Direct Marketing Digest

Direct Mail Sales Letters

<<< BACK <<<

How to Skyrocket Direct Mail Response with Powerful Openings

Let’s face it, your prospects are constantly flooded with offers. These days you’ve got to write every ad, letter, and web page with the idea that in just a few seconds, prospects will either read or completely ignore your message. That's why your opening paragraphs are almost as important as your headline. Let me explain this sales letter strategy...

Once you've captured your prospect’s attention with a compelling headline, you must draw them into copy that quickly grabs and hangs on like a pit bull dog. With an irresistible opening, prospects never get the chance to "decide" if they should keep reading. They just do it, without ever making a conscious decision. That's why I can spend hours writing just the opening of an ad, letter, or web page. This is because once you get prospects past

 

those first one or two paragraphs--- there's a MUCH greater chance that they'll keep reading your entire message.

So How Do You Do That?
Summarize your offer in the first one or two paragraphs of your ad, letter, or web page. Don’t wait until the end or scatter it throughout the piece. By then it will be too late--- you will have lost the prospect. Unless they understand what’s in it for them right away and how they will benefit--- the chances that they will read through the rest of the copy are nil. I call this "front-loading" your copy. Here is an example:

First, some actual sell copy that begins with a bunch of meaningless generalities...

"The population of the US is aging. According to a statistics developed by the City College Center for Aging in Tallahassee, Florida in a 1998 study the number of people over the age of 65 will nearly double in the next decade. The same study also shows that many of those people will need nursing home care. In fact, surveys show that 30% of elderly people will require some sort of long term care near the end of their lives. Have you considered these facts in your insurance program?"

Ready to buy? I didn’t think so. Sounds too much like a college term paper. Here’s how it might be rewritten to keep the reader’s attention by summarizing all the main points right up front.

How to Write Words that Sell

"There is better than a 50-50 chance you or your spouse will become a heavy financial burden to your children when you get old--- Or you will have to spend your entire estate on nursing home care leaving absolutely NOTHING for your kids or grandchildren. But the good news is that doesn’t have to be that way. Did you know that for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day, you can easily protect the assets you have worked a lifetime to accumulate? All it takes is a short phone call to 1-800-555-1212 and you’re covered. Do it today!"

This second direct mail example jumps right in and gets straight to the point. It "talks" to the prospect and clearly conveys the offer up front. It's not enough just to describe what you're selling. Make it personal. You've got to make them so afraid of "losing out" that they literally cannot put your message down. How do you do this? --- By immediately describing the reader’s problem and promising an easy answer. In this last example, the reader may not have even known they had a problem until we pointed it out to them and provided a simple, appealing solution.

Use the rest of the sales copy to prove your claims, add testimonials and to overcome potential objections. Don’t wait until the end of the sales piece to get their attention--- They may not read that far!