Posted by: Michel Fortin, Guest Blogger

There are certain things you can do immediately to help you drastically improve your sales copy. Granted, writing persuasive content is in itself deserving of an entire book. But given a choice, I believe there are seven simple tips for increasing attention, readership, and desire of your current sales copy. Here they are.

1. Headline

You might have heard of the famous “AIDA” formula in direct marketing. Successful direct response web copy is contingent on your adherence to that well-known formula. AIDA is an acronym that stands for:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

The first part (i.e., “Attention”) is probably the most important on the Internet. Crafting a headline on your site’s front page that immediately captures the prospect’s attention is critical to your success. Why? On the web, our attention span is enormously short. You only have a fraction of a second to capture a person’s attention and pull her into your copy.

If the prospect hits your front page and does not immediately feel a need to read further, she’ll leave at the single click of a mouse. And if so, the rest of the formula goes straight down the tubes, no matter how great your copy is. Therefore, in order to limit my writing to the confines of this short article, here are at least three important things to remember when developing headlines.

A) The 3 Top Human GOALS

The first is to focus on the three most important goals in human nature, which are to either save (or make) time, money, and energy. (And by energy I mean “effort.”) These three are possibly the most common and easiest ways to build headlines, because everyone wants to save time, make money, or work less.

B) The 3 Top Human DESIRES

The second is to focus on the three greatest human desires, which are greed, lust, and comfort (or convenience).

Of course, when I say “lust,” I don’t mean the topic of sex. But there is a way to use sex in a headline without appearing crass or even pornographic. Whether your product or service helps to make a person feel good, sexy, attractive, powerful, potent, virile, appreciated, happy, loved, etc, these are all elements we desperately seek. It all comes down to emotions!

C) The 3 Top Human TEASERS

Third, use an element of curiosity, scarcity, or controversy in your headline. For example, with curiosity you want to produce intrigue. Don’t mention everything to your readers — give them ample information but not too much so that it pulls them into the copy. Leave an interesting tidbit out or keep them on the edge of their seats, eager to read and absorb more.

Here’s an example. Don’t say, “How to Triple Web site Sales.” Instead, say, “Discover these six unconventional secrets for tripling Web site sales!” People will then wonder, “What are they?”

2. Headers

On the Web, people don’t read. They scan. They seldom read entire Web pages from top to bottom. If the headline is compelling enough, then the likelihood that they will read the entire body copy will be greater. However, the chances of that happening 100% of the time are very small.

One way to overcome this is to use headers at every two or three paragraphs so that, when the reader scans the page, headers pull readers into the copy. Similar to the headline, don’t be vague or general. Use benefits. Be specific. And think keywords. Rather than saying “Background,” “Profile,” or “History,” say “The Strange-but-True Story of How Michel Fortin Went From Colossal, Bankrupt Failure to Becoming a Million-Dollar Success.”

Just as the headline is meant to grab people’s attention and get them to start reading your copy, their desire to restart scanning and jump a few paragraphs is almost excruciating. Time is scarce, and with so many things vying for our attention both in our lives and on our computer desktops, people get easily distracted — and more so today, with the Internet, than ever before.

So write and include headers throughout the copy to get readers to stop scanning any further, and to continuously bring them back into your salesletter. Write your salesletter as an amalgamation of several “mini-articles” with headlines for each, strung together in one flowing, fluid letter that keeps them riveted from the first word to the buy button.

Be sure to check back next Monday for Part 2!

Michel Fortin is a marketer, copywriter, and author of many books and courses. For more information about Michel, including how to get your hands on several free ebooks, visit his blog and sign up free to get tested conversion strategies and response-boosting tips by email, along with blog updates, news, and more! Go now to http://www.michelfortin.com.

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