Targeted Sales Letter Writing - 6 Key Ways to Sales Letter Writing

In this day and age the most effective type of marketing is targeted or niche marketing. As a result, targeted sales letter writing can be a key element in a successful marketing plan. Through this article, you are provides with 6 key ways to engage in effective targeted sales letter writing.

1. The first factor that you need to keep in mind when it comes to targeted sales letter writing is the importance of having a comprehensive marketing plan overall. Targeted sales letter writing should be one element of what might best be called a master plan.

2. Before you begin targeted sales letter writing, you need to identify that niche market that you want to reach out to and connect with.

3. You are best served by getting assistance with your targeted sales writing efforts from someone who has specific experience in this arena. You do not want to learn as you go.

4. You need to understand that generally speaking even targeted sales letter writing requires connecting with a potential customer or client more than one time. In other words, you need to send more than one letter to a consumer to really get their attention.

5. In targeted sales letter writing it vitally is important that a letter not be long winded. You need to keep a letter short and to the point.

6. Finally, in targeted sales letter writing, you need to make it very easy for a potential customer or client to make contact with you, to respond to the letter. Consumers do not like wasting time.

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Article Marketing - Why Article Marketing is my #1 Choice of Traffic I

I will just jump right into this right now and talk about why article marketing is my number on choice of traffic. You see, I get questions all the time about how much traffic I get from my articles, and when I tell people, they say to me, well why would you want to do that, that just doesn’t seem like much traffic at all.

But you see the problem I think is that people think that you have to have 1000’s of visitors per day to make money – and I guess you do, if you are buying hits from some underground company – you probably have to buy 20,000 hits per day from some company to just make a sale. But that is not what I think of when I think of traffic.

You see, for me – traffic is people who are interested in ME, in what I have to offer – that is traffic. I would rather have 100 visitors per day from my articles – people who already like me and are already presold on buying something from me before they get to my web site – than to have 10,000 visitors from the world wide web , untargeted. I would take my 100 visitors per day over 1000 search engine visitors – that is right folks, I would take 100 article visitors over 1000 search engine visitors.

Why? You see, with article marketing – they are prescreened for ME – they already want what I have. They have read something I have written, they like my style – and they are ready to opt in to my list.

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Speak English Clearly and Grammatically, and Boost your Success!

Of course you speak English—who doesn’t? But how well do you speak this international language?

Are you clear, concise and grammatically correct?

Do people talk about you and the things you say? And are they talking for the right reasons?

It used to be that just speaking English (at any level) was enough to open the doors of opportunity, but times are quickly changing. Most recent estimates place speakers of English as a fluent second language or additional foreign language at over one billion.

It is no longer an advantage to speak English, but a requirement! Just speaking English isn’t so impressive anymore—unless you speak it really well.

Many talented and competent professionals who are doing their best to speak good English are left behind. Many don’t even realize why. How many times have you heard a colleague make the same mistake over and over again and never corrected him?

Perfecting the way you speak is challenging, but by applying these tips and tricks, you will ease communication, speed up your work flow and become a more effective business leader.

Speak Clearly

Since English is being used as a lingua franca by more and more non-native speakers, clarity should always be your first priority (whether English happens to be your native language or not). There are a number of things you can do to improve the clarity of your speech.

• Slow down

We all speak too fast. It’s a terrible habit! And the faster we speak, the more mumbled our speech becomes.

Slowing down the pace of your speech is vital in situations where visual communication is lacking, for example an international conference call. It is just as important however, while running a meeting or delivering a presentation.

Make sure everyone can follow what you are saying at all times. Otherwise, what’s the point of saying it?

• Enunciate

Colloquial speech is littered with signs of laziness. We drop word endings, run our words together and create sentences that never seem to end.

Sometimes it is too easy to take this style of speech into the boardroom.

Be sure to enunciate your words. Put a special focus on word endings such as ‘ed’ and ‘s’ that act as grammatical markers.

