How to write letters that sell Winning techniques for Achieving Success through Direct Mail and Emails Christian H. Godefroy Christian H. Godefroy Positive Club 2016
How to write letters that sell Winning techniques for Achieving Success through Direct Mail and Emails 1. How to write letters that sell - Winning techniques for Achieving Success through Direct Mail and Emails 2. Preface 3. Foreword 4. Introduction - Generate thousands of dollars worth of sales right from your own home 5. CHAPTER 1 - How a simple letter can make people open their wallets 1. Becoming a millionaire in 20 steps 2. Is there a limit to how large mailings should be? 3. What if you don’t have any money to invest? 4. Are you a player? 5. Basic principles for a successful mailing 1. Outer envelope 2. Sales letter 3. Brochure 4. Order form 5. Reply envelope 6. Provide a return guarantee 7. Give your letter a personal look 8. Pay special attention to the text of your letter
9. SUMMARY 6. CHAPTER 2 - An easy way to get large numbers of people to respond to your letter 1. Read it or throw it away: the decision is made in a fraction of a second 2. The only way to get the odds on your side 3. How to capture your prospects’ attention 4. How to gain the confidence of prospective clients 5. How to get clients to identify you quickly and easily 6. The secret that makes people want to read your message 7. Three types of mail - and the one to avoid 8. How to personalize your letter 9. Capture your reader’s interest immediately 10. Four objectives of your letter heading 11. Should you use a letterhead or make your letter anonymous? 12. Useful typefaces 13. Do letter headings always act as a reinforcement? 14. How can you make optimum use of this very important part of the page (upper right-hand corner)? 15. The doorway to your letter: how to make it open automatically for prospective clients 1. The headline 16. How to get your text read from beginning to end 17. Start with a promise 18. SUMMARY 7. CHAPTER 3 - How to come up with promises that produce the greatest number of replies 1. Predicting the motives and needs of your target clients 2. The basis of all action: five fundamental needs 3. 1. Physiological needs 4. Base your promise on a physiological need
5. 2. Need for security 6. 7. 8. 9.
3. Need for love and belonging 4. Need for recognition 5. Need for self-realization (fulfillment) Other decoding systems
8. How to get the most out of the seven deadly sins 1. How to stimulate people’s demons in order to sell 2. Now, what about you and your product? 3. SUMMARY 9. CHAPTER 4 - Your greatest enemy- and how to eliminate it 1. The astonishing results of a study of 150 successful direct mail campaigns 2. When is the word ‘I’ important? 3. The secret of an extraordinary sales text 4. How to set up your own ‘Egometer’ 1. Egometer 5. How to eliminate the enemy - once and for all 1. 1. Take any opportunity that arises to talk to all kinds of people 2. 2. Vary your readings 3. 3. Create a mental image of the people to whom you’re writing 4. 4. Get a few other people, if possible from different social, cultural and professional backgrounds, to read your text 5. 5. Remember that when you exchange points of view with another person, you both benefit 6. 6. During conversations, summarize what the other person has just told you and ask if your summary is accurate 7. 7. Important! Take notes! 6. Not talking about yourself does not mean forgetting who you are! 1. 1. Let your personality express itself 2. 2. Use a narrative style
3. 3. Share intimate feelings 4. 4. Find an image which corresponds to each important point in your presentation 5. 5. Present your opinions in a positive way 7. SUMMARY 10. CHAPTER 5 - The tricks used by professionals to make your ‘headlines’ work 1. How to get an exceptional response 2. How to put a catalyst in your headline 3. 50 per cent of a letter’s success depends on the headline! 4. Why 90 per cent of amateur copywriters never get their projects off the ground 5. How to distract your prospects from their usual preoccupations! 6. What the professionals do to make their headlines succeed 7. The Reader’s Digest formula 8. Health 9. Self-improvement 10. Children 11. Couple 12. Jobs 13. Money 14. The favorite technique of the professionals 15. The secret of best-selling books 16. The best headlines in the world! 17. How to create a successful headline with ease 18. A springboard for creating more successful headlines 19. SUMMARY 11. CHAPTER 6 - An infallible way to select your best headline 1. What can we learn from these headlines? 2. A professional technique: ‘internal promotion’
