Blogging is still very much something you either “get” or you don’t.

For me, my blogging is all about sharing knowledge in what I do – copywriting. Most of my posts are about copywriting tips, marketing suggestions and (like this one) the usefulness of blogging. My aim has been to help my readers with the sales writing whether they run their own businesses or are starting out in the copywriting world.

You can use your blog to promote your services – but be warned insessant “plugging” will be a real turn-off. Or you can use it as a sounding board for your opinions. But whatever you use it for, be clear from the outset.

This very subject is discussed in a great blog post called The 3 Fatal Diseases That Kill Good Blogs by Nathan Hangen (published on Copyblogger). It’s well worth a read so why not grab yourself a cuppa and a take a break for a few minutes.

You might think, because direct mail letters come from a wide range of different companies and industries, they have little in common. Well, you’d be wrong.

There are certain characteristics that make up successful sales letters. Of course, your offer and list will have a lot to do with your success rate, but the following factors will contribute to an engaging and powerful letter.

Time to get personal

Your first task is to build rapport. Talk directly to your reader and empathise with them. A sales letter is not the place to shout about your company.

Your letter is intruding into someone’s life. They didn’t ask you to write to them. So you must demonstrate to them you understand their problem and you can help by building trust and credibility.

How?

Quite simply by:

• Using “you” engages them in conversation. You’re not lecturing them, you’re confiding in them – you’re building rapport.

• Telling them what’s in it for them – tell them how your product or service will benefit them; what they’re going to get out of this.

• Speak normally – now is not the time to show off your impressive vocabulary. Every day language will communicate your message far better.

• Mirror them – your readers need to see themselves when they read your letter. It should reflect their needs, desires, hopes etc.

Once upon a time…

A good letter will follow the same pattern as a fairy tale:

Once upon a time your washing was always dull, your whites never shone. But then one day your neighbour introduced you to a new wonderful detergent. Now your clothes are brilliantly clean. You are noticed by the handsome prince who sweeps you off your feet and you live happily ever after.

OK, a bit tongue in cheek, but you get the idea. Just remember, in your sales letter the hero of the story is your reader and there can’t be a happy ending until your reader takes action.

Be precise

Your sales message must be precise. If you want to build credibility, you must use facts and figures, testimonials and case studies. Simply by saying your washing powder is the best on the market isn’t going to convince anyone to buy it. But say that independent tests have proven your washing powder to remove 99.9% of all stains – now you’re talking.

Tell them what to do

If you have followed all the other steps and produced a strong letter that talks to your reader, builds rapport, empathises with them and gives evidence that your product works, but you fail to tell them what to do next – you’ve just wasted everyone’s time.

Your call to action must be strong and commanding. Tell them what they must do – call now, complete the order form and return it today etc.

Leave them in doubt as to what to do and what will happen next – i.e. goods will arrive in 28 days, one of our representatives will call you in 10 days etc.

Sally Ormond is a freelance copywriter who works with companies all over the world. Her copywriting services have helped numerous companies increase their sales and enjoy greater visibility within their market place.

Life would be so much easier if we all have a crystal ball. But we don’t, so we have to rely on good old fashioned research with a dash of copywriting cunning.

You might think that writing a piece of direct mail is easy. All you need is a description of your product, the price, a method for the customer to get in touch to order your product and Bob’s your uncle.

Well, if that’s your approach, Bob won’t even be related to you because it won’t work.

Behind the innocuous façade of a direct mail letter lurks an array of mystical mechanics. In my last post, Direct Mail – The Copywriter’s Secret Weapon, I identified 4 factors that contribute to your campaign success – the list, the offer, the format and the copy.

To take things a step further, in this post I will explore the common magic ingredients that are required for effective direct response marketing, regardless of its format.

Get your offer out there – fast

This is the most obvious aspect but, surprisingly, one that is sometimes overlooked.

Get you offer out there immediately (in your heading) and then say it again, and again, and again. Copywriting is a lot like storytelling – you create a drama by showing your readers the power of your product and how it will benefit their lives. There are 2 different ways of achieving this:

1. When your product is desirable (e.g. jewellery, holidays etc.)

Show your readers a vision in the header or opening paragraph using the benefits – looking good, showing great taste, enjoying a luxury holiday etc. This is the gold at the end of the rainbow.

