Sales Letters Written Like Blog Entries a la Steve

[RT Wolf]

How do Steve's sales letters (written like blog entries) convert compared to traditional long form sales copy?

Blog entry style sales letter:
Journaling

Traditional long form here: Guide to Betta Fish and Beta Fish Care
Or from Steve himself: The Journal - Securely Record Your Private Thoughts

I've noticed that Steve's blog sales letters are similar to regular blog entries where he tries to get you recognize the value of certain ideas and then get you to take action on them. The action is often, in this case, to purchase whatever he's advocating and get that value. I really like that his sales letters often contain lots of value in them and he doesn't skimp on relaying good tips. Traditional long copy such as the Betta Fish Center thing seems to keep every single piece of information as a jealously guarded secret and won't reveal anything in the sales copy.

Reason I'm asking is I'm working through The Ultimate Sales Letter by Dan Kennedy to write my first sales letter for a seminar on beating procrastination. I don't like sales copy that looks like sales copy if I'm buying. It instantly turns me off and makes me very skeptical to the point I rarely believe anything in it. Testimonials are picked and chosen, and there's always an outlier who gets a HUGE benefit out of whatever you're selling as compared to the "average" person. One huge thing that works for me in sales letters is to get me to think "if this is what this person is giving away for free, imagine what you get if you pay for it!" That's when money back garuntees kick in for me. That's something Steve accomplishes well.

I guess my question is: do blog entry-style sales letters convert as well traditional long form? Cause if it does, I'd rather use the blog entry-style.

Thanks in advance!

[SnerpGoodWord]

I think it's a better approach in that the sales pitch is somewhat genuine. I do believe Steve actually has used and approved most if not all of the things he affiliate markets.

That said, I've never felt compelled to buy any of them.

[Vanessa]

How about making two different salesletters and testing to see which one your readers respond best to? That's the best way to find out which converts better. Put it out there and see how people respond.

I want to point out that it sounds like you have a disconnect in believing you can create genuine value through a traditional salesletter and you're looking for validation that the salesletter you'd prefer to buy from is better at converting so you have permission to ditch the one that you don't like. If that's true then, don't write a sales letter you wouldn't stand behind.

Consider that if you're learning how to follow someone's proven model for a system, follow it through until the end. The answer to if its right or not will come in the responses and conversions you get.

[FazK]

Ultimately you would have to perform split testing to see what really works.

In steve's case the blog style sales pitch probably works far better than a long winded sales letter.

[RT Wolf]

Thank you Snerp and FazK for your responses.

Originally Posted by Vanessa

I want to point out that it sounds like you have a disconnect in believing you can create genuine value through a traditional salesletter and you're looking for validation that the salesletter you'd prefer to buy from is better at converting so you have permission to ditch the one that you don't like. If that's true then, don't write a sales letter you wouldn't stand behind.

Consider that if you're learning how to follow someone's proven model for a system, follow it through until the end. The answer to if its right or not will come in the responses and conversions you get.

You hit the nail on the head and really dug under what's written to what motivated the questions and helped me clarify what I was concerned about. What it comes down is this: some of this marketing material will go in front of my friends and I fear those people considering me a huckster or disingenuous.

For now I'm going to create the blog/article style, which I feel seem more genuine and a one-on-one connection. In this book, Kennedy suggests using a kind of sales letter that reads like a newspaper article and looks like it was torn out of a newspaper. I figure a blog entry style is this millennium's tear offs. I will likely create a traditional style one, too and split test them, but that's for later. I will test with the traditional one between the over-the-top letters I sometimes see and the more staid ones like Steve's traditional long copy.

I suspect part of the reason Steve's blog style sales letters work is because they evoke the very large amount of trust long-time readers have built up with Steve. His traditional-style sales letter that I posted above doesn't do much for me. A large part of a sales letter is building credibility, believability, authority and trust. But I already trust Steve and believe him to be an authority, so there's less of the "selling" process required. As sales letters they are quite odd. Some of them are even missing answers to objections.

Thank you Vanessa for your insightful post.