3. Our answers 4. How to double the impact of your headline 5. How to create visuals that pay off 6. Why you have to test your headlines 7. Technique for selecting the best of your headlines 8. How to test a headline 9. Other ways to select your best headline 1. 1. The ‘split-run’ 2. 2. The telescope test 3. 3. Classified ads 4. 4. The list 10. SUMMARY 12. CHAPTER 7 - Offers and postscripts: how to get higher sales from your very first letter! 1. A ‘trick’ used by direct mail agencies 2. How to change the offer in your headline 3. How to find offers that produce high sales 4. Increase your returns by 20 to 30 per cent or more! 5. A professional secret - and how to get the most out of it! 6. How to write a high impact P.S. 7. How to increase sales - with just your signature! 8. SUMMARY 13. CHAPTER 8 - How to find effective ideas and arguments that sell 1. Put your most powerful idea-bank to work 2. A secret for discovering effective ideas and arguments that sell 3. How to develop your creative copywriting to its fullest 4. How top copywriters find their best ideas and sales arguments 5. Why so few people have great ideas 6. Put your right brain to work! 1. 1. Enter information
7. The product itself 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
Other documents about the product How to ‘brainstorm’ How else to channel creativity The discovery matrix
Scenarios Psychological factors The power of the ‘tree’ technique The most powerful method of transforming a good idea into a real success 16. The reformulation technique 17. SUMMARY 14. CHAPTER 9 - How to keep your prospects intrigued right from the start 1. How to avoid the wastepaper basket in the first 20 seconds 2. How to tell a thrilling story 3. Ask your prospective clients a good question 4. Break some kind of news to your clients 5. Get rid of your clients’ bad memories for them 6. Sum it all up! 7. Use testimonials 8. How to develop your own technique 9. SUMMARY 15. CHAPTER 10 - How to convince people who can’t make up their mindsand increase your sales 1. The truth is not always appropriate 2. Use expert opinions 3. What if you are targeting another business? 4. The power of the ‘lift letter’ 5. How to prepare your readers for action 1. 1. Summarize the advantages of your offer
2. 2. Reassure your clients 6. Getting your clients to act 7. Words that trigger an immediate action 8. Five more effective techniques for inciting clients to act 1. 1. Set an expiry date 2. 2. Set a time period 3. 3. An imminent event… 4. 4. Offer a free gift if the client responds quickly 5. 5. A list of everything the client has to lose… 9. Which technique is best? 10. Summarize the advantages 11. SUMMARY 16. CHAPTER 11 - How to keep your readers reading - from beginning to end 1. How to make all of your letter exciting 2. How to get your text read and understood, and obtain maximum results 3. How to multiply the numbers of your readers 4. The opposite of what you learned in school 5. What factors stop people from reading on? 6. The longer a sentence is, the harder it is to read 7. Present your text so that it is inviting to read 1. Version A 2. Version B 8. And since your readers are probably in a hurry… 9. How to cut a paragraph 10. Where should you cut? 1. Answer 11. Don’t be afraid of paragraphs that contain only one sentence 12. The longer your sentences, the less readers retain what they need 13. How to shorten long sentences 14. Changing the order of words in a sentence
15. Influence of the spoken word 16. 17. 18. 19.
Long words slow reading down The law of least effort Eliminate ‘filter’ words How to shorten words
1. 1. Find a synonym 2. 2. Replace one long word with a number of small words 20. Juggle your formats 21. Transitions 22. Which typefaces should you use? 23. How to keep your readers turning the pages 24. How do you judge the quality of your letter? 25. A final piece of advice 26. SUMMARY 17. CHAPTER 12 - Order forms, envelopes and follow-ups - all the secrets you need to know 1. How to make your order form a success 2. Golden Rule number 1: 3. Golden Rule number 2: 4. Do not leave anything out! 5. Golden Rule number 3 6. Golden Rule number 4 7. Golden Rule number 5 8. Golden Rule number 6 9. Golden Rule number 7 10. The great secret of an exceptional response - the envelope 11. Golden Rule number 1 12. Golden Rule number 2 13. Windows: how to make them work for you 14. How to double your profits with ease!
15. How to write a follow-up letter 16. 17. 18. 19.
Finally… a few more secrets Can you get people to change their habits? A few rules about human psychology Back to basics - is your letter logical?
