1장
The Art of Persuasion: Turning Words into Profits
Imagine being able to craft a single letter that generates thousands-even millions-of dollars in sales while you sleep. This isn't fantasy; it's the everyday reality for those who master the art of sales letter writing. Dan Kennedy's "The Ultimate Sales Letter" has become the bible for entrepreneurs and copywriters seeking to transform their businesses through the power of persuasive writing. Since its first publication in 1990, this unassuming book has helped create countless millionaires and has been embraced by marketing legends from Tony Robbins to Russell Brunson. What makes this book particularly remarkable is that Kennedy himself started with no formal education beyond high school, yet built an empire charging $50,000 to $2 million per campaign with a 90% success rate. His straightforward, no-nonsense approach strips away the mystique of copywriting and presents a systematic method anyone can follow-regardless of writing experience or education level.
2장
Breaking Down the Barriers to Effective Sales Writing
The greatest obstacle most people face when writing sales letters isn't lack of writing ability-it's the mistaken belief that creating effective sales copy requires special talent or formal education. Kennedy demolishes this myth immediately, explaining that non-professionals actually possess significant advantages: they know their business intimately and aren't constrained by academic writing rules that often hinder persuasive communication.
Kennedy himself began as a high school student with no formal training, simply devouring books and building "swipe files" of effective advertisements. He focused on translating in-person selling skills to print, relying on insight and common sense rather than formal education. Despite his humble beginnings, he eventually commanded fees that would make most Harvard MBAs envious.
What makes his approach so accessible is his emphasis on mechanical process over creative genius. "Writing a sales letter is more accurately described as assembling one," Kennedy explains. By following his systematic approach-gathering raw materials before crafting the final piece-anyone can create effective sales letters without staring helplessly at a blank page.
The key is confidence and taking action. Kennedy advises readers to avoid perfectionism, assemble reference materials, develop a selling mentality, and simply start writing. With practice, the process becomes easier, building confidence that extends beyond copywriting into all areas of business and life.
"Most people struggle with sales letters because they skip proper preparation, not because they 'can't write,'" Kennedy insists. By following his step-by-step system, even the most writing-averse business owner can create letters that convert prospects into customers.
3장
The Customer-Centric Approach: Getting "Into" Your Prospect
Before writing a single word, Kennedy insists you must deeply understand your customers-their desires, fears, frustrations, and aspirations. This isn't just market research; it's developing genuine empathy for the people you're trying to reach. "Enter the conversation already occurring in the customer's mind," Kennedy advises, quoting marketing legend Robert Collier.
This principle is illustrated through a successful fundraising letter that worked precisely because it focused on donor interests rather than the charity's needs. Rather than pleading "We need your help," the letter emphasized how donors could feel good about themselves by supporting a worthy cause-aligning with their internal dialogue rather than interrupting it.
Kennedy shares how outsiders can become insiders, citing Jerry Jones who successfully markets to dentists despite not being one himself. Jones immerses himself in the dental world-reading industry publications, visiting forums, subscribing to email groups, attending conferences, and even investing in dental practices to gain firsthand understanding.
For his own projects, Kennedy describes his exhaustive research process, whether understanding teen acne sufferers or financial advisors. He reads their magazines, visits their online communities, and engages in direct conversations to understand their worldview. He warns business owners against "ingrained assumption"-the dangerous belief that they already understand their customers without fresh investigation.
This deep customer understanding isn't optional-it's the foundation upon which all effective sales communication is built. Without it, even the most eloquent writing will fall flat because it fails to connect with the reader's actual concerns and desires.
4장
From Features to Benefits: The Psychology of Persuasion
Once you understand your customers, Kennedy advises immersing yourself just as deeply in your product or service. Use it as a customer would, take it apart, demonstrate it, or talk to those who use it. This immersion helps you identify what truly matters to customers-not the features of your offering, but the benefits they provide.
"People do not buy things for what they are; they buy things for what they do," Kennedy emphasizes. To organize this thinking, he recommends building a list of product features and benefits on 3x5 cards that can be shuffled and sorted by importance.
