JASON DROHNA great way to do this is to ask them two or three Yes or No questions that
would appeal to your ideal buyer. Preferably, an interested person's answer to the
questions should be Yes. Basic psychology and persuasion teaches that getting
your prospect to say Yes helps get them to take action when it comes to making
a purchase or taking whatever action you want them to.
For example, say you're selling a weight loss system for men. Consider this
opening:
Are you happy with your body? Do you like how you look with your shirt
off?
Those questions are getting close to your ideal buyer, but they are phrased
wrong, because the man who wants to lose weight is likely to answer No to
both. Here is a better way to phrase them:
Are you tired of being fat and flabby? What would your life be like if you
looked great with your shirt off?
See the difference there? With the second version, you'll get a resounding Yes to
both questions, and you will also have your viewer imagining how great his life
is going to be. He can probably already picture himself surrounded by models in
bikinis, without you saying anything remotely like that.
If you already have a sales letter for your offer, you can usually come up with a
good opener for your VSL by simply rephrasing the headline as a question.
People tend to use statements or claims as headlines, like this:
Amazing New Weight Loss System Will Have You Shedding Pounds in No
Time!
We can rephrase that for the VSL something like this:
Would You Like to Shed Those Extra Pounds in No Time Flat?
I think you get the idea. For a real VSL I would probably add another question
before that one, like this:
Are You Tired of Being Overweight? Would You Like to Shed Those Extra
Pounds in No Time Flat?
See how the first question naturally flows into the second? In some cases you
can chain together several questions like that which lead nicely into the meat of
your VSL.
Another key difference between a text-based sales letter and a VSL is that the
former is often dominated by bullet points. Sometimes a majority of the text is
found in bulleted lists.