There are five powerful techniques that will add compelling strength to your sales copy. I'm even going to tell you a hidden benefit technique. But first, a word of caution: When these techniques are properly applied, they are the most powerful marketing strategies in the world bar none. You stand a good chance of increasing sales so much that you may experience order fulfillment challenges. Be sure you can promptly fulfill the extra orders you are bound to generate!

Magic Technique #1 -- The Single Most Compelling Benefit

The strategy I'm about to reveal to you has to do with your headlines. First, let's do a quick review of the process of creating them.

Study your product. Write down all the obvious benefits (from the prospect's point of view) on 3" X 5" cards. Write as many as you can. Often, you'll have the best headline you could ever find from this procedure. If so, prepare your ad with the obvious benefit headline.

You'll also want to try creating a hidden benefit headline to test against the obvious benefit headline. You can find the hidden benefit by answering this question: "If I had unlimited God- like power, what would be the single most compelling benefit my prospects would like to gain from my product?"

The hidden benefit has nothing directly to do with the product itself -- but the answer to the previous question can become your most powerful benefit -- and thus your headline, as well as the main theme of your offer. Just make sure your product actually delivers on the headline's promise.

By using this special strategy, I've written some of the most successful headlines in direct marketing history.

Magic Technique #2 -- Add power to headlines

Studies show that an ad headline draws 28% more attention if framed in quotation marks! The ad appears much more important because it gives the impression that someone is being quoted. This makes it more riveting, and more likely to be read. And that is your first task – to get it read. If the ad is not read, you have no chance of making a sale.

Magic Technique #3 -- Ask for the order

Unsuccessful marketers are reluctant to ask for the order. For any offer to be successful, you must be clear and explicit as to how you ask for the order. Include every detail, even if it seems obvious to you. Make it easy for the prospect to buy. It's also important that when you ask for the order, the prospect should have been primed for the close. The sequence of presenting copy elements (and hot buttons) is crucially important.

In your sales letters, you must wait until the end to reveal the price and ordering instructions. This puts them in the proper frame of mind to buy because you would have given all the benefits and particulars your prospect needs prior to asking for the order.

If your offer includes a brochure and an order form, separate them from the letter. This strategy will increase response. If you're using direct mail, put the brochure and order form in a sealed envelope. On the outside of the envelope, print the following: "Please don't open until you have read my letter." If your sales letter is online, include a link to a separate order page.

Magic Technique #4 -- Typefaces are important

In direct mail, headlines should be in Times-Roman font, serif, or sans serif typefaces. The body copy should always be Times Roman. Reason? On the written page, it's easy to read. Never use a sans serif typeface in body copy.

On websites, the sans serif typefaces such as Arial and Verdana seem to work best because they are more inviting to read in a sea of cyber-clutter.

Strive for an editorial look. The ad should appear similar to an article in the publication in which your ads will run. I call this format an "advertorial." Five times as many people read editorials than messages that scream out, "I'm an ad!" If an advertorial is prepared in a way that lends credibility, it can pull up to 500% more in sales!

Magic Technique #5 -- Pricing your product

Here is a really powerful tip that will increase your profits. You may have noticed that the price of my books and tapes ends in 7. There is a good reason for this. Remarkably, with the same copy and offer for any given product, I have proven time and again through testing that you can increase sales simply by changing the price to one ending in the number 7.

Recently at a seminar wherein I spoke, my co- speaker, Gil Good (in charge of promotions for The Wall Street Journal for many years), discussed that subscription offers ending in 7 out-pulled all others. At my last seminar, an attendee, a biblical scholar, pointed out the number seven was often used in the Bible. Remember the phrase, "70 X 7"? Seven may be a number that is truly blessed! The most effective magazine subscription offer, made many years ago, was by Life Magazine – and its price was .77.

Test price this way: If your current price is .95, try .97. If you now sell at , test or ; or if your price is , try , etc.!

Ted Nicholas, widely recognized as one of the greatest direct marketing wizards of all time, is best known for having earned 24.5 million dollars on the sale of a single book which was primarily sold through direct mail.