Kennedy introduces Ted Nicholas's concept of the "hidden benefit"-not the obvious advantage but one of profound importance to customers. He illustrates this with an example of a successful ad for insurance agent recruiting that emphasized the hidden benefit of freeing up time to play golf, after noticing executives at a seminar were primarily focused on their golf plans rather than business growth strategies.
This approach requires honest self-assessment, including acknowledging the disadvantages of your offer. Kennedy calls this "damaging admission copy" and shares an example from an Italian restaurant that turned competitive disadvantages into selling points: "If you want waiters in tuxedos... our little restaurant is not the place to come. But if you mostly want good, solid, home-cooked pasta... you'll like our place just fine."
Rather than viewing flaws as obstacles to sales, Kennedy suggests using them as building blocks for creating believable, interesting, and persuasive messages. This counterintuitive approach builds credibility with skeptical prospects and differentiates your offering in a crowded marketplace.
5장
Ensuring Your Message Reaches Its Target
Even the most brilliantly crafted sales letter is worthless if it doesn't reach your intended recipient. Kennedy identifies two primary delivery dangers: the postal service itself (with documented cases of deliberate non-delivery) and gatekeepers who screen mail.
To overcome these obstacles, Kennedy recommends considering various delivery options beyond standard mail, including FedEx, UPS, and messenger services. While bulk mail is cheapest, he advocates for first-class postage whenever possible, preferably using actual stamps rather than meter imprints to create a more personal appearance.
For addressing, hand-addressed envelopes consistently outperform labels and machine printing in tests. The "sneak-up approach" using plain white envelopes with no business name maximizes delivery chances, while "intimidating imprints" like "Important Documents Enclosed" can help bypass gatekeepers.
Kennedy quotes direct-marketing expert Gary Halbert's insight: "Picture the person you've sent your sales letter to with a stack of mail in his hands, sorting through that stack, standing next to a wastebasket." This reality-that "America sorts its mail standing over a wastebasket"-drives Kennedy's envelope strategies.
He shares examples of mailings to doctors that achieved 300% higher response rates when sent in plain envelopes with a doctor's name as the return address rather than company-branded envelopes. For consumer mailings, Kennedy notes that women typically sort household mail and are ruthless about discarding obvious advertising.
For established customers, Kennedy recommends using the entire envelope as a billboard with personalized elements and compelling teaser copy. He concludes with "magic words" for envelopes that boost open rates, including "PHOTO ENCLOSED: DO NOT BEND," "HEALTH ALERT FOR RESIDENTS OF [AREA]," and "REFUND ENCLOSED."
6장
Commanding Attention in a Distracted World
Getting your envelope opened is only the first battle. Kennedy warns against assuming recipients will read your sales letter simply because they've opened it. Like the movie title "Gone in 60 Seconds," recipients will quickly discard your letter unless you immediately command their attention and pull them into reading.
Kennedy introduces the AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) as the orderly process of a sale. He illustrates the concept of transforming from "pest to welcome guest" with a personal story about ignoring a persistent doorbell ringer who turned out to be warning him about a fire. The lesson: recipients welcome interruptions that provide urgent, valuable information.
Headlines are the critical element that earns your letter "welcome guest" status, comparable to a door-to-door salesperson's foot in the door. Kennedy provides fill-in-the-blank headline structures with examples, including "They Didn't Think I Could _____, but I Did," "Who Else Wants _____?," "How _____ Made Me _____," and "Warning: _____."
Beyond headlines, Kennedy discusses "grabbers"-physical objects attached to sales letters that arouse curiosity and ensure the letter gets read. These "lumpy" objects dramatically increase readership by making your mailing stand out in a stack of flat envelopes.
For consumer markets, Kennedy emphasizes the extremely short attention span of today's readers, conditioned by fast-paced media. He advises grabbing readers immediately and repeatedly to maintain interest. Involvement devices like tear-out stamps, rub-off cards, and stickers help engage readers physically with the mailing.
