Customer Reviews

The Ultimate Sales Letter: Boost Your Sales With Powerful Sales Letters Based on Madison Avenue Techniques

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is an amazing resource for anyone who writes sales letters. I own a business that sells high dollar OD/HR consulting. I bought this book based upon the reviews it got from other readers and the title. At first, I was very disappointed because the book is really directed mostly at direct-mail, reach-out-and-grab-the-buyer type businesses with products or services for consumers. My target audience is much more sophisticated and specialized.

I put the book on my shelf until recently. I picked it up again, mostly forgetting what I didn't like about it the first time. I quickly remembered, but I kept looking for different and new ideas. I found them. All I needed to do was to open my mind and use my imagination on how I could incorporate the ideas he has and use them. The results were amazing! I realized I had limited myself because I was really looking for a letter I could simply copy and change. Once I dropped that attitude, my whole view of the book changed.

Also, the formula for writing a great sales letter is the same whether you are writing something like mine or other types of copy or sales letters...

I highly recommend buying this book. Use it in the right way and you will see results.

This book is most useful to small business owners who want to generate qualified leads and not waste time, money, and energy in sending out useless junk mail.

The techniques described by the author in this simple but effective book are easy to learn. The author explains a systematic process in writing the ultimate sales letter that gets read and achieves results. Overall, he describes 28 steps involved in designing, creating, and getting your sales letter to the right prospects. The book is less than 200 pages long and doesn't take more than a couple of hours to read. It does take a lot longer to implement the ideas presented though.

Here are a few things I learned in the book that really surprised me -

1. That some mail delivery personnel hate junk mail and hence do not deliver it (this is against the law but a small percentage still seemd to indulge in this criminal behavior). There are some good tips on how to minimize the chance of your sales letters being perceived as junk mail.

2. The concept of 'comparing apples to oranges' in presenting price to your customer. I have always had reservations about doing this but after reading the explanation in the book, I am no longer opposed to adopting this highly effective practice. The author has a very compelling argument on why this is the right thing to do.

3. Mailing a mockup of the sales letter to yourself to see your own gut reaction to your marketing material arriving at your mailbox. This seems the most logical thing to do but I have never done it. From now on, I am always going to mail myself a mockup package before placing an order with my printer.

The book is full of these kinds of surprises and hence the reason for the 5 stars in this review. This book is probably one of my top 10 high value purchases of 2003.

The most important lesson I learned after reading this book - never underestimate the difficulty of writing a great sales letter and be wary of letting someone else write your letter. If it is your business, there is no one more qualified to write this letter than you. Spend the time and read this book. You won't regret it. After a couple of negative experiences, I now design most of my marketing material myself.

Good luck!

I read this book several years ago and I've gone on to read every book he's published since. The only thing wrong with the book is the title. Kennedy doen't use watered-down, full-of-fluff Madison Avenue techniques. He takes you by the hand and walks you through the copywriting process step-by-step. If you follow his advice and you're not afraid of being to direct or of making you're offer to strong you can end up with a sales letter that will keep the orders rolling in for years!

Dan Kennedy is a master of marketing and self-promotion.

This book functions to up-sell his other books and courses.

No problem there. That's the nature of his business,
which I admire.

This book isn't very long. It's printed on cheap paper.
It's a quick read.

Basically its a 20+ point outline of the elements of a
good salesletter. It won't teach you how to write copy
or how to think like a marketer - that is beyond the scope
of this book.

You could read this book and take a page or two of notes
and be done with it. In a way it's very concise and
fluff-free.

There are a lot of more-detailed copywriting books out there.
If you are writing for competitive markets you need a lot
more education than you will find in this book.

If you are writing for local business - say soliciting clients
for a pool-service, then this would be good - because few
people have ever read a salesletter about a pool service
and they'll be impressed that you cared enough to write one.

It's basic stuff. Not a bad reference if you already know
how to write copy and want something to carry in your laptop
case though.

