Can a Different Opening Line in Your Product Sales Letter Double Your Response

Writing a great opening line can massively increase your response rate.

Most people know that headlines are important but every word and image that appears in that first screen shot or on that first page of your copy is absolutely vital.

Recently I rewrote a sales page used during a product launch for online split testing software guru Frank Bauer. The rewrite increased the response by around 100%.

Then we started split testing a few other changes. When we changed the opening line the response jumped by another 95%.

Never underestimate the power of an opening line.

Here's an opening line from a novel that kind of gets your attention...

"Long ago, shortly after my mother's blood was sluiced from the streets of Changeover and her body was burned upon a funeral pyre, I suffered what the experts called a 'breakdown.' That seems to be a woefully inadequate word to me."

Then in the same gruesome tone here's a great opener by brilliant copywriter Brian Keith Voiles where he talked about his surgery for a brain tumour...

"They Cut Across the Top of My Head From Ear to Ear, Peeled My Face. I thought I Had Died When I Saw Myself In the Mirror.."

When you read an opening line like that it forces you to keep reading.

In sales copy it pays to write the most compelling intriguing opening line you can devise.

How important are opening lines?

This opening line from a piece of offline sales copy by Clayton Makepeace made well over $2 million dollars in sales in the first year and turned Weiss research into a powerhouse in the financial field...

"While urging you to buy their shares, top executives at MICROSOFT... CISCO ... GENZYME ... SYMANTEC ... SEIBEL SYSTEMS ... RED HAT ... YAHOO ... and many other high tech companies ... are quietly dumping BILLIONS of dollars-worth of their companies' stock!"

This kind of opening line to your copy reminds me of what you might hear on a "tell all" style TV current affairs program (maybe even on 60 minutes).

When I was appearing on radio more regularly my host asked me a few times to do a show on various topics.

They were all topical and verging on this expose' style.

And they all elicited a huge response when we went to air

The show goes to 40 radio stations across Australia and they allow me to make a full pitch inside the show so I measured response in real live sales.

When I asked the host where she got these great story ideas she just said "I get most of my ideas from the current affairs show on TV".

Can you tie your copy into some edgy news story?

Can you create a more powerful opening line by using this expose' "news" based style.

It's worth considering.

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