Kennedy also recommends "tear-sheet mailings" that mimic newspaper or magazine articles (advertorials). These include a folded newspaper-like page with a handwritten sticky note suggesting someone known to the recipient sent it. This format dramatically increases readership compared to traditional sales letters, though Kennedy acknowledges legal considerations and notes that major users now print "Advertisement" in small type.
7장
Overcoming the Price Objection Through Value Building
Price is rarely the determining factor in buying decisions, but it can halt a sale if mishandled. Kennedy emphasizes that sales letters must deal with price openly and strategically minimize its impact through various value-building techniques.
One approach is selling bulk-helping people equate value with quantity. Kennedy provides examples like "Dr. Elliott's Five-Foot Shelf of Books" and his own client's line: "These three information-packed books weigh over thirteen pounds and cost nearly $20.00 just to ship to your door!" For information products, he suggests listing a specific large number of information pieces contained. For physical products, he recommends detailing all components and benefits to transform even small items into a perceived "bulk" of value.
Another technique is discussing the price paid to develop the offer. Kennedy contrasts two ways to describe industrial equipment. The first simply states functionality. The second details the extensive development process-eight top engineers, $1 million in testing, 15,000 repetitions of perfect performance, and $3 million in research-making the equipment seem vastly more valuable through its development story.
Making the parts worth more than the whole is another powerful strategy. Kennedy references "pitchmen" at fairs who masterfully build value for each attachment until the sum far exceeds the whole unit's price. This strategy works in sophisticated settings too, as shown in a coaching program for professionals that breaks down seminars, marketing kits, and monthly materials into individual values totaling $32,475, then offers everything for just $9,895, creating overwhelming "value overage."
Beyond these techniques, Kennedy introduces three copywriting formulas that redirect readers from price concerns to other compelling aspects of the offer:
1. Problem-Agitation-Solution: This "most reliable sales formula ever invented" begins by clearly defining the customer's problem, then intensifies emotional response through agitation (tapping into fear, anger, or embarrassment), and finally presents the product as the solution.
2. Fortune-telling: This approach leverages our fascination with prediction, positioning the product or service as a way to prepare for or capitalize on coming trends.
3. Winners and Losers: This comparison formula works by creating fear of being in the 95% failure group and motivation to join the 5% success group, effectively gaining attention and opening minds.
8장
Creating Sales Pressure That Converts
Kennedy dismisses concepts like "low-pressure" or "no-pressure" selling, insisting that all successful selling must apply pressure to get decisions and action. While sales letters lack face-to-face interaction, they benefit from delivering perfectly crafted pressure. The writer must apply maximum pressure because readers can easily walk away without a salesperson blocking their escape.
From hundreds of copywriting techniques, Kennedy shares his most consistently effective pressure techniques:
1. Intimidation: Drawing from Robert Ringer's "Winning Through Intimidation," Kennedy explains that deals are hardest to close when you desperately need them and easiest when you appear not to care. This "taking a position" approach works through tactics like limiting availability ("your check will be returned uncashed if our supply is exhausted"), creating bandwagon effects ("thousands have joined"), challenging readers' egos ("only 5 out of 100 will respond"), and creating exclusivity.
2. Demonstrate ROI - Sell Money at a Discount: Showing return on investment positions you as "selling money at a discount"-like offering $1,000 bills for $50 each. ROI can be presented as dollars to be made ("doctors reported $10,000-$25,000 income increases from our $199 course") or saved ("this $29.95 newsletter will save you $150 in taxes").
3. Ego Appeals: Kennedy acknowledges that ego drives many purchases. When a product or service can be convincingly portrayed as a status symbol, it creates a powerful sales letter. He shares an early fax machine marketing example that played on business owners' fear of appearing "behind the times" when asked for their fax number.
4. Strong Guarantee: Despite some marketing "authorities" claiming guarantees are outdated, Kennedy's practical experience proves they boost response rates-and the stronger the guarantee, the better the response. In today's climate of heightened consumer skepticism, Kennedy advocates for better, bolder guarantees rather than abandoning them.
