Bullet Points That Sell
How to write bullet points (The Silent Salesman) that forcefully grab people's attention, make them curious, build unstoppable interest, and fascinate them into buying your product.
This opt-in page generated millions of dollars for Eban Pegan, a veteran marketer.
What's in it?
Just a headline, bullet points, and a sign-up box.
The whole page is basically just these powerful bullet points.
Yep!
Writing powerful bullets is the single most important skill in copywriting, right after writing the heading.
For instance, check out these fantastic bullets:
The seven silent signals of a heart attack no one ever talks about.** How to know when it's time to head to the ER.
How to quickly talk your way out of anything (even lipstick on the collar!)
What to never do with your business card, and why. (If you get this wrong, people will walk away and you’ll never hear from them again.)
The ONLY strategy, supported by millions of statistics across various industries and imaginable niches, that increases Google CTR by a whopping 36%. (Mine)
What never to do immediately after exercising (if you want to avoid a heart attack).
What are these bullets doing?
They beg you to ask questions. What? Tell me! I want to know what never to do immediately after exercising.
Each of these bullets makes some segment of your audience think, "I've got to know that.”
These bullets leave you with a ton of questions, making you really want to know the answers. It's like a burning desire that won't go away until you get those answers.
In short: These powerful bullets create pressure that drives people to make a purchase.
There’re (literally) hundreds of bullet types, but here are 7 you can use right now and see the magic happen.
7 Proven Bullet Formulas (By The Best Writers In The Business)
Practice these first 3 bullets.
#1) The “Two-Step” Bullet
It's a two-step process: 1) Start with your main curiosity statement. 2) Amp up curiosity by adding a "why" in parentheses.
Examples:
What to never do with your business card, and why. (If you get this wrong, people will walk away and you’ll never hear from them again.)
Do you take any of these 6 popular vitamins or supplements? (If so, please read this M.D.’s urgent warning)
The only thing holding you back from your first seven figure course. (If you can overcome this one obstacle, you can finally set your own hours, stop trading time for money, and start selling profitable online courses…)
#2) The “Truth” Bullet
Use this when you want to settle an argument. Choose info that confuses your reader. Then, give a clear solution with the "Truth." People like reading about debates or debunking common beliefs.
Examples:
THE TRUTH ABOUT EGGS. Should you eat them? Should you avoid them? This incredibly common lie about cholesterol will shake you to your core.
THE TRUTH ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS. What your broker doesn’t tell you could cost you up to 5% this year.
THE TRUTH ABOUT ALCOHOL. Will it interfere with muscle growth? Will it help your heart and circulatory system? See page 27.
#3) The “Quickest, Easiest” Bullet
Here, you reveal the quickest or easiest way to achieve a positive result. We all want things to be easier and faster, especially in today's instant-gratification world!
Examples:
The easiest way to beat out even the most ferocious competition in your marketplace, even when their marketing is brilliant, their budget huge and their copy is so persuasive, even it could have been written by Claude Hopkins himself.
And finally, the easiest way to be a master of persuasion — the simple, 2 word sentence that will make you one of the most persuasive people on the planet, no matter what field you're in. This is the "master secret" of knowing how to persuade almost anyone to do almost anything
The quickest, easiest way to relieve migraine pain. Just add this to a glass of water and drink it. Almost instantly corrects a common yet overlooked headache trigger.
Then practice these 4 bullets.
#4) The “How-To Bullets”
This is a top-performing bullet type. It taps into our natural curiosity for "how to" info, especially when it connects with our deepest feelings and desires.
Examples:
How to uncover large new “starving crowds” of prospects who spend like sailors on leave.
How you can increase your chances of success when launching a new product by 300%-500% with another simple strategy. Yet very few marketers, even veterans, have ever heard of this.
How to harness today’s most powerful secrets of viral marketing (where your prospects and customers become your enthusiastic sales force).
How to use the "Gun To Your Head" theory of marketing to make sure every advertising method you use is as close to 100% sales-perfection as it can get!
#5) The “Right ... WRONG!” bullet
Here, suggest an idea, then quickly debunk it with "WRONG!" It's great because everyone wants to know why they might be wrong, especially if there's a big benefit in knowing the right answer!
Examples:
Sneezing into a tissue prevents colds, right? Wrong! Page 2 explains why.
Eating lots of salt in your diet is bad for your blood pressure, right? Wrong! We’ll explain why when you order our special report.
When you're selling a cheap product, you can just stick a "Buy Now" button on your sales page and call it a day, right? WRONG. In page 2, I'll explain why this never works. Plus, I share a little experiment to prove it to you.
#6) The “Single” Bullet
Use this when you have information or a benefit that stands out above all others, and you've got proof. If the benefit is powerful and there's credibility, who wouldn't want that?
Examples:
The SINGLE most important advertising question. Just five simple words, but they trigger more giant breakthroughs than any other sentence ever spoken.
The single most important vegetable you can eat for healthy eyes (no, it's not carrots! JAMA study shows it cuts your risk of macular degeneration by a whopping 43%.
The ONLY strategy, supported by millions of statistics across various industries and niches imaginable that increase Google CTR by a whopping 36%. (Written by Rahul Giri)
A Stupid SIMPLE strategy to explode your organic CTR by 137% across nearly any niche (Mine)
#7) The “Secret” Bullet
This formula is great when you have info that's not widely known, a genuine "secret." People especially love knowing secrets, especially when their desires are linked to them.
Examples:
The greatest advertising secret ever discovered, and how it can make each of your advertising dollars do the work of nine or ten.
Discover a little-known system for finding a trending “hero” product that made $4.5 million in 12 months (without procrastinating, guessing, or wasting money on an idea that’s destined to fail! And best of all – you don’t need an existing following or big budget)
The secret of “that schoolgirl complexion” revealed! This is the natural compound you must have for health, beauty and long life. Develops that youthful beauty from within.
"Plus, enjoy 2 bonus bullets to enhance your bullet writing skills further."
Bonus #1) The “Number” Bullet
Use these bullets when you can put together different ways, secrets, or reasons for something.
Examples:
The 20 safest banks in the U.S.— and the lemons, which spend their time lending to third world deadbeats... and real estate hucksters.
The 7-step formula that even an illiterate drop-out can use to write advertising copy 100 times more potent than the best Madison Avenue ad agency!
20 Guaranteed Ways to increase readership and response to your sales letters and ads... without touching your current copy
9 steps to protect your home-based business from the IRS. Plus, one risky pitfall to avoid.
Bonus #2) The “PLUS” Bullet
The "PLUS" bullet is a greed trigger, putting your prospect in the mindset of more, more, MORE! It's not super unique; essentially, it's like other formulas but with a PLUS at the start. Best used at the end of a list for a strong finish.
Here’s an example from 32 Proven Social Media Post Ideas ebook by Peng Joon.
Get a peek behind the scenes to see how we create our social media posts and discover the reasons driving our choices (there are MANY reasons behind it!).
PLUS How to get more people to engage and buy from you...without being sales-y in your posts!
PLUS The little changes that will make big differences in your marketing efforts that creates a huge tidal effect change over time
PLUS Quickly boost BOTH your comments AND conversions by adding this ONE thing to your headline…
PLUS The #1 REASON why people buy (In fact, you can boost BOTH your engagement AND conversion by adding this ONE thing to your headline...)
PLUS much more
Action Items
Now, think:
"What 'Two Step' bullets can I write? What's the quickest, easiest bullet? How about a 'Right ... WRONG!' or a 'PLUS' bullet? What about a How-To? What Truth bullet i can write?
Follow the tips in the article and start writing. In fact, if you need five or six bullets, jot down thirty or forty.
How? Write 3-4 bullets for each formula I shared earlier and pick the best five or six.
Some may overlap, but that's okay—you’re expressing the same ideas differently.
Here's a tip:
Your first bullet won't be as good as your tenth, twentieth, or fiftieth!
The secret?
Practice, practice, PRACTICE. You'll become a killer bullet writer in no time!
If you can write great bullets, you can easily write catchy headlines, engaging openers and closers, and attention-grabbing subject lines.
In fact, many top-notch copywriters start with bullets. That way, when it's time to create a headline, you've got loads of options, maybe even hundreds.
PLUS i highly recommend creating your own bullet swipe files. Add to it whenever you find a great example or when bullets work well for you.
This will turn you into a fantastic copywriter, consistently creating A+ bullets every time you start writing one!
Now it’s you turn
I want you to come and leave a comment on this post and let me know which one you're gonna try first, and if you already did, how it went.
And i have a request:
Do you have a friend or colleague that's struggling to write sales (or product) pages?
Send them a link to this post.
They'll thank you for it, and I'll thank you for it.