I was extremely disappointed in Dan's book. Really, it was pages and pages of reference to his website, where, in the book, he tells you that you can go to find valuable information. When you go to the site, you find that the "valuable" information is just that--valuable (highly priced). This book is nothing more than a sales pitch. Its amazing that someone can sell a book that is really just a sales pitch for high priced seminars and pricey information.

I've made millions of dollars from my own successful sales letters and I can attribute part of that success to this very book. It can bring the most inexperienced writer/marketer into a load of cash from creating a successful direct mail piece almost overnight. It can polish a "seasoned" pro's writing success. In fact, the best copywriters usually use this book as a constant reference when writing a new sales piece. If you can afford only one copywriting book or only have time to read one, make this the one! When you have this one book you won't need any others. I have read just about every book on sales letter writing available from Caples to Schwab to Ogilvy and this, BY FAR, is the best.

Although designed primarily for the direct-mail market, the principles and techniques of "The Ultimate Sales Letter" can be adapted and applied to a wide variety of situations. Kennedy covers all the important topics and techniques on how to write the letter so that it not only gets opened but read and acted on.

One of the most common mistakes a poor salesman makes is trying to sell a product based on features. This is totally ineffective when compared to selling based on the benefits the product will provide the customer. Kennedy does an excellent job of demonstrating the difference and how to write a sales letter that focuses on the benefits to a customer. The result is a highly effective letter.

Add to this the tricks of the trade, writing style, revision information and multitude of other tips that fill the book and you have one of the best books on writing sales letters that I have ever read. Well organized, well written, and easily understood, Kennedy takes you through a complete and repeateable process from concept to followup to sale that does not miss a beat. If you want a sales letter that can produce leads and then convert the leads to sales there is no better book on the market today.

Dan Kennedy is a popular copywriter and high-profile internet presence. His trademark "No B.S." style is not for the fainthearted, but for those who like their truths plain, and plainly told, he's an excellent source of advice.

The Ultimate Sales Letter is designed to teach business owners how to write their own letters, and it's amply illustrated with samples of Kennedy's work, both real and manufactured. The letter he creates to show you how to provide the "internal repetition" your message needs-without putting your client to sleep-is particularly helpful.

Kennedy never forgets his audience, and takes us step-by-step, with short, snappy chapters, from getting the initial idea to sending off the final draft to the printer. It's a fast read, but packed with information.

His first step is first for a reason, I think. He says that before you do anything else, you must know your customer. He offers 10 questions you can ask yourself that will bring you closer to that knowledge, then smoothly segues into knowing your offer (where he gives a memorable example of "finding the hidden benefit" and what such benefits can do for your message).

Later, he tells the story of an older salesman whose first boss gave him a notebook of 299 sales techniques. He quickly whittled them down to the "three or four that worked," and Kennedy tells us what those few are-and why they work. This new edition also offers a bonus chapter by the late, much-missed Cory Rudl, who explains why no square inch of your website is too small to ignore--not even the "Online Ordering" button.

The Ultimate Sales Letter is particularly strong in its examples, and its approachability. Kennedy never talks down to his reader. More than once, I felt as if I were hearing him tell me his secrets over a glass of (I'm guessing) bourbon. Maybe scotch. And when he got to the part about the "Three Ways to Transcend Pricing Questions," I grabbed a napkin and started taking notes.

If you are trying to sell a legitimate product or service, and it is after 1995, this book is not for you. Ughh! All the horrible oily stuff from direct mail past. Go buy Seth Godin's Permission Marketing and Brian Halligan's Inbound Marketing.

This is, by far, the very best book you can ever get on the subject of sales letter writing. Dan Kennedy, a marketing genius in his own right, teaches you step-by-step in writing the best sales piece possible. He encourages you to write your own sales materials, even if you think you can't write, because only YOU know your product better than anyone else ever will. He shows you how to focus on benefits, not features. And ALWAYS tell people what's in it for them! Dan Kennedy is great. This book is great. If you can only get one sales letter writing book for the rest of your life, GET THIS ONE! If you want to learn how to write sales letters that will generate MILLIONS of dollars in sales...GET THIS BOOK!