Even though you are selling a low-priced product, you nevertheless have to create a ‘full blown’ sales letter in exactly the same way as you would if you were selling a $2000 product.

In essence, you have to apply all of the same techniques, tactics and ideas to creating a sale that are for a $7 product as you would to sales letter for a product that sells for 100 or even 1000 times this amount of money!

For sure, it is likely that a visitor to a sales letter page for a $7 product is far less likely to be overly critical about the content of that page, nor are they likely to be as nervous about spending $7 as they might be about shelling out $97 or $997.

It might therefore be reasonable to suggest that your sales letter for a low end product can get away with being marginally less persuasive than one for a considerably more expensive product. Nevertheless, there must be a powerful sales letter that persuades the site visitor that what you are offering justifies the amount of money you are asking for.

Once again, you are faced with a choice. Creating effective sales letters is by no means easy – if it were, the top sales letter copywriters would not be able to command six-figure sums for every sales letter they create.

Hence, you may not feel comfortable with the idea of creating the sales letter yourself. In this case, you can go back to any of the freelancing sites that we looked at earlier to find a suitably qualified professional who will do the job for you, although if you do this, you should expect to spend several hundred dollars on quality sales letter copy.

But, let’s imagine that you’re going to create your sales copy yourself.

How do you go about doing so?

There are two things that you must do before you start to create your sales that are, or write the copy for the page.
Firstly, you must research your market, so that you know exactly what the special report that you’re presenting to your customers through your sales letter can actually do for them. You must have all of the facts, information and details at your fingertips before you even begin to create your sales letter.
Secondly, armed with information and details from your research, you have to apply what you have learned to answer the number one, most critical question that every visitor to your sales letter will ask themselves. Unless you’re giving something away completely free (which you are not), every individual who is considering whether to spend money on a product or service makes a value judgment.

And when it comes to making this value judgment in terms of buying information on the internet, every single visitor to your site is asking themselves ‘what’s in it for me?’ They are not in the least bit interested in all of the super high-tech gizmos that you might be offering, or the fact that you have bang-up-to-the-minute flash videos adorning your site.

All they are interested in is, how does your product or service benefit their life? They are not interested whether your widget is blue, green or psychedelic pink – all they want to know is, how will their existence be improved if they buy your widgets.

This is therefore the question that your sales letter page has to answer. You have to tell the customer that almost despite the fact that you’re promoting a lower price product, there are significant benefits that they will enjoy from getting hold of their copy.

Do not say things on your sales at the page that are not true, and be wary of over exaggerating the benefits of your product. At the same time, this is called a sales letter for the very good reason that it is designed to sell your product or service. A certain degree of hype and a strong sales pitch are therefore perfectly acceptable, indeed, they are most likely expected!

The single most important part of your sales letter is the main headline at the top of the page. However, one mistake to avoid when creating your main headline is to try to sell the product or service from that headline.

Perhaps this sounds a little counterintuitive, but if you listen to any copywriting expert, they will tell you that the purpose of the main headline and also the sub-headlines underneath it is to do nothing more than to keep the visitor reading.

In the main headline of the page, make certain that you include one of the primary benefits of downloading your report, and try to keep the number of words to less than 12 if possible.
Also, it is generally considered best if your main headline appears as an inverted triangle, simply because it is more aesthetically pleasing, something like this:
Need $5000 Extra Cash This Month? Here’s how it’s done…

Note that in this example, each of the sentences is on a different line and every individual word is capitalized. You might be tempted to drop the word ‘Month?’ to the second line because that would make the ‘inverted triangle’ a little neater, but it is more important to have each sentence or phrase on a different line if at all possible.

You can then do the same with your sub-headline, although if you are using red type for your main headline, you should avoid doing so for the sub-headline because that would be too much.
In effect, your sales page has to have a top to bottom flow, with each individual section of the page being designed to push the visitor to read the next section.

At the same time, you’re also trying to build the momentum of your sales message as you go along as well, so that by the time the visitor arrives at the ‘Buy Now’ button, you have already answered the ‘What’s in it for me?’ question many times over and in many different ways.

As suggested earlier, writing your own super effective sales copy is not easy. On the other hand, it does not have to be particularly difficult either, because there is very quick and easy way of discovering sales copy that works which you can then ‘duplicate’ in your own efforts.

The largest repository of digital information products on the internet can be found at Clickbank.com where there are over 10,000 products listed at any given time. Some of these products have sold in their thousands, which tells you something but perhaps not what you think.

The fact that a Clickbank product is selling well tells you nothing whatsoever about the quality or value of that product. However, what it does indicate is that the sales letter is doing an extremely good job. Consequently, all you need to do is find the products that are selling best because they are the ones with the most persuasive sales letter.

