in their favor in terms of the offer you’ve made, it’s time to tell them to order.

Be direct, be clear. You’re writing this because you want them to buy, so TELL them to buy.

Don’t get timid here, because your reader will sense your hesitation. And if you don’t believe in yourself and your solution, then why should your prospect? Be confident, because you know their life will be made better by buying.

#16: Make Ordering Stupid Easy

You’ve made it really easy to order, right? Well, tell them! Tell them the exact process they need to go through to order.

Tell them what will happen when they place their order, and what you will do to fulfill.

Here’s where you include the multiple methods of response and anything else they need to know to make sure you get their order. The more you can eliminate confusion from the ordering process, the better off you’ll be in the long run.

#17: Place Him At the Crossroads

Now, emphasize that they have to make a decision.

Explain what happens if they do take action and if they don’t take action. They’re at a fork in the road. They can choose to have your big promise fulfilled or go on living life without it. There’s no third option here, and their future is on the line.

It’s their choice, but make it crystal clear which direction they’ll be better off going in — buying your product!

#18: Ask for the Sale – AGAIN

Again, be direct and clear. Tell them to order. Now! Because that’s what it’s going to take for them to start to have that big promise fulfilled in their life.

#19: Sweeten the Pot

They still haven’t ordered? What the heck? Well, maybe you didn’t pile on enough value.

Add something else. Make it even more compelling to respond. Maybe this is a fresh look at something that was already in the product. Maybe it’s another bonus completely.

Either way, make it even more compelling!

#20: Add An Urgency Element

Finally, add a REAL urgency enhancer to get them off the fence.

If it’s a physical product being delivered, emphasize the limited quantity. If it’s a time-based product, emphasize the deadline. If you’re able to combine both, even better.

It’s important that you don’t fake urgency here. At the very least, find a way to create urgency around a factor in their life. For example… “Before your next payday” for a business opportunity product, or “Before this stock has XYZ happen to it” for an investment, and so on…