5. Be a Storyteller: Kennedy advocates becoming a great storyteller to take sales letters to an advanced level. We're all conditioned from childhood to love stories, which explains why fiction outsells non-fiction. He recommends studying good fiction writers to develop storytelling skills for sales letters, sharing that this is a key technique he teaches in his exclusive $10,000 sales letter writing workshops.
9장
Crafting Copy That Captivates and Converts
After thorough preparation, Kennedy promises that the actual writing process will flow naturally. He advocates writing freely without editing, worrying about length, or grammar in the first draft. He typically produces first drafts two or three times longer than the final letter, preferring to get every persuasive idea down before facing the editing challenge later.
During the rewriting phase, Kennedy offers proven guidelines for developing effective sales letters:
1. Frustrate the English Teachers: Kennedy proudly admits his sales letters make English teachers cringe. Successful sales letters read like conversation rather than formal writing, using conversational English, slang, choppy sentences, odd punctuation, and non-sentences to create momentum and excitement. He compares effective sales writing to an enthusiastic child's speech pattern-fast, stumbling, incomplete sentences that convey infectious enthusiasm.
2. Increase Readership with the Double Readership Path: Kennedy identifies two personality extremes among recipients-analytical and impulsive-and explains how to appeal to both simultaneously. For impulsive readers who skim first, create a "telegraphed" path using bold headlines, photos with captions, and highlighted paragraphs. For analytical readers who crave detailed information, provide comprehensive content with facts, figures, and statistics.
3. Internal Repetition: Kennedy advocates telling readers the same message multiple times in different ways. Following the public speaking principle of "tell 'em what you're going to tell 'em, tell 'em, then tell 'em what you've told 'em," Kennedy expands it to repeating your message seven times in different formats, including straightforward statements, examples, stories, testimonials, quotes, and numbered summaries.
4. Move Your Reader Along with a Yes Sequence: Building "yes momentum" gets readers in the habit of agreeing with you through a sequence of easily agreeable statements or questions, developing receptivity to your offer.
5. Tease the Reader at the End of Each Page: Never end a page with a completed sentence-this gives readers permission to stop reading. Instead, end each page mid-sentence, preferably during an interesting phrase that compels them to continue.
Beyond these structural techniques, Kennedy emphasizes making your letter "reader friendly" with short, punchy sentences, brief non-sentences, and short paragraphs that nurse the reader along. The first paragraph should sell the recipient on reading your letter, while the rest of the letter sells your proposition.
While outright humor rarely works in sales letters, being funeral-serious isn't effective either. The key is being interesting rather than boring. Kennedy demonstrates with a lighthearted but not comical example about frequent travel that engages readers far better than its deadpan alternative.
To engage readers more deeply, Kennedy recommends appealing to multiple senses. Though we consciously think mostly in terms of sight, our subconscious processes input from all five senses. Effective copy makes readers visualize pictures and feel experiences, like describing the unpleasant sensation of being the last person working late in a big, dark, cold office.
10장
Addressing Objections and Creating Urgency
Unanswered questions and unresolved concerns can sabotage even the best sales letters. Kennedy emphasizes that unlike in-person selling, where salespeople can respond only to objections raised by individual customers, a sales letter must preemptively address every possible objection.
He challenges the notion that raising objections puts negative thoughts in readers' minds, arguing that customers are already skeptical and will think of reasons not to buy regardless. His approach involves directly acknowledging potential objections and thoroughly answering them, either through a strategic setup that addresses "reasons you might say no" or through a "Frequently Asked Questions" section.
Kennedy reveals a powerful formula for addressing objections: hold a brainstorming session specifically to identify why prospects might say "no," then systematically address each reason. Effective objection responses should include: 1) a direct answer, 2) supporting testimonial or case history, and 3) reference to the guarantee or free trial offer.
Beyond addressing objections, sales letters must create enough urgency to overcome inertia and get readers to act now rather than "later" (which often means never). Kennedy shares six powerful techniques to stimulate immediate action:
1. Limited Availability - creating genuine scarcity
2. Premiums - offering bonuses that can boost response by up to 50%
3. Deadlines - the most basic urgency builder
4. Multiple Premiums - offering tiered rewards for different order sizes
5. Discounts for fast response or penalties for slow response
6. Ease of responding - removing all friction from the ordering process
He illustrates these principles with a case study that successfully combined trusted company reputation, desirable product, believable urgency, and exciting premium offers to drive immediate action.
