Great Leads Kickstart (Part 1): The Easiest Sales Letter, Facebook Ad, And YouTube Script You’ll Ever Write With AI

Ahoy, Digital Writers!

“If you are copywriter intent on improving your skills, don’t read this book…Memorize it.”

Bang! That’s the opening line in Michael Masterson and John Forde’s book, Great Leads: The 6 Easiest Ways To Start Any Sales Message.

“Great Leads” will help you:

• Write more compelling, stronger copy

• Increase the demand for your skills

• And ultimately earn more money

Big promise for a 200 page book!

Which is the point and the power of a great lead—to break through to the reader and funnel them into the writing in the first 200-500 words.

The lead is simply the beginning of the sales message. It makes good on the promise of the headline and then sets up the big idea for what you want to say or sell. Just like headlines, lead writing is a skill you can develop to improve the quality and effectiveness of your writing.

And today we are going to make writing a lead even easier with the help of AI—starting with the simplest one, the “Offer Lead.” But first, let’s take a look at all 6 types of leads and when you should use each one.

Let’s go!

The 6 Types Of Leads

Here’s a quick introduction to the lead types Forde and Masterson lay out in the book:

1. The Offer Lead: A direct invitation to buy, try, or join your product/service.

2. The Promise Lead: The best and biggest claim or benefit of your offer.

3. The Problem-Solution Lead: An appeal to your readers “hot buttons.”

4. The Secret Lead: Tease hard to come by knowledge or systems.

5. The Proclamation Lead: An indirect, bold opener to disarm your reader.

6. The Story Lead: An invitation thru story for readers unaware of your offer.

Each lead is designed to point the reader to the overarching benefit or promise of your product/service/offer.

Now, if you are thinking, “But I don’t having anything to sell.” Allow me to expand the idea of what an offer really is.

An offer is an agreement between two people to make an exchange—for anything.

• It can be a service.

• It can be a product.

• It can be an email address.

• It can be a “click” to read your writing.

In every single one of these cases, your reader, the customer is asking, “What are you “offering” me in exchange for my time, money, or attention?”

That’s it.

So, yes, these 6 types of leads are designed to help you sell an “offer.” But that doesn’t mean the exchange must be for $$$. Which means you can apply these leads to any kind of writing where you want to communicate a new idea.

Now, some of theses leads work best when you can take a more direct approach with the reader and some work best when you take a more indirect approach.

How Aware Your Customer Is Helps You Decide How Direct Your Lead Should Be

Before you writing anything, you need to ask two questions:

1. Who am I writing for?

2. What do they already know?

The answer to the second question will help you decide what type of lead to use based on the reader’s level of awareness.

According to legendary copywriter Eugene Schwartz, there are "5 Stages of Customer Awareness." The stages range from Unaware to Most Aware.

What your customer already knows (what they are aware of) will help you decide how to start the conversation.

For example, think about the last party you attended.

When you see a friend, you don’t re-introduce yourself—because they already know who you are. But when you meet someone for the first time, you tell them your name, where you’re from, who you know, how you ended up at the same party, what you spend your time doing when you aren’t at parties, and you look for shared interests and ideas that you can exchange.

Communicating in writing is no different.

And when you map the lead types to awareness, it looks like this:

When awareness is high, the reader is more receptive to your offer: “Pick the brains of a millionaire for $10.” And when awareness is low, the reader is more skeptical and therefore requires you to open the door to the relationship through story: “The Tale Of Two Young Men.” Everything else falls in-between.

Now that you know the 6 types of leads and how to decide which one to use, let’s take a look at the simplest type of lead you can write.

The Easiest Type Of Sales Letter You’ll Ever Write (Or Your Money Back)

The Offer Lead.

The “Offer” is your deal plus any guarantee (just like the sub-head above).

Why is it easy? Because the reader already knows, likes, and trust you. They are like the friend you run into at the party. You don’t have to ease your way into the conversation.

With an Offer Lead, you give the offer right up front.

Like this:

Is there any question about what’s being sold here?

No.

Just pay $1. The reader knows immediately what they are being “sold.” It’s direct. The big assumption here is that your reader knows who you are, what you do, and what you have to sell, they just need to know “the deal.”

When you have a good deal, it’s hard to screw up, which is another reason why this lead is so simple.

Second to the deal, is the reason why you are extending the offer in the first place.

• Are supplies running short?

• Does the offer have a deadline?

• Is there an event that makes the offer imperative?

Giving a good reason why answers the question you’ve probably asked a million times, “Awesome deal, but what’s the catch?” This removes any last bit of resistance.

Now, before we create one of these with AI, here are a few final tips:

• Focus on the most emotionally compelling detail of your offer. Emotion sells!

• Underscore the most valuable benefit of the deal. (Give the reader a reason to buy.)

• Elaborate on the deal-benefit in the lead. Include your reason why here.

• Highlight any guarantee to eliminate resistance.

• Stay short and make it easy.

Boom!

The Easiest Sales Letter Made Easier With AI

We are going to break this down into 3 step and write 3 different ads:

• A Sales Letter

• A Facebook Ad

• And a YouTube Ad script.

Let’s see if we can get our favorite AI LLM to give us hand, shall we?

Step 1: Pick An Offer

Think about your product or service.

What do you have to offer?

• A deal on your course: 50% off?

• A deal on your subscription service: 1 month free?

• A deal on your spare inventory: 300 watches for $2 each?

Pick something and move to the next step.

Step 2: Train ChatGPT To Write An Offer Lead Sales Letter

Once you have a product (and a target audience) you can run the following prompt in Bard, Claud, or ChatGPT. All of them will work. Fill in the details of your offer and optionally an offer guarantee.

Here’s the prompt: