One of the most common ways to start off a sales copy is with the salutation, like Dear Reader, or Dear Marketer, or whatever.

Well, guess what? This is totally what you’re NOT supposed to do.

The truth is, this is the worst way to start off your sales copy and the quickest way to kill conversions.

You’re not writing a letter to somebody. You’re telling them about how you can solve their problem. So, how can you do this effectively?

Probably the best way to do this is to start off by telling a story. It can be about you or it can be about somebody else who was having the same problem as you were having. Most likely, it’s the same problem that your prospect is having. Take a look at this sales copy I recently came across:

I was out of work, out of luck and out of money. If I had a gun in the house, I would have put it to my head and slowly squeezed the trigger...

Or something like this:

If you could be shown a FOOL PROOF system for generating a consistent and steady income on the Internet, would that be worth just 5 minutes of your time?

Don't you agree that's a much more powerful way to open a sales letter than "Dear Sir/Madam?"

So just skip the dopey salutation and get right down to business!