I’ll bet you a steak at Ruth Chris it’s because of implied promise of title. That promise – that you’ll soon be privy to five well guarded secrets of writing great sales copy – just grabbed skeptic in you by scruff of neck. It stood her on her heels and made her think, if only for a split second, that maybe there’s some gold here.

So title – or headline if you prefer to think of it that way – did its job. It got you to read next sentence by arousing your curiosity. It probably made you feel that you could profit from these secrets. In other words it appealed to your sense of greed. And it might even have touched a couple of your other emotional triggers, like vanity or laziness, (or more positively) pride.

I don’t know you well enough to say exactly which emotional hot button it triggered in you, but you’re still reading aren’t you? So I’ll up ante. A bottle of good wine to go with steak says some basic emotion was triggered.

All of which leads us to Secret #1: People buy things for emotional, not logical reasons.

And emotions that count most are whichever ones your copy stirs up in your prospect. Your prospect doesn’t care one tiny little bit about you or your product. She could care less if she never heard from you again. What she cares about is that little voice inside her head that keeps asking, “What’s in it for me?”

Never forget this. Your copy must keep answering that question until your prospect is completely involved with your message. If your copy starts off telling about your product and not what it can do for your prospect, it is almost certainly doomed to failure.

Secret # 2: Good copy helps prospect picture your promise in her mind’s eye.

It isn’t good enough to just make a promise. You need to further involve your prospect by helping her picture herself experiencing your promise. She has to be able to see it, taste it, and feel it. Otherwise skeptic in her will step right back in and start giving her reasons to disbelieve your promise.

You need to tell her something like this:

“Imagine a hundred of your business peers jumping to their feet in wild applause as you accept your industry’s top marketing award. Then room grows still, audience hanging on your every word as you begin to tell story of how five powerful copywriting secrets changed your life…”

If you aren’t using one, you’re probably leaving money on table. So short answer is “yes.” A well written P.S. (for “post script,” literally meaning “after writing”) following your signature is your last chance to influence your prospect favorably and close sale. If it isn’t as strong as possible, these prospects may toss your letter aside or click to another website.

No marketer wants that to happen of course. So to avoid this unfortunate outcome, I recommend you put some serious thought behind your P.S. And one of first things you need to think about is changing your understanding of how P.S works.

Right now, you need to stop thinking of P.S. as last part of letter that anyone sees. Instead, think of it as one of first parts to be read. Then, imagine its effect on your prospect in that light.

What do I mean?

Oddly enough, opening headline and closing P.S. of your letter are often lumped together by your prospects. These widely separated parts of your letter are really Siamese twins of sorts, joined at hip. Studies of reading behavior have shown that many readers scan opening headline first, then jump right to P.S. to try and quickly figure out what letter is really all about.

Don’t you find yourself doing that sometimes?

This fact should raise an alarm somewhere in back of your mind. If your prospect is skipping “meat” of your letter and making a snap judgment based on P.S., that means your carefully constructed appeal has just been short circuited, right?

Not necessarily. The best sales letters make an emotional connection with intended prospects before any “selling” is done. That’s because people will generally buy something for emotional reasons, then justify their buying decision with logic. If your P.S. can ignite some emotion or sense of passion in your prospect, it can help bring your prospect back into rest of letter.

If it appeals only to logic, it may not be enough to get your prospect to go back to beginning of letter and ultimately, to decision to buy.

A well written, emotionally appealing P.S. can be called upon to do one or more of following, although this list isn’t exhaustive: