Information marketing is a broad term that covers many different approaches to making money from information products. Some of them – like displaying contextual ads (Google AdSense) on published content – do not involve ‘selling’.

But many other methods, like writing e-books or print books, conducting teleseminars, or running coaching programs, do require you to be adept at selling. So every infopreneur must learn the basic steps of setting up a sales letter and delivering a digital product.

An online sales letter is essentially a sales pitch delivered on a website – often through the written word, but increasingly in other formats like audio recordings or video presentations.

A good sales letter has specific components, including:

* Headline – an arresting and compelling opening statement that delivers the biggest, most valuable benefit that your prospect can expect to get by buying your product

* Body – a crisp and clear description of your offer that explains what’s for sale and why someone should buy it

* Call to Action – a way for prospective buyers to order from you, such as a button to click and make online payments, or a number to call and place their order

This basic process is supplemented and enhanced by various elements that increase the likelihood of a sale, like

* testimonials from satisfied customers or reviewers
* risk-reversal statements that provide a performance guarantee
* bonuses that add perceived value to the purchase
* time-limited specials to add urgency to the offer

We could fill up an entire information marketing manual on how to write effective sales copy. If you’d like a simple basic guide to writing good sales letters, pick up my guide “Copywriting Secrets to Make You Very Rich”.

On the Internet, most buyers expect immediate gratification. So you should make arrangements for your product to be delivered instantly to buyers after they have made a payment.

Technology makes this simple. Most payment processors like PayPal, Clickbank or other shopping cart software will redirect buyers to a webpage of your choice after collecting payments from your customers. On this page, you can set up links that point to the e-book files, audio downloads or any other digital products that they purchased.

This way, your prospective buyer will visit your website, read your sales letter, be convinced to order your product, click on a link to make their payment, and be immediately directed to a download page from where they can copy files to their computer. It all happens within a few minutes, delivering a pleasant and easy experience that encourages the happy buyer to come back for more.

Of course, there are nuances to master in this process, but they are easy to learn and put into place with some studying and testing. There are many resources that discuss this in more detail, including my book “Think, Write & Retire”.

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