20. A final ‘trick’ 21. SUMMARY 18. CHAPTER 13 — Troubleshooting and testing 1. How to give your mailing a sense of unity 2. The simpler the message, the better it will be understood 3. Checklist: important points covered so far 1. Advantages 2. Curiosity 3. Unity 4. Assurance 5. The offer 6. Conclusion 7. Hurry 8. Enthusiasm 9. After sales service 4. The crime you must not commit 5. How to test a single element 6. How to identify orders 1. 1. Order form codes 2. 2. The marker 7. SUMMARY 19. CHAPTER 14 - Your future in copywriting and direct sales 1. How to make your profit margin ‘take off’ 2. How to become a sought-after copywriter 20. APPENDIX
1. About the word ‘YOU’-what the experts advise 21. Credits
How to write letters that sell Winning techniques for Achieving Success through Direct Mail and Emails Introduction – How To Write Letters and E-Mails That Sell What is a copywriter? I am often asked this question. To simplify matters, I always tell people that I’m just a writer. And it’s true. I am a writer, but a special kind of writer. A simple letter that takes me 2 days to write can bring in more income than a book which takes someone else a year to complete. Copywriters are, with rare exceptions, some of the highest paid writers in the world. The strangest thing is that the less scholarly their writing is, the more they earn. People with a lot of schooling are actually handicapped in this profession. Academics often come across as sounding dull and too sophisticated. In the world of copywriting, if you want to sell, you need to learn how to cut your sentences, simplify your vocabulary and replace abstract concepts and ideas with images. I would like to show you how much fun, and how lucrative this profession can be. I have been doing this for the past 25 years, and I love every single
moment in this job. Firstly, as a copywriter, I have the freedom to lead the kind of life I want. How would you like to catch a film or take a nap whenever you feel like it? How would you like to take a week’s vacation every month? Or spend long weekends playing golf or tennis, or doing things with your family and friends? You can’t do all those things with a traditional 9 to 5 job, but being a copywriter allows you to do just that. In fact, most good copywriters I know do not write more than a single letter a month. Yes, just one letter that may take just a few hour’s work, and they are finished for the month. So what’s the secret? Well, there is one, and it concerns how your subconscious mind works. I can sometimes spend 15 days without writing a single word, but a part of my brain – my subconscious – is actively working to formulate my next mailing. It’s like heating up water – it takes time, but when the steam begins to rise the words start pouring out. Then, when I sit at my desk and the tip of my pen touches the paper… the copy flows out effortlessly. Is it magic? No, its pure and proven science. My subconscious brain is dissecting and working on ideas the whole time. It’s all in the preparation, as we will see a little later on. I live in a beautiful penthouse. My neighbors often see me at home, helping out with chores and odd jobs around the house. I help my wife in her work as an antique dealer. I go shopping and catch a movie whenever I feel like it. Those neighbors who do not know me often find this perplexing. Most of them think that I was born rich, but there’s nothing further from the truth. I saw my own toys and the furniture in my room being sold off at auction during my father’s bankruptcy.
I tried starting several businesses and failed. But all that taught me something: I would NEVER go through the same experience again. I would NEVER lead a life that is less than the one I deserve. As naïve as it sounds now, I actually started looking around to see who earned the most money. In a publishing house for example, I saw a salesman earning more than the owner, and that started me thinking. The same was true in an industrial company. I set my sights on becoming a salesman, but I was soon faced with 2 important problems: Firstly, I was shy and introverted, which is not ideal for a salesman. Secondly, directors who were jealous of the fat paychecks earned by their sales personnel would often reduce their commission, or the size of their territory, seeking to line their own pockets with some of that money. It was not before long before I found the ideal solution – selling on paper. You are vested with the power of a salesman, but not with the fear of selling. You enjoy the earnings of the best of salesmen, but do not depend on your customers. In fact, your best customer often ends up being… yourself! Texts you have written can also keep on paying off 10 or 20 years down the road. Each piece of writing you do becomes your intellectual property, which means that it will always remain yours even if you go bankrupt. No one can take it away from you, even if they wanted to. So is it easy to learn how to be a copywriter? The best texts I wrote were done near a lake or by a swimming pool, or in an airplane.
How can you earn so much money? Well, sales, and especially the kind you are going to learn about, are magic. Imagine there’s a small shop owner. You show up one day and convince him to test a mailing, or place an ad, or do some Internet advertising. Usually he sits there in his shop, waiting for clients. On some days no one buys anything. And then, one day, he starts receiving more orders by mail than he usually gets in a year! The postman brings more orders every day, and his e-mail inbox is also full of orders. There he is, with all those cheques, not believing his eyes! And all thanks to you. It’s like you’re selling drugs – your clients can’t seem to do without your texts and the miracles you promise them. Naturally the shop owner will share a part of his newfound fortune with you. Even a small part will represent a lot of money. For you it’s like a special license to print yourself $100 bills! Or imagine that you have a computer and place an ad on Google. Next day dozens of orders arrive. And the same the day after that, and for years to come. The source of income seems to develop all by itself! All this is possible, even if you don’t have a product to sell, even if you don’t have an idea. Are you ready to embark on the most fascinating adventure of your life? To get rid of all your frustrations? To buy that new car you’ve been wanting so badly? To live the life you never thought was possible? Well, now you can. IT’S ALL UP TO YOU.
I’m not saying it will be easy. If you just skim over this method and think you understand everything the first time around, then you will be heading for failure. But if you read it and re-read it, learn it by heart, and look at the world around you with a new eye, the eye of a copywriter who sees the wonder in everything, who keep notes of facts and surprising stories, then you will succeed. What is this method going to do for you? Whether you are gifted or not, it will help you write texts that grab people’s attention, that are convincing and translate into thousands of orders… and therefore into money in your bank account. To obtain all the information you will find in this course, you would have had to do what I did – study in the U.S., meet thousands of copywriters, read what they wrote and spend hours discussing techniques with the experts. And you would have had to write dozens of sales letters and emails, test them, analyze them, see how well they do and then draw your conclusions. The result of all that work is right here in this method. Condensed, made practical, you can start using it right away. The method will teach you: How to multiply an email or letter’s return by 10 simply by changing 8 words Techniques that will increase your sales by 20% How to distinguish between a letter that will work and one that will fail Exactly what to write, how to write it, how to present it, how to test it and, most importantly, how to SUCCEED.
It doesn’t matter whether you are a beginner or a distinguished copywriter already. The techniques revealed here will help you earn much more money, and are worth many times the price of the method. If I were to sell it based on what it can bring you, I would have to charge thousands or even millions. And that’s not all. A good sales letter is the key to many other things: Seducing someone either by mail or e-mail Getting a job, convincing electors, selling cars, apartments, airplanes… you can do all that and more by writing good letters. The knowledge you acquire will open all kinds of doors. You’ll know how to generate sympathy, make friends and develop lasting relationships, all through the power of your writing. If you support a cause, you can use your copywriting skills to collect enormous amounts of money, and find thousands of supporters. If you want to start a magazine you’ll be able to generate thousands of subscriptions… and keep them! Knowing how to write letters that sell is like having thousands and thousands of sales reps working for you, meeting people at home or in their office or on their computer, placing ideas in their head and in their heart… ideas that will result in orders. If you have ideas but don’t know how to develop them, you will finally find out. If your business isn’t doing as well as it should, you’ll learn how to multiply your sales.
If you’ve been dreaming about working for yourself, here is a simple method that is not costly and can be extremely lucrative. If you are frustrated seeing so many people make a fortune, either through direct mail or on the Internet, you will finally obtain the key to open those doors for yourself as well. ‘How To Write Letters That Sell’ should be read in 2 phases. Firstly, read the entire course to get an idea of the whole. Then go back and read each chapter again, at your own rhythm. Don’t move on to the next chapter until you have assimilated all the information in the previous one. And do the exercises! You’re not at school so you won’t be doing them for marks. But the exercises are there to ensure that what you learn becomes a reflex, as you apply it to practical situations. I have decided to offer the method on-line so that: 1. You can have access to it no matter where you are – you won’t have to walk around with 7 heavy folders in order to read it. 2. You can review it regularly. The links and the information it contains can be easily updated. 3. You can find answers to questions you ask me, as well as to those asked by others. 4. I can surprise you from time to time… but no more about that or it won’t be a surprise! Consider yourself a new member of the brotherhood of copywriters. One last point: why does the method mainly consist of text? Firstly, because I want to show you the power that texts can have.
