The order form is perhaps the most critical part of the sales letter.
It is the eye of the needle that your customer must pass through in order to go from lead to customer.
And customer to repeat buyer.
It doesn't matter what happens, your customers have to fill in the order form be it online, in print for your customer to mail back to you or calling your 1800 number (the customer service representative is still an order device - just live and interactive with all the benefits and risks that it brings).
So we can agree that if you want money from your customers (and if you are in business then I think you do) then perhaps making sure your order form is a specimen of peak performance might just be the way to go.
Three things a good order form has: 1) An acceptance statement that summarising the benefits.
"Yes, Zac I would like to buy your handy, dandy, steak knives...
" This is done to remind the prospect of the selling proposition.
Good order forms will then go on to restate the benefits associated with the selling proposition.
Even better use the benefits in the first statement.
It means that should for any reason your prospect 'cheat' and look at your order form, there is a chance that they will go back to the letter to read on about what they will get because the benefits you have listed are appealing to them.
Skimmers will skip to your order form.
So it needs to be able to draw them into your sales letter, the same as a subhead, bullet point, P.
S.
and headline.
2) The guarantee is clearly stated.
Make sure that the guarantee is clearly stated on your order form.
It will help to prevent buyer's remorse.
Or worse yet, the moment of hesitation some of us experience when we are buying certain items.
That hesitation can cost us sales - so we need to do everything we can to make the buyer feel as safe as houses, when they are about to put pen to paper.
The guarantee reminds the prospect that you are a nice upstanding type of person and that you will stand by the product even after you have their money.
So they will go ahead and buy.
3) Remember to create Urgency.
If they don't do it now then they are unlikely to do it later.
Urgency is vital to the order form's success.
So be sure that you give them a good reason to take action now and sign on the dotted line.
This is far easier than it ever used to be.
80 years ago you had to get them to fill in the form, find an envelope, address it, put a stamp on it walk to the post box and mail it.
Get samples of copy from the 1930's and before and pay attention to how it is written.
Those copywriters had it really hard compared to what we have today.