If you leave the ‘ed’ off of a past tense verb (“Our profits increase last year” instead of “increased”) it sounds as though you are making a very basic mistake in English.

Your education, aptitude and credibility could be questioned.

• Practice vowels & consonants

An additional challenge in English is that we have so many words that are identical except for the vowel.

Take this string of words for example: mat, met, mitt, mutt, mate, might and moot. Do they all sound different when you say them? They should!

Read the words in random order and have someone write down what they hear. Did they hear what you said? Create other lists of words like this to identify your problem sounds and practice, practice, practice!

Consonant sounds can be just as tricky. Be sure you differentiate between voiced and unvoiced sounds, for example, ‘d’ and ‘t.’ The words ‘said’ and ‘set’ should sound different. You should be using your voice to make the ‘d’ sound, whereas the ‘t’ sound only uses air.

You can create word pairs similar to the vowels above to practice these sounds and others like ‘v’ and ‘f,’ ‘z’ and ‘s,’ ‘b’ and ‘p’ and ‘g’ and ‘k.’

Speak grammatically

For most, grammar lessons are thankfully a thing of the distance past. Although lessons usually weren’t fun or interesting, there was a reason why we were drilled in English grammar.

Have you ever thought about what your grammar says about you?

Proper grammar signals a higher level of education, professionalism and, in many cases, success.

Breaking grammar rules can signal a lack of attention to detail, laziness and can be a general irritant and distraction for those who do observe grammar rules.

Not to mention the miscommunication that can happen in written correspondence like email. Think how much time is wasted clarifying the meaning of mails where the structure is so mangled that the message is lost.

If you feel like you never really learned grammar properly or think you might be making mistakes, but don’t really understand why, seek out answers to your questions.

• Ask a colleague whose language skills you admire to proof-read some of your written work. Ask them to be honest with you about your mistakes. If you’re making the mistakes in your writing, you can assume that you are making the same mistakes (and then some) in your speech.

• Have a grammar reference on hand at all times—right next to your English dictionary. Local book stores have plenty of references in the language and linguistics sections.

• Enroll in a refresher course in English. The right teacher can make the subject interesting and enlightening. And speaking better English is definitely worth the investment! Your colleagues and clients will thank you!

Heather Hansen, founder of Singapore-based Hansen Speech & Language Training, is a professional speech and language coach, public speaker and voice-over artist. Visit hansenslt.com hansenslt.com to sign up for her monthly e-newsletter Speak like a Star!

How To Write Effective Headlines

The single most important component of your killer sales letter is your headline. Your headline will determine whether your prospects read the body copy of your killer sales letter. Tests have proven that a simple headline change has increased orders by 300% after the change even when the body copy of the killer sales letter remained the same. That’s a big job to put on the shoulders for what amounts to a few words.

Your headline functions as an attention grabber as well as pre-qualifying the right prospects for whatever it is you’re trying to sell. If you understand these functions of a headline, you’re well on your way to writing effective headlines for whatever product you may be selling.

There are several “headline types” that have proven to sell products and services over and over again. Below are four of the most powerful and the easiest to implement:

1. How to. Everyone loves a how to headline. How to Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days Or Your Money Back. How to Write a Novel in 30 Days. How to Start a Paramedical Company.

These headlines are simple, easily understood and effective because they promise a solution to your prospects’ problems. If the how to is addressing a need, your prospects will feel almost compelled to read the rest of your killer sales letter to discover the solution to their problems.

Your prospects don’t know you and have never met you before – so you’ll need to give them reasons to listen to you. And those reasons must benefit them (not you) in some significant way before they will listen to you. The better the benefit, the more likely you’ll catch your prospects’ attention. (The benefits in the above headlines are losing weight, writing a novel in a month and steps to start a paramedical company. All of these can be powerful benefits).

