Most great sales copy has seven features that really distinguish it from run-of-the-mill copy.

Feature #1: Great sales copy enters a conversation that your prospect is already having with himself.

It begins with headline and opening copy that addresses something that he's already thinking about or worried about or afraid of or excited about.

It's not about you. It's not about your product. It's not about what you think. It's about what he's interested in and what's waking him up in the middle of the night.

We have something around here we call "The Forehead-Slap Test." If I see a headline and I can't imagine my prospect waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and slapping himself on the forehead and saying, "Oh, my gosh --" and then saying that headline, I know there may be a better way in.

So this conversation he's having with himself is everything. If you can show him how to make something in his life work faster or easier to do or cheaper to do or better or healthier or whatever, now this is something that he's thinking about because he deals with these things every day. Or if you can eliminate negative emotions that are linked to problems or challenges or obstacles or even just aggravations in his life, you've got it.

Feature #2: Strong copy solves a current problem - it doesn't merely prevent a future one.

I do a lot of promotions for health products. One of my most exciting products an oral chelation capsule. It contains EDTA that removes plaque from your arteries.

We have like 1,500 testimonials from people who have lowered their own blood pressure, had doctors cancel open heart surgery, lower their cholesterol and even recovered their sex lives because they improved circulation throughout their bodies with this product.

So what's our big promise with that product? Should it be, "Never have a heart attack," or, "How to never have a stroke?" Or would it be stronger to lead with lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol -- things that people are dealing with right now that are limiting their life?

If you're eliminating my high blood pressure right now, today, this is a current problem, I get the benefit immediately. I don't have to keep taking those blood pressure pills, don't have to keep paying for the prescriptions. But if, instead, you tell me 20 years from now I won't have a heart attack if I take this product every day for 20 years, that's not nearly as strong a motivator.

Feature #3: Strong copy goes beyond just talking about the benefits that a product provides to recognizing the dominant resident emotions that the prospect has, either about those benefits or the lack of those benefits in his life.

This is something that we've done an awful lot of work with. And we've found consistently that when we address those emotions, we get much higher response rates than if we just simply mention a benefit in our copy.

Feature #4: Great copy fully explores all the benefits the product delivers to the prospect. It leaves nothing out.

When I work with young copywriters, one of the first questions they ask me is, "How long do you want this to be?" My answer is, "As long as it takes to explore and dimensionalize every benefit your product delivers and to prove that it delivers those benefits with testimonials and other credibility devices."

See, what we do is a game of percentages. If one customer in 100 buys our product, typically we can all be very successful. That's 10 in 1,000. But if by leaving out one benefit, you lose one customer or two customers who otherwise would have bought, you've just cut your response rate to nine-tenths of a percent.

If you're a copywriter, that can get you killed if another copywriter explored those benefits and got the sale.

Feature #5: Great copy fully dimensionalizes the value of the product.

It's really important to compare the value of the benefit you deliver to what the problem is costing your prospect.

Take my oral chelation product, for example: A lot of people are paying two or three hundred dollars a month for heart drugs and then they're getting side effects that cost them another couple of hundred dollars in drugs to treat those side effects. Plus, they're having to cool their heels in a doctor's office two or three times a month.

Well, you know, there's a real savings there if you can solve this problem for 23 cents a day with a simple nutritional supplement. So that comparison was really important in our copy.

Feature #6: Great sales copy minimizes the price.

Last month, for example, I sold a $25,000.00 product online. I was very careful to minimize that $25,000.00 price. I broke it down by the number of months that they'll be receiving the service, the amount of money that the service has made other investors.

By the time you finished reading that copy, it was kind of a no-brainer. You'd have to be a fool not to buy the product because the value of what it delivered was so much greater than the price.

Feature #7: Great sales copy creates an urgency to buy.

It doesn't do you any good to you absolutely convince the prospect that they need to buy this product if you don't get the order right now. If you don't get the order immediately, you're probably never gonna get it.

So including an urgency factor in the sales copy and in your offer is extremely important. And by urgency factor, I mean, for example, something extra they get if they order immediately.

For one client, we added a time clock to their web page and gave prospects ten minutes to make their decision. When the clock reaches zero, that's it. The offer is over for them.

For another client, we created urgency by giving new customers the top-rated tech stock right now when they order by phone. They can hang up, call their broker, and within minutes, they can own that stock.

Think about ways that you can add urgency. Deadlines are great, especially on the web because you can do a countdown series, counting the days and finally the hours until the offer ends.

Limiting the number of products available under this offer is another way to do it. We do that a lot in the investment market, especially with higher priced products. And, you know, just offering a premium, an extra bonus if they order now.

I hope this helps!

About the Author

Clayton Makepeace is a working direct response marketing consultant and copywriter who has helped his clients attract more than 3 million new customers ... quadruple their profits ... and rake in more than $1 billion in direct mail and internet sales. His daily e-letter, The Total Package, shares his proven response-boosting techniques with younger writers, business owners, and marketing pros. Find out more at http://www.makepeacetotalpackage.com.