The Rules of writing an effective sales letter

Writing is a skill and, just like any other skill, anyone can learn how to do it. Writing effective and strong sales letters are not beholden only to those who dedicate their lives or have a natural proficiency.

Here’s how even you can learn.

 

The offer

Place your offer near the beginning because if it’s not then readers won’t feel compelled to read and further.

 

A different way to view your offer

To make things different you may want to experiment with what’s known as a “Johnson Box” It’s a sentence or two, often accompanied by an asterisk, which is positioned before the start of your piece. It gets that offer higher up the page so readers notice it earlier and therefore will be drawn to read more.

 

Personalise it

Using an individual’s name within a marketing piece is an incredibly effective way to make them feel that the offer is specifically for them. Generic greetings often lead to a piece being discarded.

 

Use You

Take that personal address further by making sure your piece uses the term ‘you’ as this drives home that feeling that you’re speaking directly to each individual as they’re reading. This has the knock-on effect of increasing the desire to follow the call to action.

 

Getting to the other side

A great way to essentially force a reader to turn over a page is to break a sentence midway through. Never finish a page with a full stop sentence. Try and build some kind of drama or suspense throughout the sentence to increase the chances that they’ll turn over to follow.

 

It’s not all about features

Within the main body of text you should put a priority on the benefits of your product/service. The best approach to take is to lay each point out in steps of feature, advantage then benefit.

 

Credibility

Social proof previous custom and service is one of the best ways to generate trust in readers so include testimonials and specific examples. Having excellent guarantees is an additional tool t settle any fears a reader may have.

 

Manageable Chunks

Divide your piece into easily digestible chunks, large blocks of text can be daunting to some readers. Make use of sub-headings to divide any particularly long segments of a piece.

The use of sub-headings also allows a reader to easily find the sections that are most interesting or relevant to them.

 

The Call to Action

Once you have, through your marketing piece, told the reader why your product/service will be advantageous and beneficial to them you need to show them how they can acquire it. Placing a simple directive to “call us now…” or “visit this website to get in touch…” will give the reader the prompt a prompt and guide them to the next step to becoming your customer.

 

Post Script

You might be surprised to find out that “P.S.” sections are the second most read area after the headline. Use it as another chance to drive home that call to action or what your offer is in the event that it might not have stuck at the first time of reading.

 

Next time you write a sales letter review it and make sure you’ve covered these 10 points in order to create the best chance of converting readers into customers.