2. Question. These headlines ask a question (obviously). If you want this headline type to work, it better ask a question that your customers want an answer to. Are you spending too much on your car insurance? Will your marriage fail? Are you ever tongue-tied at a party? To be effective, your question must create a curiosity in your prospects’ mind that will compel them to read your killer sales letter.

Whatever you do, don’t ask a question that only your business cares about. Something like: Do you know what our company has been up to lately? Again, focus on the benefit for your prospects.

3. Top ten reasons. It doesn’t have to be ten reasons or even the top reasons. But just as everyone loves how to headlines, they also love top ten reasons.

Four tips and techniques to hire the perfect wedding photographer. Five ways to stop a man from cheating on you. Seven warning signs that your house may be making you sick.

Again, your prospects see the benefits immediately and makes them want to read the body copy of your killer sales letter for more details. Plus, they know exactly what they’re getting - so many reasons for something.

4. Testimonial. This headline uses your customers’ words to sell your products or services. This works because people see proof up front that your product or service does what it’s supposed to do. If used correctly (meaning people believe it really is a testimonial from a real customer and not something fabricated) then this can be a very effective strategy.

If you choose this headline, put it in quotes so it’s obvious it’s a testimonial. And use the customers’ words as much as you can to make it sound authentic. Whenever possible, get permission from your customer to use his/her name. You may even want to consider adding a photo as well.

In summary, your headline serves as an advertisement for your body copy. Get it wrong and you will bomb – guaranteed. But if you get it right and you back it up with a well-written body copy, you’ll make a killing.

Copyright © James Lau

Do you know why a lawyer would give up his career to be an internet entrepreneur? To find out, go to internetbizmodels.com internetbizmodels.com

James Lau is a self learned internet marketer specialising in Resell Rights business. An engineer by profession, his other focus in internet marketing includes e-books, affiliate marketing and blogging.

Pulling Sales with Your Ad Copy

One of the best marketing tools available to your internet business is good sales ad copy. This can pull in sales faster than just about anything.

If you’re not a writer or cringe at the thought of writing your own sales copy, you can always hire a professional, however if you’re on a budget and have an adventurous spirit, writing your own ads can be a worthwhile option.

So how do you write sales copy that pulls sales? Let’s take a look.

Get their attention. You have about six seconds to grab the attention of your reader so you have to act fast. Verbalize your benefits at the onset. Use words and phrases that are enticing and compelling. Use color, large fonts and exclamation points. Get the readers attention in the heading and keep it focused in the body of the ad.

Benefits and Solutions. How is your product or service going to benefit the reader? How will it solve their problem? Does it offer a solution and how fast? List all the benefits. How will it make their life or business better? Tell them why they can’t live without it. If someone’s going to buy something they have to know what’s in it for them.

Credibility. You must convey to your audience that you are credible. One of the best ways to accomplish this is by using testimonials. What have people said about your product? If someone has bought your product, email them and ask them to comment on it. Get their permission to quote them in an ad. Get several testimonials and use photos if your can. Better yet, include small audio clips in your copy. To hear someone verbally testify to something can be very convincing.

Emotion. Appealing to the emotions of your audience is an excellent way to attract attention. What emotions do your products or services generate? What will trigger your reader’s response?

Money, beauty, health, success, more time and making life easier are all emotional triggers. If you can appeal to someone with making more money, looking more beautiful or having better health, and really appeal to that emotion, your ad copy will attract their attention and entice them to keep reading.

Interest. Once you have their interest and attention you have to hold onto it. Telling short interesting or personal stories in your ad copy can hold that attention. People love stories and can relate to them. A section of questions and answers also generate interest for readers. People like it when questions that come to mind are answered right in the ad copy. This gives them the confidence that you can relate to their needs and concerns and are familiar with them..

Action. The final step is to generate a call to action. Urge the reader that it’s time to act now. You can do this by offering a limited time free bonus or offer money off your product if they act now. Convince the reader that they can’t wait. The time is now.

