Business: Sensational Sales Letters Still Sell

Sensational Sales Letters Still Sell

Written by Marcia Yudkin

With repparttar

rise in popularity of email, last year's anthrax problem and ever-increasing postal rates, many people assume that direct mail is dead. Not so! Postal sales letters delivered by mail carrier rather than digital networks still have an important place in many marketing programs. For one thing, many more very precisely targeted "snail mail" lists are available than for email. For another thing, some populations don't trust any offers coming to them on their computer. So here are my top tips for crafting an effective sent-by-mail sales letter.

The four most important ingredients of a sales letter are an attention-getting headline, a specific offer, a call to action and a P.S.

The headline, placed before repparttar 106214 salutation, should make a claim or a promise that ties in with recipients' needs and interests. For instance:

Whatever repparttar 106215 Language, We'll Get Your Message Across Right -- And With 25 Percent Savings repparttar 106216 First Time You Hire Us!

We'll Prepare Those Pesky 1099s and W-2s for Your Business Right Away -- Absolutely Free!

Finally, an Organization That Fights Like Crazy to Protect and Heal Abused Children!

Your letter needs a clear and compelling offer, an explicit transaction that you are inviting repparttar 106217 reader to make. Don't write what I call a "Hello, I exist" sales letter. Here's an example of an offer:

For only $29.95 you can have unlimited use of our health club for one month, along with a one-hour private session with one of our certified fitness trainers.

Your P.S., which is repparttar 106218 second most read element in repparttar 106219 letter after repparttar 106220 headline, should mobilize repparttar 106221 reader to act now. Provide an incentive for acting fast, or toss in an additional bonus. For instance:

Issues Managers Can Anticipate at the Holidays

Written by Susan Dunn, Professional Coach

Here are some issues that most managers will need to be addressing this time of year.

1. Depression. While depression is prevalent throughout repparttar year, seasonal depression will exacerbate with repparttar 106213 holidays and with less daylight hours.

2. Drinking on repparttar 106214 job.

3. Increased absenteeism. Time off for shopping, to recover from repparttar 106215 weekend, from general exhaustion, etc.

4. Upper management with their ample accrued time-off will all be out of repparttar 106216 office. Owners, CEOs and others who have 4 weeks or more to take off during a year may save it for this time of year intentionally or will have to work it in to use it so they don't lose it.

5. Shopping online.

6. Budget problems. This is a difficult time of year where money is concerned. There may be either no money because it's all used up, or money that needs to be quickly spent.

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