Writing a powerful sales letter part 2                                             Home

In part 2 we look at the how the letter copy is put together.

The Headline

Your readers time is short and you need to give them a reason to read your letter. Offer a quick benefit or two. Make sure your company logo does not dominate the top of the letter in a way that detracts from the headline. Promises make strong headlines, but make sure the letter delivers on the promise letter on.

The Salutation

Always personalise as much as possible. This is vital to get involvement from your reader.

The Opening Paragraph

This is where you say something to your reader about his problem or want, that your product or service can solve or gratify. Identify the problem/want for your reader and speak about it in a complicit and understanding tone. The tell him how you can solve or gratify it.

Do not talk about you or your business. Use an opening like "I am writing to tell you about.." and you have wasted your money.

The Copy

Your two tasks here are to reveal your offer gradually in the copy and to persuade your reader to act on that offer. Get into the benefits of your product straight away. Stay in the second person, addressing your reader about how you can satisfy their wants. Avoid too many factual arguments as they risk boring the reader. Try to mix emotional and factual benefits. Use short sentences. Use a list of bulleted text to summarise your features and benefits.

Subheadings

When you are moving from one section of your copy to another, use subheads to introduce the topic in the new section. As well as steering your reader through the structure of the copy, it will break up your text and make it look less daunting.

The Offer

When you have listed all the benefits of your product you then have to tell them everything that they need to know about how to obtain it. Go through the offer in detail. Be specific about what your reader gets. Add immediacy; give the reader a reason to act now. Finally, ask for the order. Check your offer section to make sure your customer has everything that they need to know to take up the offer. If you have guarantees, introduce them here to reassure the customers and persuade them to act. Nothing to loose can be a strong argument.

If you follow these guides, you can produce powerful sales letter that really produce a sales response from your customers. Remember though that responsible use of direct mail includes being careful targeting of offers at people who are likely to have a need for them. An untargeted approach will kill your campaign response levels. It will also damage the medium itself in the long run.

Users of direct mail should familiarise themselves with their data protection obligations and with the best practice guidelines of the Direct Marketing Association.

Back to part 1

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