Know your products and customers. It’s important to know who your customers are and what they want. A teen boy interested in body building may require totally different needs than a middle aged woman interested in body building. By understanding your customers you’ll understand their needs and what kinds of problems they have that depend on you to solve. Focus on what your customer is willing to buy, not what you have to sell.

Additional Guidelines

Use simple, familiar words. Your ad should be easy and fast reading. Don’t use big words and long run-on sentences. Offer a tangible result. Phrases like ‘lose weight in two weeks’, get rich online’, ‘find love now’ sound cliché but they all offer your reader a solution to a problem or need. Avoid ambiguities and jargons. Get to the point and keep it flowing.

Write like you are talking to a friend Use bright, cheerful language. Don’t be too formal and don’t lecture.

Use correct spelling, grammar and punctuation. There are many ads that misuse grammar intentionally, and this is ok as long as it fits a specific purpose or theme of the ad. Unintentional poor grammar, misspellings and poor punctuation can hurt your credibility.

About The Author

Elizabeth McGee has spent 20 years in the service and support industry. She has moved her expertise to the world wide web helping businesses find trusted tools, enhance customer service, build confidence and increase sales. You can contact Elizabeth at mailto:mail@pro-marketing-online.com mail@pro-marketing-online.com or visit her website at pro-marketing-online.com” target=”_new pro-marketing-online.com

Free Web Content

Article banks are an excellent source of free content for use on your own website. The author still ‘owns’ the material they deposit in the article bank, but is allowing other webmasters to reproduce the material (in its entirety) on their own sites for their own benefit. It is a win-win situation, because the authors are creating extra links for their own home pages(s) whilst the webmasters are amassing free content with which they hope to climb up the rankings table.

When building a new site, it should ideally be composed of original content, but that’s very time consuming and may be outside of your knowledge area, and can also be very expensive. This is why sites such as article banks are particularly useful, as they help to build the content level. However, you should take care to ensure that the material you use is relevant to your site, because the top search engines such as Google rank their pages on a relevant link system, as well as the actual number of links. It is all well and good having a thousand links, but if six hundred of them are revolved around fishing when your website is to do with motor sports, then your ranking will still be poor.

There are other risks involved when using other people’s material to add content to your won site, and this is to do with plagiarism. Articles can get hijacked by plagiarisers and you may inadvertently end up breaking someone else’s copyright. Obviously, this can be very bad for your reputation and authors may refuse to let their work be used on your site, and at the same time your own material may be turned down when attempting to circulate it around other sites. Similarly, careful attention needs to be paid to any article sites you want to submit your work to, to ensure they are not guilty of breaching author’s copyrights, and that they are reliable and hold enough weight in the rankings table already to make sure you will get a return on your ‘investment’.

Plagiarism aside, it is essential that you check each article submitted to your site or that you get from an article bank, to determine whether or not the content is suitable and (scientifically) accurate. Many spammers try to operate under the radar, so to speak, by submitting articles with legitimate titles, and sometimes even content, yet their links direct you often to sites selling Viagra or pornography. Some authors simply copy and paste an article, replace the links and try to pass it off as their own work. Regular visitors, as well as the original authors themselves will not react well to such actions, and will look negatively on any sites that have evidently not been thorough enough when checking the authenticity of its content. Webmasters need to be careful that their reputations are not tarnished by poorly validating the material they allow on their sites, and it is worth remembering; reputations are hard to build, but easy to knock down.

Article Alley is one of the UK′s top article sites, best for articlealley.com/top_articles_1_5.html Free Web Content.

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Ghostwriting, Technical Writing and Article Marketing

There are so many types of article writing and on the Internet we see all types. There are those who write about news, write to market products and services and even those who write very technical stuff. Then of course there are those who can write for you if you do not have the time, writing skills or will to write yourself. Yes, I speak of ghostwriters. Do you believe in ghosts for writing?

