Sales Letters That Work

Sales letters are letters sent directly to a prospective customer, inviting him to buy a product. They are an important part of direct mail marketing and hence are very popularly used to get the people to use your products, and thus this marketing strategy helps improve your sales.

Tips for Writing Sales Letters

Getting them to work for you is the tough part here. Because, unlike a direct sales person, or a direct phone call, the sales letter has little scope for persuasion and doesn't really answer any cross-questions which the prospective buyer may ask. So, that way, making a sales letter work for you can be a little too hard for those not proficient in persuasive writing.

The Layout
The first thing which a reader will see, before the punchline and the name of the product is the layout. If the layout is appealing and creates interest and a need to find out more in the mind of the reader, the sales letter will at least get a second look. A sales letter written on a dirty piece of paper with an uninteresting small font will probably never work. So, write our sales letter on a good piece of paper. Format it well by using the bold, italics, underline and font changes subtly to your advantage. The challenge here is to emphasize on the right stuff and at the same time, to not make it look gaudy. If you feel that it goes with your product, you may perhaps want to explore the idea of making a custom-shaped paper rather than going for the standard A4.

The Hook
The first line/paragraph is the hook. If your reader likes the first line and finds that it arouses interest in him, then he will read on. The most common mistake people make while writing sales letters is that they write a terribly sensational first paragraph. Which in my opinion is a terrible idea because it gives the opinion that you are sensationalizing something which is actually very ordinary. Instead, you ought to opt for giving the reader a glimpse into the awesomeness that is your product. Talk about a rare feature, or something which the reader is perhaps looking for.

Content
Often sales letters contain a lot of waffle. So, a sales letter which actually contains details, specifications and more tangible aspects of the product or service on offer will be a refreshing change for the reader. Focus on numbers as they really catch the eye. Think up what questions could crop up in the mind of the reader and cover them in the FAQs section.Talk about the features and don't be afraid to disclose the prices. Sales letter writers often hide the price, but by disclosing it, your letters seems a lot more honest and straightforward.

References
By writing references of people, the positive experience they had while using the product, and their overall satisfaction with it, it lends the product credibility and trust. And these 'reviews' are often made up, so if your product doesn't have them, it's okay! Just write your own review and a pretty common sounding name to sign it off. Most people know that the references are a bluff, but people still continue to fall for those.

The End
Sales letters are completely oozing with appeal to the reader to buy the product. So, obviously the way to end it is with an offer which the reader may not be able to refuse. So, you can offer a sizable discount, a free trial or a one plus one free offer. End it with something that tells the reader that this is not an offer he ought to miss!

Length
Sales letters usually ought not to be more than a couple of pages long. Because a sales letter which is longer than that will simply be too boring!

So, what are you waiting for? Grab this amazing marketing opportunity and write a sales letter which will definitely appeal to the readers!