The Success Of Your Direct Marketing Business Rides On Your Sales Letter

If you sell anything through direct marketing, or you have copywriting clients that use direct marketing, the sales letter will make or break their livelihood. Of course you have to start with the right list of customers, but once you have that, the sales letter has to be perfect. Whether you are a seasoned copywriter or you’re just getting started, read on to find out more.
The sales letter is the window into the product and the customer’s mind all at the same time. With a properly written letter, you will be able to tug at multiple senses and emotions from the prospect. It’s like a dance. At the same time you are showing the prospect how your product will improve his/her life, you are also putting certain ideas in their mind. You are painting a picture of life without the product and showing how scary it could be. Your copy slowly takes the reader by the hand and says “hey, it’s OK follow me.” As you gently guide them through the letter, the customer feels like they are talking to a friend over coffee. Then, all of a sudden they are pulling out their credit card.
Sound too good to be true? Well, it shouldn’t, because this is exactly the mindset you need to be in when creating your sales material. Every day we are bombarded with thousands (yes thousands) of marketing messages. So, when you finally get your chance to step up to the plate and you have the full attention of the reader, even for just a few seconds, everything about your performance needs to be flawless.
Your headline has got to stop the person dead in their tracks. You can’t just put out a garbage-filled hype headline. You really need to plant an unanswered question in the customer’s head. They have to want more and keep reading. Once the customer is inside your copy, you need to tell a story that the customer can remember. Stories are a much easier way of carrying information with us. A list of facts and figures will just go in one ear and out the other. Of course you should include bulleted items explaining your benefits, but you need to also incorporate those benefits in your story. Just like an urban legend, stories are very portable and they stick in our minds. You want your sales copy to stick. You want your letter to plant a seed in the customer’s mind that really bothers them. You want it to bother them so much that they feel as if they must buy in order to scratch the itch. That’s how a real sales letter is done.