Do you feel your blood pressure rising at the thought of writing yet another sales letter that probably won’t deliver results for your business? A few changes to the words you use can easily make your sales letter one that people won’t put down.
With this one sales tool, you can attract the attention of a potential customer, create rapport, build trust, trigger interest, and make a sale. Ready to see how that’s done?
Working on a new website? Be sure to download these 6 simple tips to help you save time and money during the process.
Tips and Tools
Sales letters must be easy to read. Organize yours around a simple format:
- The introduction: The purpose of your letter, and a note of thanks for reading it.
- The body: The explanation of why your offer is irresistible, what’s in it for them and why yours is the only company that can deliver what yours can. (Prove it. You can’t just make the claim.)
- The conclusion: A brief summary of your points, and the action you’d like them to take – contact you, buy now, check out your website or even welcome them to comparison shop. Heck. Give them the places to look.
Put real creative muscle into your opening line. The headline is 90 percent of the reason anyone will read more than that.
A few details necessary to stay true to your message:
- Keep it simple. You have one page to tell your story and make your request for a purchase. Use short sentences, active language, short paragraphs, and edit until you can see the bones of your offer.
- Focus on benefits not features. People don’t buy products or services. They buy the benefits of having them. Don’t sell a self-help book. Sell a lifetime of happiness with family and friends.
- Repeat important points. Help them remember why they’re reading your letter in the first place, but don’t be obnoxious.
- Be proactive. Anticipate objections and concerns. Answer them before they occur to your reader. Place them throughout the letter. Don’t lump them together or save them until the end.
- Ask for action. Your customer might not know what you want from them unless you tell them. Always ask for a response.
- Convey scarcity. If your offer is honestly limited due to availability or time-sensitivity, let customers know this and why.
- Create urgency. Include a deadline. If you’re running a promotion, offer the special for a limited time.
- Add a p.s. Studies show that readers start with a focus on the opening line and then often jump to a p.s. at the bottom of page. Create curiosity. Restate your key point or offer in this critical spot. Convey urgency with an “act now” reminder.
Be your customer as you write. Imagine yourself as the recipient of your letter. If you’re struggling on where to start, find some examples of sales letters that you’ve received. Focus on the pitch and not the product.
If you’d like to see a sample sales letter, see below for one that got a great response for a commercial printing company.
Let us know what you think. Tell us about your sales letters that have delivered results. If you’re willing to share, we want to hear the horror stories, too.
Sample Sales Letter
Greetings,
Thank you for opening this package. Yes, this is a pitch about the printed materials now lying on your desk. Even if you stop reading right here, keep them as our thanks for accepting the paper cut risk when you opened that envelope.
We’ve got an offer we hope you’ll find interesting. At the very least, we hope you have a couple of good laughs from our words.
Here’s the core of our proposal:
If your creative designs go un-printed, do they really make a sound?
When you put together a fantastic product for your clients, they should love you forever. But, sending them on their way with a presentation packet, a thumb drive filled with files, the name of a printer you like to work with and a promise to call could just be the end of your relationship.
Why not give your clients another reason to adore you? How about giving them a fantastic bonus? In our company lingo this is a “Corporate Identity Kit.”
The Corporate Identity Kit is our contribution to your clients’ continued devotion to you. The first time you reveal their new marketing look in living color on high-quality glossy paper that they can touch and taste (okay, drool on), you’ve probably hooked them for life.
These aren’t printed samples. They’re finished products customized to your specifications and in quantities your client can hand out around the office complex, even before they leave the parking lot.
The Corporate Identity Kit consists of:
- 5,000 8.5 X 11 tri-fold brochures
- 1,000 sheets of letterhead
- 1,000 #10 self-sealing envelopes
- 40-page 4 X 6 notepads
We negotiated very special pricing with our print vendors. (Really, we did!) Selfishly we wanted to share this deal with you, and give our printers even more work than they can handle. Selflessly, we thought this might mean another stream of income that could painlessly enhance your current cash flow.
We’re offering the Corporate Identity Kit, by invitation-only, for a mere $300.
(You then resell it to your clients at whatever price you chose.)
This offerisn’t available on our website, so you’ll need to call us for more information (800-xxx-xxxx). If you want to start your fact-finding right now, check out our website: www.wecouldbeyourprinter.com.
You’ll see most of what we print, and all of what we charge.
As we close in on your agreement to call us, here are just a few more features for you to consider:
- You’ll impress your clients even more with stacks of paper tangibles reflecting your creative genius.
- Your product will be in high-quality finished form, not just a two-dimensional reflection on a computer screen.
- You’re delivering even greater value for your services.
- You’re offering one-stop shopping that your clients won’t find anywhere else.
If you need any more reasons, please call us.
We’re an American-owned company. We partner with the best of the best commercial print shops. Our job is negotiating unmatched pricing with these partners, or they’re not our partners.
Just one final question: do you think your clients would be more excited about what you’ve just created for them if they see it in tangible forms like the ones lying on your desk right now?
If you have questions about our Corporate Marketing Kit, give us a call. We’d love to share our knowledge of hickeys, butt registers, ghosting, and scoring. We can talk about what makes a good double-bump, too. Or, we can just talk about your business.
Thanks for reading this far.
We Could Be Your Printer Dot Com
p.s. When this goes over big with your clients, feel free to tell them it was your idea.
Working on a new website? Be sure to download these 6 simple tips to help you save time and money during the process.