11장
Final Touches That Transform Good Letters Into Great Ones
Even a seemingly finished sales letter requires several crucial refinements before it can be considered a masterpiece. Kennedy emphasizes that every sales letter needs a postscript, as it can make or break your letter's effectiveness. Many readers skip to the end first, making the PS a critical opportunity to summarize your offer and inspire them to read the entire letter or provide an additional response incentive.
The visual presentation of your sales letter significantly impacts its effectiveness. Kennedy introduces "Copy Cosmetics"-how copy is visually presented to readers. These enhancements guide readers through extended copy, making it easier to read and more likely to generate response. Essential techniques include boldfacing, borders, capitalization, columns, highlighting, and simulated handwritten notes.
Kennedy emphasizes that sales letters need emotional power, not just cold logic. Even when selling to logical people in technical fields, buyers make decisions emotionally and justify them logically. "Cold fish" sales letters that take a purely factual approach almost always fail. Sales letters need enthusiastic personalities, and because they're ink on paper rather than flesh and blood, they must work harder at conveying enthusiasm.
Before finalizing your letter, Kennedy recommends comparing your draft side-by-side with multiple good examples to identify strengths and weaknesses. This comparison should evaluate whether your letter flows as smoothly, speaks to its target audience effectively, is structurally sound, easy to understand, and excites readers to action as well as the examples.
Kennedy advocates no-cost pretesting before mailing to find fixable issues and gauge probable success. His recommended pretesting methods include: reading the letter aloud to ensure smooth flow; reading it to potential customers and watching for signs of interest; and having a young child read it aloud to identify difficult words or phrases.
He emphasizes the importance of simplicity, noting that one-third of American adults are functionally illiterate-even in business settings. He warns against the "Sophistication Trap" of assuming customers are more sophisticated than they really are, suggesting that even the most successful copywriters create simple ads because they work.
12장
Maximizing Impact Through Sequences and Multi-Channel Integration
Kennedy reveals his "million-dollar secret"-using timed sequences of sales letters rather than one-shot mailings. He advocates for a tight, timed sequence over 45-60 days that creates brand recognition and immediate response, rather than Madison Avenue's slow, expensive approach.
He demonstrates this with his famous Giorgio's Italian restaurant sequence that has been featured in his seminars for nearly twenty years. He emphasizes that the structure works universally, regardless of product sophistication, and that the combined response from second and third letters often doubles the response from the first letter alone.
Kennedy challenges the common belief that "there are no Be-Backs" in sales, arguing it's entirely false and costly. He explains how he's routinely used follow-up sales letter sequences to convert 10-30% of initial non-buyers into customers within days or weeks after they initially declined to purchase.
As marketing has evolved from Kennedy's first edition in 1990 to today's digital landscape, he offers two critical cautions: first, don't abandon reliable offline sales letters for online media (calling this "slothful and stupid"), and second, recognize that fundamental selling principles remain unchanged across all media. He advocates for integration of online/offline strategies while maintaining that the same ingredients make sales copy work regardless of delivery method.
For online sales letters, Kennedy emphasizes understanding how online readers differ from offline readers. He contrasts the relaxed, focused experience of reading physical mail with the distracted, task-oriented nature of online browsing. While persuasive writing fundamentals remain consistent, the reader's intention and state of mind differ dramatically online, requiring special consideration to prevent them from clicking away.
Online sales letters require placing big benefits "above the fold"-the visible area without scrolling. Unlike offline letters where readers might read a full page or two, online you only have a couple paragraphs to grab attention. The layout must be optimized for easy reading with a single column format, large enough font sizes, black text on white backgrounds, shorter sentences and paragraphs, and frequent subheads and bullets filled with benefits.
Unlike print sales letters, online versions can be continuously improved without additional printing costs. Kennedy recommends regularly testing and optimizing based on traffic sources, customer needs, and referral patterns to continuously improve performance.