Some of the top editors, copywriters and ghostwriters on the Internet point out that in high tech topics most folks simply cannot write that type of stuff because these topics are full of math, engineering terms and need a certain way of explaining things. Thus it takes a very special type of ghostwriter to put forth those ideas.

That would be hard to debate indeed, however if the Expert is truly an expert of the highly technical subject then he or she should be able to write it them selves or collaborate with others who together have all their names on the research or white paper.

Personally, I have written many high tech articles that do a pretty good job of explaining what I am talking about and yes it would be nice to have someone touch them up and communicate better to the reader and if I hired a ghost-technical-writer to do this that would be smart. But if the ghostwriter wrote the whole thing and the engineering concept was theirs then shouldn’t their name be on it too?

And if this was a research paper or white paper used to help sell a product, then well don’t you believe that it would disingenuous to leave the ghostwriters name off the technical article, research or white paper? Consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow″ - Online WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/ Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance in the Online Think Tank and solve the problems of the World; WorldThinkTank.net www.WorldThinkTank.net/

“Call If You Need Me” by Carver

Raymond Carver is a famous writer whose importance in American literature is impossible to overestimate. His prose is exceptional, accurate and clear. In the 1980s a deep interest and vivid representation of the private lives of Carver’s characters became an innovation in literature of that time. ‘Call if You Need Me’ contains five brilliant stories which give the last look on the writer’s works. Reading his stories a person gets only a pleasure.

Raymond Carver’s book ‘Call if You Need Me’ appeared after the author’s death. It is a complete collection of fiction and it includes all of the prose collected in ‘No Heroics’ and five stories which were written by Carver in the second part of his life. The book ‘Call if You Need Me’ is a collection of stories which describe lives and small crises of ordinary people. The story ‘Call if You Need Me’ displays author’s unique prose style as he puts his characters, ordinary people, to solve everyday problems, family crises – in a word, ordinary life problems.

The plot structure of the story ‘Call if You Need Me’ consists of the major elements: exposition in which the author introduces characters, place of development of events rising action, in other words, the crisis of several characters climax, or turning point of the whole story; falling action and resolution. The author does not invent extraordinary things he composes the plot of the story showing common situations in life. Every reader can be convinced of Carver’s talent, his unexpected and immediate writing having read the story. ‘Call if You Need Me’ is about the dissolution of a long-term marriage, one of the major themes of his stories.

The first part of the plot structure (exposition) in this story is the introduction of a married couple who decide to spend the summer together renting a summer place far from their house. This decision and the change of conditions is only an attempt to maintain their relationships. Thus, this is the beginning of the end of their marriage life.

Rising action takes place when a couple discusses the possibility of having a dog. The episode with a dog is symbolic. This abstract from the story clearly demonstrates that these people will not live together and their attempt to ‘repair’ their marriage will not bring positive results like in the decision to have a dog.

The climax, or turning point, and falling action come when the couple has the final moment watching wild horses running. No one makes effective scenes like Carver does. The author uses a word ‘magic’ in the description of this moment. Symbolic words are characteristic for Carver’s works. His stories are full of delusive simplicity in the description of characters who attempt to make their lives better. Everyone gets a pleasure from reading them. In every page of ‘Call if You Need Me’, Raymond Carner shows his magnanimity and loyalty to his characters. He pictures relationships of a man and a woman with many nuances.

‘Call if You Need Me’ is a marvelous story, beautiful in every description, in every word. Much attention is paid to small details and moments in a couple’s life. Carver uses every word in a description. The author admires actions of people and they are everywhere in a story. He has a rare ability to look deep into a soul and display the inner feelings. Raymond Carner composes a story according to his plot structure. He masterly leads his readers to a final point in a story. The result, final point in a story is obvious and the author helps readers to see it.

The article was produced by the writer of Essay-Paper.net. Olivia Hunt is a 4-years experienced freelance writer and a senior manager of essay-paper.net/essay_writing_service.html Essay Writing Service. Contact her to get essay-paper.net/coursework.html English coursework and essay-paper.net/book_report.html book report writing tips.

