Direct Mail Sales Letters...
If You're Not Using Them,
You Should Start

Effective sales letters are certainly one of the most productive marketing tools to sell your product or service. Although widely used in business, many small business owners incorrectly conclude that they won't work for them.

The fact is they do work. It's just that poorly written ones don't normally generate any response.

Marketing experts have pretty much always known that direct mail such as a letter is a very effective way to sell. It's a marketing approach that you can test, track and when done correctly can generate great profits.

Most small business owners would agree that the best chance you have for selling to a prospect is face-to-face. You are able to ask questions about their situation, determine their needs, and tailor your message to address their concerns. But how do you reach those people who may have never heard of you or your business before?

The Answer Is With Effective Sales Letters

In order to be effective, the words you write must keep your audience interested in what you are offering and then persuade them to act. In fact, getting your reader to take action should be the whole objective of writing in the first place.

Key Elements of an Effective Sales Letter

Consider the following preparation factors:

1) Know who your clients and prospects are. I hope you're not trying to be all things to all people, because it just doesn't work. Be clear on who you want to help and what you want to help them get done. What are your clients and prospects problems, pains, issues, and challenges?

2) Have a clear definition of success from your clients' perspective. What does it look like for your client before your product or service and what do things look like after?

3) What is your strategic differentiator? What is the one real benefit your client gets that differentiates you from everyone else out there? What is the true result (the outcome) they get from working with you?

4) What are all the reasons they should buy from you and what are the reasons they won't buy? The more clear you are about not only your features and benefits, but also the potential obstacles and objections to buying, the more prepared you'll be to address them.

5) What are the risks and what are you prepared to do to lower or eliminate them? Risk is what prevents most people from buying. When you take steps to help your prospects lower or elimate these risks, your response will go way up.

Here are some other basic elements to creating sales letters that are compelling and more likely to be read and responded to:

Personalize - I think this is particularly relevant for small businesses. The more personal and friendly you make the letter, the more it will get read and acted upon. This includes things like using the recipient's name multiple times in the letter and hand addressing the envelope. I hand address virtually all of my envelopes and have found it completely worth the extra effort.

Headlines and Fonts - Use headlines to grab the recipient's attention. It's important to note that people tend to scan quickly. So your headline, particularly if it ties to your prospect's problem or desired result, is designed to get them to slow down. Then your headline needs to pull them in and get them to want to read on.

If you're struggling with writing powerful headlines, go check out Headline Creator Pro . It's the fastest and easiest way to create 100 killer headlines in about 17 seconds.

The wise use of fonts and effects like bolding and bullets can draw your reader's attention to specifics in the letter you want to be sure they don't miss.

Be Clear About Your Offer - Grab their attention and generate interest from the start. If your letter does not engage your reader immediately, it may not get read. Consider how many times you've started reading a letter and because you couldn't tell where it was going after the first few sentences, you flipped it over or glanced back in the envelope to see if there was a $100 bill before you threw it away. Your letter needs a clear and compelling offer that gets them to take action now.

Use Success Stories, Case Studies, and Testimonials - They can help convince your reader that you're able to deliver on what you say and that the results are worth taking action.

Call to Action - Get your reader to action NOW! Tell them what to do, restate benefits, restate your risk reversal, tell them how long they have to act, and make it easy for them to respond.

Include a P.S. - Most recipients will read the P.S. either first because they're peeking to see who wrote the letter, or read it second because they read your headline first. Therefore, here's a great chance to restate the main offer, the primary benefits, and your call to action.

Above All, Use The Right Words

You want to sell more? Use better words and learn to use them more effectively. Ken Evoy's powerful course

Make Your Words Sell

will show you how to become more persuasive and sell more.

Make it easy for your prospects to take action by creating sales letters that deliver your message perfectly every time.

Still not sure you can do it? Check out Instant Sales Letters or Sales Letter Generator . You learn how to create instant sales letters in just minutes - without writing!

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