If you aren’t using one, you’re probably leaving money on table. So short answer is “yes.” A well written P.S. (for “post script,” literally meaning “after writing”) following your signature is your last chance to influence your prospect favorably and close sale. If it isn’t as strong as possible, these prospects may toss your letter aside or click to another website.

No marketer wants that to happen of course. So to avoid this unfortunate outcome, I recommend you put some serious thought behind your P.S. And one of first things you need to think about is changing your understanding of how P.S works.

Right now, you need to stop thinking of P.S. as last part of letter that anyone sees. Instead, think of it as one of first parts to be read. Then, imagine its effect on your prospect in that light.

What do I mean?

Oddly enough, opening headline and closing P.S. of your letter are often lumped together by your prospects. These widely separated parts of your letter are really Siamese twins of sorts, joined at hip. Studies of reading behavior have shown that many readers scan opening headline first, then jump right to P.S. to try and quickly figure out what letter is really all about.

Don’t you find yourself doing that sometimes?

This fact should raise an alarm somewhere in back of your mind. If your prospect is skipping “meat” of your letter and making a snap judgment based on P.S., that means your carefully constructed appeal has just been short circuited, right?

Not necessarily. The best sales letters make an emotional connection with intended prospects before any “selling” is done. That’s because people will generally buy something for emotional reasons, then justify their buying decision with logic. If your P.S. can ignite some emotion or sense of passion in your prospect, it can help bring your prospect back into rest of letter.

If it appeals only to logic, it may not be enough to get your prospect to go back to beginning of letter and ultimately, to decision to buy.

A well written, emotionally appealing P.S. can be called upon to do one or more of following, although this list isn’t exhaustive:

What on earth could it be? Well, it's my trusty notebook! It is where I store all of my ideas.

Let me give you some examples. If I come across an email, even if it's sp*am, and headline made me open up that email then by golly I will write that headline down in my notebook for future reference.

If headline made me open email then you can be sure others will open it as well. So in my trusty notebook I record all email headlines that have captured my attention.

This way next time I am writing an email to my list or prospects etc. or if I am stuck for a headline, all I have to do is refer to my notebook which has plenty of headlines to choose from.