Marketing letters are about marketing – building awareness of your product or service – not direct sales. It needs to build up awareness in the mind of the reader, and give them a way to express their interest in whatever it is you’re selling. The aim here is to be compelling to the customer or reader.
However, it is time to get realistic. It is very unlikely that one marketing letter is actually going to be all that it takes to convince somebody to go and buy a product or service from your website without any further prompting. It can, and sometimes does happen, but that is in the minority. Nine times out of ten, the initial marketing letter is more to do with creating awareness; opening a door, or at least leaving the door ajar for further communication.
What you are doing in effect, is building a mini campaign. Nobody likes to feel that they are being bulldozed into doing anything. It’s rather like going to into a shop, or wandering onto a used car lot, and a sales person descending on you immediately with the immortal words: “Can I be of assistance?” which occasions the immortal reply: “No thanks I’m just looking”.
If you try to hard sell or push on your marketing letter, the damage will have already been done. The customer will leave the store, or throw your marketing letter into the waste bin or delete it from their inbox.
Your first marketing letter needs to avoid the hard pitch. Your recipient has never heard of you before. You have no rapport, they have no reason to trust you, and you have no insight into what they want. You’re cold calling.. Don’t force it, give them something interesting to read to build a favorable impression and let them alone.
Your letter needs to be subtle to carry this off. The wrong tone will get it thrown into the waste basket or deleted. The right will build interest – and there does need to be a gentle call to action, something that says “If you found this interesting, let us know.”
Now, let’s break down the contents of an effective letter. It has an effective, attention grabbing headline, something that makes people click on it to go “Hey, what’s that?” An example of this is “How to lose weight and look terrible”. It breaks from the convention of standard weight loss articles, and promises an expose on diets or exercise. It makes you think. And click the link.
After the headline, you need the lead. This is a short paragraph that describes in brief what the rest of the document is going to cover, sounds excited without being breathlessly overhyped, lets them know quickly if this is for them.
Don’t make outrageous claims. Yes, your acai berry product is endorsed by a C list Hollywood actor, and will help the user lose weight, get washboard abs, and be able to pick winning stocks by taste. And by the time someone gets to the second claim that sets off their BS-meter, they delete the email. Your audience is just as smart as you are, and they’re just as prone to saying “Nope…” and stopping the reading. It’s worth it to discuss the benefits of whatever product you’re pitching…but keep the claims reasonable, and build a narrative about how your skepticism was overcome.
The last thing that an effective marketing letter cannot be without is a final call to action. You’re not trying to seal a deal at this stage so, no: “Buy one now” type remarks; they simply won’t work 99% of the time. A simple: “Visit our website to find out more”, is sufficient; just make sure that the landing page carries straight on from the marketing letter so it’s like a natural progression. Good luck!
John Farrazio is an internet marketer who figured out how to finally create an effective marketing letter in the most efficient and low-cost way possible. Discover how he created a high impact marketing letter in just under twenty minutes for one of his sites and how you can do the same!
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