Writing Tips: A Word on “That”

Once in a while I am called upon to edit or proofread a manuscript that makes a particular mistake with great frequency, and I’m reminded to tell you all to avoid aforementioned mistake. Today I am helping to rescue an author who had difficulty knowing when to include or omit the ever-present but little-considered word “that.”

I refer to “that” not when used as a pronoun (”That was a great party”), adjective (”I prefer that website”), or adverb (”He wasn’t that fat”). Usage in those cases is more straightforward, although the word can perhaps be replaced by a more interesting or descriptive one.

The more troublesome function of “that” is as a conjunction, usually introducing a subordinate clause. It’s troublesome because in many cases, it’s perfectly acceptable to use “that”–and perfectly acceptable not to. You should be able to recognize when it makes a difference, and why.

Example:
“Peter told Paula that she looked beautiful.”
“Peter told Paula she looked beautiful.”

Economy of words being important to me, I would choose the latter sentence. It conveys the same information without being unclear. However, eliminating “that” can sometimes affect the clarity of a sentence, and while you’re being your own editor, clarity should trump even the economy of words. When the clause being introduced follows a transitive verb, the introductory “that” can often prevent a misreading of the subject of the clause as the object of the verb, as in this example:

“She trusted that Ken had been faithful.”
“She trusted Ken had been faithful.”

In this case, go with the first sentence. Why? While the meaning of the second sentence will be clear to most readers by the time they arrive at the period, they will first find themselves reading this: “She trusted Ken.” And we don’t want our readers to be confused for even the millisecond that it takes them to get from “Ken” to “had.” Because confusion creates distance.

This is another one of those little tricks you can use to address both wordiness and lack of clarity in your writing. Look for “that″ when you′re rewriting, and make sure it’s there when it should be and gone when it’s unnecessary. And that will be that.

Lisa Silverman is a freelance book editor and works in the copyediting department at one of New York’s most prestigious literary publishing houses. She has also worked as a ghostwriter and a literary agent representing both book authors and screenwriters. She founded BeYourOwnEditor.com BeYourOwnEditor.com in order to provide writers with free advice on both writing and the publishing business.

Can You Sit Still: This May Be The “Write” Stuff

Countless articles purport to teach writers how to write, and I’ve contributed my share.

Some, like those matchbook covers that are trolling for artists ask: Do you have what it takes to be a writer?

In other words, do you have the “write” stuff?

It wasn’t until the other night, when I was watching one of those quirky TV channels with a lot of drug advertising that I stumbled upon something quite pertinent to answering this question, but often overlooked.

It might unlock the secret about who can crank out a ton of work and who will have to settle for coming up with dribs and drabs.

The commercial zooms in on people’s legs and it more or less asks: DO YOU HAVE NERVOUS LEG SYNDROME?

That’s not the malady’s real name, but close enough. Apparently, there are people who actually have, what moms and dads have, for eons, derisively called, “Ants in the pants.”

Literally, they can’t sit still..

Their legs seem to have minds of their own and they shake, rattle, and maybe even roll.

If you have this problem, please forgive me.

A while ago, I read a self-congratulatory, “How I Did It!” article penned by an Ezine writer that has thousands of titles to his credit.

He said he just bangs out umpteen items every day and they add up.

No, that’s the second thing he does,

The first thing is accepting that he’ll be indoors, stuck in front of a word processor for great lengths of time.

And he’ll either have calm limbs, or he’ll be taking lots of pills!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman is the best-selling author of 12 books, over 600 articles, and the creator of numerous audio and video training programs, including “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant-a favorite among salespeople and entrepreneurs. For information about booking Gary to speak at your next sales, customer service or management meeting, conference or convention, please address your inquiry to: mailto:gary@customersatisfaction.com gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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