Show your reader how and why the product you are offering will fulfil all their dreams and desires (and don’t forget to mention the offer again).

1. Over coming pain and fear

This will help you by providing a formula for benefits that help you overcome things you don’t want like dirty clothes, higher taxes, ill health etc.

First describe the pain (e.g. disease, dirt etc.), then introduce your offer (laundry detergent, vitamins etc.) which is the cure and then follow it up with evidence of how your offer will cure the pain.

The carrot and the stick

This is a great tool within the freelance copywriter’s arsenal. It is a means of telling your reader that good things will happen if they respond to your offer and, of course, that there may be undesirable consequences if they don’t.

So, if you were selling washing power your offer would be a brand new scientifically proven formula that gets all your laundry clean first time.

Carrot – buy the detergent and enjoy sparklingly clean clothes forever and be incredibly successful in all that you do.

Stick – use your normal detergent, wear dull clothes and spend your life aspiring to be your friend who always looks clean and smart and is incredibly successful.

So there you go, direct response mail is much more than just throwing a sales letter together. The words that you use have to convince the reader that your product or service is right for them. My next post will look at the characteristics found in successful direct mail letters.

Direct mail is a very effective sales weapon, if you get it right.

There are 3 elements to direct response advertising that make it so successful:

• Appeals to a specifically targeted audience
• Written to inspire an action or response
• It can be measured to assess it effectiveness

Target your audience

Some methods of marketing involve sending out generic advertising to the general populous. This may achieve a wide distribution but much of the information will be wasted.

Why?

Because your sales pitch won’t be targeted at your ideal market.

The beauty of direct mail is that it is targeted to a specific audience. Your mailing list is the single most important aspect of your whole campaign. In fact, in order of importance, your direct mail campaign top 4 elements are:

1. List – you can either buy this in or use your own which would have been built over time from past customers, newsletter sign ups etc.
2. Offer – this will depend on what the desired response to your mailing is. It could be a free report, free shipping, BOGOF etc.
3. Format – email, letter, gift, radio ad, TV ad etc.
4. Copy – this must be customer orientated with a strong call to action

Get them to take action

The whole reason behind your direct mail campaign is to get a desired response from your prospects.

Whether that is to buy, sign up or make an appointment, your mailing should be designed to get the reader to make that response immediately.

Therefore you need to make it as easy as possible for them – provide a free phone number, enclose an SAE for their completed order form, give them a web address etc.

Always provide them with everything they need.

How did you do?

The only way to discover how effective your campaign has been is by measuring it.

If you are doing an electronic campaign your analytics will show you how successful your marketing drive was. But if you are sending a physical mailing you will need other methods of monitoring it.

Try a 0800 number specific to each campaign. If you are driving traffic to your website provide an offer code that has to be keyed in so you can track your website visitors. If you have sent SAEs mark the envelope with a code so their source can easily be identified.

If you make sure your direct response advertising covers all the elements shown above you should be well on your way to a successful marketing campaign.

Sally Ormond

Freelance Copywriter

Hands up all of you, who have been writing so long about your product, service or company that you’ve completely exhausted your sales copy repertoire.

It happens. Sometimes, try as you might, you find it impossible to come up with a fresh angle from which to sell your product. Even professional freelance copywriters can suffer from this especially when they work with clients over long periods of time.

So how do you overcome this particular nuisance?

Flip it on its head

Frequently a 180 degree rethink is all that it takes. Look at your offer from an angle other than the one you are used to.

Still scratching your head?

Perhaps an example will help. Your company makes washing powder, normally you market it by showing a glamorous model walking down the street with a huge smile on her face in a brilliantly clean white trouser suit – showing your product not only cleans brilliantly but it can also enhance your confidence and attractiveness. A bit of an extreme example but it illustrates this point.

Now look at it from a different view point – this time your viewer sees a shabbily dressed woman in stained clothes, her hair is a mess and she appears very introvert and practically invisible to anyone who walks passed her. The message – drab whites lead to a drab life…

So if you usually market a product from a pleasure angle, try and think how to sell it from the other side of the fence and visa versa. This should help you discover a whole new way of marketing your product, service or company.

Give it a try.