Posted on: 02 December, 2001
Author: Meredith Pond
Sales letters are one of the most popular forms of advertisingtoday, and have been for some time. The reason for this issimple: they work. However, with no pure form and no specificrequirements for format, length, etc., writing a truly effectivesales letter can be a daunting task for even the most seasonedmarketing professional. To come up with a sales letter that sizzles without turning yourprospects off, there are a few general rules you'd be wise tofollow. First, let's talk about length. In my line of work, I see a lotof sales letters. Most of these are one to three pages long,which is generally appropriate for a sales letter. Just theother day, however, I got a call from a man who wanted to knowhow much I would charge him to edit his sales letter, complainingthat he just wasn't getting the results he wanted. When I askedhim how long the letter was, he replied, "it's about twelvepages." Twelve pages!! Would you want to be pitched to fortwelve whole pages? Yuck! When you sit down to write your sales letter, ask yourself howmuch patience you have when reading something of this nature.Would you get bored, even angry, if someone expected you to keepreading their sales letter for five pages? Three pages? Whenwriting your letter, be mindful of your target audience and theirschedules. If your prospects are unlikely to have more than fiveor ten minutes to devote to your sales pitch, try stick to onepage. Now let's talk hype. Most of the sales letters I've come acrossare full of hype, because that's what the customer wants. Hypecan be effective or ineffective, depending on your business andthe kind of people you're trying to sell to. If you're sellingan MLM business opportunity, hype can work well. On the otherhand, if your intended audience consists of savvy, experiencedbusiness people, you'll probably do better with a briefintroduction followed by an explanation of what your product orservice can do for their business. In either case, be careful about using too much bold type orscreaming your message at customers. Putting important points inbold type or caps can be an effective marketing tool, but onlywhen used in moderation. Exclamation points can also be helpful,but use them sparingly. When reading back through your letter,pay attention to the tone. If you feel you're being yelled at,tone it down a bit. A well-written, well-targeted sales letter can do wonders forsagging sales. For tips on writing effective sales letters, see http://www.drnunley.com/copywriting.htm. Article Tags: Sales Letters, Sales Letter Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com Meredith Pond is editor and manager of DrNunley's http://CheapWriting.com. See her low-cost writing and editing services for students and business people, including a web site rewriting package. Reach Meredith at [email protected] or 801-328-9006.