What wikipedia can't tell you about sales letters

What Wikipedia Can't Tell You about Sales Letters?

Marketing Basics by BRAINSTORM


79% of marketers say their email open rates don't exceed 20% - HubSpot

You have written a sales letter which you think will knock out that long awaited business deal. But remember, there is always a modified version of sales letter.

The sales letter is the most important element in any direct mail package, done well and your simple letter can provide fantastic results. So before you mail it out have a look at this presentation which will help to maximize your selling efforts.

Things you need to stop doing right now while drafting a sales letters

Things you need to stop doing right now while drafting a sales letters

Before we start explaining what are the important factors you need to incorporate in a sales letter let us tell you where you are

probably going wrong.

What you need to stop doing…

• Using a template

Here is why you shouldn’t use a template for sales letter-

They are stale & boring.

They are easily available over the internet.

And chances are your prospect has already received the same template.

Rather I would advise you to go through multiple templates and extract all the necessary structure/points you will need to make a custom letter.


• Being Vague

When you are selling something you need to perfectly explain how your product/service is important for prospect, and you need to do it asap.

Back your pitch with resources such as facts, stats, case studies, research papers, etc.

If they don't need it, or can't see that they need it, they won't think the purchase is worth it.

People want SOLUTIONS, not products!


• Bragging.

Prospect doesn’t want to hear about you, your company, your services, your achievements, etc. All you need to talk about is your prospect.

Rather than bragging about your achievements, make your prospect specifically understand-

- How important is the solution?- How will be the solution?- How it will be valued?

Your credibility will be questioned in the later stage once your sales pitch has worked.


• Generic letters for everyone.

A Sales letter needs to establish THAT personal connection with the prospect in order to take him ahead in through the buying cycle.

The draft you made worked for a few prospect but that doesn’t mean you start sending out generic letters.

Personalization often includes more than just addressing the prospect with his/her name. Congratulate on their promotion, talk about their job title, and pointing out their mistakes will certainly make you notice.

Many marketers believe that making a regional reference really works.


• Fancy Graphics.

Prospect doesn’t want to know how good you are at designing and color schemes. Know the difference between brochure and sales letter.

Adding graphics MAY work if you are working in a creative industry.

Putting in one or two clean pictures for your product explanation might work, but keep the usage of pictures to minimum.


• Grammatical errors & Typos.

With Grammatical errors in the sales letter you just throw your professional credibility out of the window.

“You are really determined to help me, but you could not even scan the sales letter copy for grammatical errors& typos before sending it to me” -The Prospect

“Average response rates range between 1% to 3%, but can be as low as 0.25% for high value items or in a very competitive market, or as high as 25% when dealing with

current customers.”- Canadian Marketing Assoc.


Alright now lets see how you should actually draft a sales

letter.

How to write a Sales Letter…

• Adding an opening statement.

If you don’t nail the headline (the single most important part of your sales letter), no one will stick around for the rest.

Be creative in putting together a statement that readers will not be able to ignore.

There are 3 ways you can open your letter, go with what suits you best-

- Ask a Question.- Be direct and to the point.- Build rapport along

On average, 8 out of 10 people will read opening line, but only 2

out of 10 will read the rest.

- HubSpot


• What your prospect wants?

You are relying on this letter to convince someone to get in touch with you even though they have probably never met you. Know the prospect history.

Make sure the prospect really needs what you are selling, give prospects concise to the point answers on why they need what you are selling.

Try to focus on explaining benefits than features.

“Unless you can pinpoint what makes your business unique in a

world of homogeneous competitors, you cannot target your sales efforts successfully.”

- Entrepreneur.com


• No, You really need an USP.

Find out what is your USP not just by studying what your customers want, but also by considering what your competitors fail to deliver.

Unless the client doesn’t know what makes you better than the competitors he won’t be interested.

USP is usually misunderstood, price is not the only element in USP there can be others too like- Service, Quality, Support, luxury touch, exclusive rights, etc. There are number of ways you can determine your USPs, dig more.

If done right, your USP can become your tagline just like

these brands did-

"You get fresh, hot pizza delivered to your door in 30

minutes or less—or it's free."

“When your package absolutely, positively has to get there

overnight."

"Melts in your mouth, not in your hand."


• Length of the sales letter

Remember, you are acquiring a lead and not closing the deal, this will help you to keep track of length of your sales letter.

There is no way to determine accurate length of sales letter, but as a rule of thumb keep it to minimum.

The length differs according to the prospect persona, some prefer right to the point letters while some expect detailed information.

I personally have received much responses from LinkedIn prospect for the sales letters which took 4 second to read.

Email to a house list averaged: -19.47 percent open rate;- 6.64 percent click-through rate;- 1.73 percent conversion rate;

-With a bounce-back rate of 3.72 percent and an unsubscribe rate of 0.77 percent.

- DMA stats 2010


• Include call to actions

Adding your name and contact details at the end of the letter doesn’t count as a call to action.

Throughout the sales letter you can include various CTA’s to pull your prospect. Some CTA’s may include adding a link to your Blog, Website, Article, Infographics, etc. On a relevant topic.

Don’t leave your reader guessing; tell them what you want them to do next. I have noticed that adding a simple statement in the end such as-“ Next step: Give us a call to review the proposal- (Contact Number)”yields higher rate of responses.

There is no perfect way to draft a sales letter…

Yeah, that’s right! There is no definite path to earn responses for your sales letters. But these guidelines will definitely help you to overcome all the major obstacles.

Its all about how you convey the message to the client just like telling a story. Bottom line for a perfect sales letter would be- Connect personally with the prospect and effectively make use of the CTAs you have.

Thanks for coming all the way to the 26th slide, as a reward I am going to let you out a secret on how to master the art of creating the

ultimate sales letter which work.

Psst… Here is a secret!

So here is the secret to create kickass Sales Letters-

Try. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

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Thank You.

- Akash H.

https://www.facebook.com/hande.akash

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