As always, there is no point at all in attempting to re-invent the wheel. But, if you are going to copy or duplicate other people’s efforts, it makes a great deal of sense to copy that which is most effective.
Open the Clickbank ‘Marketplace’ page, type a word or phrase into the ‘Keywords’ box and click the ‘Go’ button:

Alternatively, click the drop down ‘Categories’ menu and then do the same:

Whichever way you do it, the result will be broadly the same. In either case, you will be presented with the most effective sales pages at the top of the results list, so all you need to do is check out a few of these sales letters to see what it is that is making people buy from this page:

Of course, you cannot copy other people’s sales copy word for word, because that is plagiarism which is illegal. However, there is known rule that says you cannot take other people’s best ideas, rewrite them in your own words and then use them for your own sales letter.

In this way, you can shortcut the whole sales letter copywriting process, confident in the knowledge that you are basing your sales letter on copy that obviously works.

Once you have your copy written, the next step is the mechanics of creating your sales letter page. Of course, if you have appropriate HTML skills, you can do this yourself. However, as there are a least a couple of free sales letter creation programs that I am aware of, it would make sense to at least take a look at these alternatives before deciding whether you want to take the time and make the effort to do the job yourself from scratch:

http://www.pagegorilla.com/

http://www.download3k.com/Web-Authoring/Site-Management/Download-Sales-Page-Generator.html

You might also want to search Google using a phrase like ‘sales page generator’ to see whether there are any other programs which are suitable for your own requirements.

In the world of online marketing, perhaps the most common low-priced product format is the special report, a 15-20 page report that is short on ‘fluff’ and long on research, detail and information.
Of course, the product that you produce should be based upon your own abilities and the market sector that you wish to make a splash in. And as you have already seen, if you are more focused on using video materials in your business venue than on using written materials, there are plenty of online resources that you can use to help produce appropriate video products very cheaply.

However, for the rest of this report, I am going to assume that the low-priced product that you want to produce is going to be a special report that in some way promotes a more expensive product.
The first thing to mention is the fact that if you are creating a relatively short special report which is designed to act like a ‘trailer’ for your main product, you should not try to compress all of the information from your main product into that report. Whilst this may seem relatively obvious, it is nevertheless a mistake that marketers who have not used low-priced products in this way before commonly make.

Ignoring for a moment the impossibility of packing all of that information into 10 or 15 pages effectively, if you try to do so, you completely defeat the object of the operation. After all, why would anyone buy the more expensive product when you have already given them all the information that it contains at a fraction of the cost?

Having decided to create a special report, the next decision is to choose whether you are going to do the work yourself or whether you want to find someone else to do it for you. Perhaps surprisingly, finding other people who can write reports of this nature for you is remarkably simple, because there are plenty of sites through which freelance workers with almost every imaginable skill set under the sun offer their services for hire.

Once you have a specific description of what you want doing, you simply post your work on a site like Elance.com, Get-a-Freelancer or Script Lance to invite bids for the job that needs doing. Irrespective of which site you post the work on, you will receive quotations that vary by quite a considerable degree, whilst the cost of the work will also be affected by exactly how much input you need from the freelancer you employ.

For example, if they are expected to do some or all of the research, this will obviously push the cost up. Nevertheless, it should be possible to find someone who will write a 5000 word report for you for somewhere in the region of $100.

However, do be aware that it is not necessarily always the best idea to go for the cheapest quotation purely because it undercuts everyone else. There is always a reason why someone is willing to bid lower than everyone else so you must at least make sure that you know what the reason is.

Armed with this knowledge, if you are still satisfied that this person can do a good job for you, then by all means use them, but do not fall into the trap of automatically choosing the cheapest bid.

If you are using a freelancer, it should be obvious that you must read every word that they have written, and that if significant additional work is needed to bring the document up to scratch, you must ensure that you give them very specific instructions about what you want. Indeed, it is even more efficient if you give them very specific instructions about what you want before they start to work because the more accurate you can be with them, the more likely it is that they will get the job right first time.

The bottom line is, when the special report that you have either written yourself or had written for you is released, it will have your name on it and it will carry your reputation with it. It is therefore of paramount importance that you make sure that it is truly representative of the quality of your business.
Remember that if your customer is not suitably impressed with your special report, it naturally becomes less likely that they will spend money on your more expensive product.

Given that this is the whole reason for this operation, you must be completely certain that your special report does its job. Ask other people who are not directly concerned or involved in your business to read it, and get their honest opinions. Based on what you have written, would they be genuinely interested in knowing more, and if they were, would they consider spending money to do so?

Asking other people in this way is an excellent way of getting an unbiased objective view of how effective you report is. Bearing in mind that if it is not effective, you are giving money away, it is something well worth doing.

