Openings are key to successful sales letters!If there's one thing your prospective customers probably don't have, it's time - time for you, time for your advertising, even time for them. Knowing this is key to writing an effective sales letter. These days it seems as though you have only nanoseconds to grab your readers' attention. If your opening doesn't do its job, your letter goes unread. Manpreet Kaur Goraya
November 10, 2008
If there’s one thing your prospective customers probably don’t have,
it’s time – time for you, time for your advertising, even time for them.
Knowing
this is key to writing an effective sales letter. These days it seems
as though you have only nanoseconds to grab your readers’ attention.
If your opening doesn’t do its job, your letter goes unread.
The
number one rule to getting your letter off to an effective start is to
write from your readers’ perspective. To do this, begin not by
describing your product or service but by appealing to your readers’
interests, needs, or desires. Only after you have caught the attention
of your readers should you begin trying to convince them that what you
have is what they want.
Here are some examples of attention – getting openings that might help you connect with potential customers:
¦Offer of dramatic savings “We can provide you more dependable courier service at half the price you now are paying.”
¦Offer
of a gift, free trial, or coupon “As a busy office supervisor who has
only limited time for shopping – and no time for mistakes in purchasing
– you will be pleased to know that you can shop for all your office
needs through Office.NET, for more detail visit
www.sale-trigger-generator.com a new, interactive computer network now
available in your area. Call today for free installation and a
no-obligation, 30-day trial.”
¦Appeal to customer’s need or
desire “Are you tired of getting sales calls at the dinner hour but
afraid that if you don’t answer you’ll miss an important call from a
friend? Now there’s a device that screens those calls and
automatically plays back an appropriate pre-recorded response.”
¦Thought-provoking
question or surprising statistic “When was the last time you checked
to see how much your company was spending on duplicating? You may be
paying two to three times more than your competition pays for the same
volume of copying.”
¦A clever or engaging quotation “Andrew
Jackson once said, ‘I have no respect for a man who knows only one way
to spell a word.’ Well, for more detail www.sales-letters-creator.com
the planners at Creative Retreats Conference Center have no respect for
any team of consultants who know only one way to help you boost your
employees’ morale and productivity.”
¦A touching or dramatic
anecdote “In 1984 Jane Williams survived a 2,000-foot fall when her
parachute failed to open. She landed in three feet of water in a
farmer’s pond and waded to shore without a scratch. Now she volunteers
her time as a nurse’s aid helping veterans who weren’t so lucky.”
¦A
testimonial or celebrity endorsement “‘I was so impressed with Mill
City Flour’s success in entering the fiercely competitive cereal
market,’ said marketing expert Thomas Quinn, ‘that I decided to
investigate.’ Here’s what he found about how we do business.”
¦An
apology linked to a sales proposal “Your disappointment with how long
it took us to deliver your last order is of great concern to us here at
the Muffin Shop, where we pride ourselves on quick, dependable
service. I apologize for the inconvenience and embarrassment our delay
caused you. To make it up to you, I am offering you a special 20
percent discount on your next order.”
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