Perhaps the biggest online marketing success story of the past couple of years has been the boom in video marketing materials that have become available. With almost any digital camera having the ability to shoot a short video and even mobile phones that can do the same, there really is no reason why anyone cannot make video materials that they can supply to their customers at a very low price.

Because video is rapidly taking over from TV as the preferred choice of entertainment medium for the internet generation, it has become more common and more acceptable for serious information to be disseminated using video materials. Whereas a year or two ago, video was all about kids and teenagers goofing off in public on YouTube, it is now taken so seriously that some fully accredited universities use video materials as an integral part of their training and testing resources.

The beauty of using video to create a low-priced product is that it is far easier to do than you might initially imagine, and the chances are that you need no special equipment or software to do the job.
For example, if you plan on creating a ‘how to’ information product, something that can be demonstrated and mapped out on a whiteboard, there is no reason whatsoever why you could not video the whiteboard ‘action’ before editing it using Windows Movie Maker which is found on any machine running Windows XP or Vista (or there is free editing software available here or here).

After this, you have a choice of whether you want to make your video materials available to your customers in the form of downloadable or streaming video which your customer can access on your web hosts server.

If you do this, you need to make sure that your web hosts are happy with this and that the download or streaming speed is acceptable, because there is nothing more frustrating than video materials that you cannot get to download or stream properly.

Even with this potential problem dealt with, there is another possible difficulty because downloading huge files or streaming video almost always fails without a high speed internet connection.
And whilst the majority of internet users in developed countries are already using high-speed connections, there are many millions of people in other parts of the world who are not. Assuming that one of the major advantages of selling digital products is that anyone with an internet connection can access them, you may have to be very careful offering video materials in this way.

However, there is a very simple and attractive alternative.

A site like Kunaki.com will enables you to create hardcopy CDs or DVDs of your materials for only $1.75 a copy. Thus, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot supply hard copies of your materials to your customers instead of or as well as downloadable or streaming copies.

There is another advantage to doing this.

Tangible, physical products are generally considered to have more value than digital products, and there is little doubt that most people (presumably including your customers) love to receive physical goods through the post.

Consequently, making hard copy CDs or DVDs in this way would be a very easy and highly effective way of differentiating your business from everyone else in your market.

At the same time, given that each individual copy is relatively cheap, you would still be able to supply these products at bargain prices whilst at the same time knowing that there is a considerably higher perceived value attached to a physical CD or DVD than there ever would be if the only option was a digital download or a streaming video.

Selling and promoting e-book is a staple of the online marketing industry, and it is probably fair to say that a significant percentage of people who have ever spent money online have probably bought an e-book or two at some time in their life.

Consequently, selling an e-book as your low ticket item has the immediate advantage that almost everyone who you will be trying to sell it to immediately knows what it is beforehand. They therefore have a fairly good idea of what to expect and are probably relatively comfortable with the idea of spending money online for an e-book (an e-book like this, for example!).

Generally speaking, the only significant difference between a special report and an e-book is that the latter tends to be a least a couple of times longer than a short report and it will generally be more thoroughly researched as well. Traditionally, e-books would be expected to sell for a higher price than would a special report, but in the current marketplace, the asking price for e-books is falling fairly steadily.

In fact, it is now relatively common to see e-books priced at the level that you would have expected a special report to be priced at a year or two ago. Nowadays, it is relatively common to see e-books available for $27, whereas $47 was a more common pricing point a couple of years ago.

Nevertheless, despite the fall in prices, it is still an attractive option to create your own e-book to sell as your low-priced product.

Yes, you do have to do a little more research than you would do for a special report, but you still enjoy the power of leverage in that you only need to create your e-book one time after which you can sell hundreds or even thousands of copies.

The secret to successfully writing, promoting and selling your own e-book is to make what you do different to what your direct competitors are doing. More importantly still, make sure that your product is noticeably better than theirs by studying them thoroughly, analyzing both their strengths and weaknesses.

In the areas where your competitors are strong, make sure that your product is equally strong. However, in the areas where they are weak, you can give yourself a significant advantage by making sure that your product does not fall down in the same way as theirs does.

Presentation is also important.

It is for this reason that many online marketing experts recommend that you should be willing to spend money to make sure that the graphics on your sales page are as attractive as possible.

For example, my own testing results clearly indicate that a sales letter that features an attractive, professional looking graphic of the e-book ‘cover’ (which does not of course actually exist in reality) makes a huge difference to the number of visitors who will buy from that page:

The important point to understand is that the obvious quality of the sales page implies that the product being promoted from that page is of an equally high quality. It is presentation that forms the most effective way of convincing the visitor that your product represents excellent value for money, so you should not underestimate the importance of it.