Firstly, because I want to show you the power that texts can have. Secondly, because texts are essentially what we are talking about. And finally, because I am counting on YOU to add the visuals. Together we will be enriching the method to make it something totally unique (it is already) and incredibly rewarding. You’ll see what I mean a little later on. All I can do now is wish you good reading, inspiration and… lots of orders! Christian H. Godefroy
Preface To André Bideaud, my first master in copywriting, and to Gene Schwartz, whose talent and creativity enlighten my copy and show me The Way. CHRISTIAN H. GODEFROY is a specialist in positive thinking and autosuggestion. He has given training seminars to over 6,000 senior company personnel around the world on self-confidence, communication and relaxation. Today he concentrates on publishing books about personal and professional success and about health and runs his own highly successful publishing companies in France and Switzerland.
Foreword What separates a ‘great’ writer from a ‘good’ writer? Their focus. ‘Good’ writers get caught in the trap of focusing on what they’re selling. They fool themselves into thinking that if they can describe the product or service in irresistible terms, the reader will want it. ‘Great’ writers go one step beyond. Instead of focusing on what’s being sold, they focus on the reader - or, more specifically - the reader’s heart. The reader’s heart is the door to their wallet. Open their heart and you’ll open their wallet. Are you going to be a ‘good’ writer and settle for describing things well -or a ‘great’ writer and open the heart of your reader? The shelves of the bookshops are flooded with books that teach you how to be a ‘good’ writer. This book is different. It reveals the secrets of how to be a ‘great’ writer. The decision is yours. Ted Kikoler Mail order designer and graphic consultant
Introduction - Generate thousands of dollars worth of sales right from your own home In the beginning, everyone made fun of me. Work for myself? Too risky. No one believed I could do it. ‘Well, I found THE WAY. I’m through with working for other people. I do what I like.., when I like. And my bank account keeps growing and growing.’ Last year, I marketed my products to more than 200,000 people in over 18,000 towns and cities. You can do the same, I’ll tell you how with no traveling or hotel expenses; with no stress or fatigue; with no salespeople and no waste of time. I stay at home. I have a few employees. I live quietly in my village. I can see the trees and the fields from my window. What a life! How did I do it? I used a new technique. I learned how to write letters that are so attractive and so convincing, that someone 1,000 miles away wants to send me a check and get my merchandise. And now here is a formula which will enable anyone- including you- to do the same thing. Interested? Read on… A former distributor of business correspondence told me his secrets, all the
A former distributor of business correspondence told me his secrets, all the ‘tricks of the trade’ I needed to push my sales figures sky high. Since then, I’ve discovered my own techniques. I put them all together and came up with an infallible ‘formula’. In the last seven years, I’ve written all kinds of letters: sales letters; business letters; administrative memos; even legal letters. Everything a salesperson can do, I now do by letter. And it always works. Why? Because each letter is tried and tested. The impact of each sentence has been planned. I don’t have any theories, any opinions or personal preferences. Sales figures and profits are my only judge. Being very enthusiastic about my success, I revealed my ‘formula’ to a few friends. These are the astonishing results. A publisher friend doubled his subscriptions. Another multiplied his sales by seven. A third, who was selling trucks for a large dealership, learned how to write letters. He now has his own business, and earns three times as much money as before. Yet another, in the electronic equipment field, multiplied his sales three times and is now showing a healthy profit. Then the idea came to me: make my formula available to others, by writing a ‘method’. Fait accompli. My method is called How to write letters that sell. This book contains all the sample letters, checklists, secrets and techniques that have worked for me. I’ve kept nothing back. It’s all here.
that have worked for me. I’ve kept nothing back. It’s all here. Why did I decide to give all this away? Because I want to give you the same helping hand that someone gave me a few years ago. Someone who put me on the road to success. It’s only right to give, after getting so much. Whether you’re a businessman or woman, a shopkeeper, a salesperson, or just young and ambitious, with a desire to succeed - if you write one letter a day or 100 a month - this method will lead you to success. Christian H. Godefroy
CHAPTER 1 - How a simple letter can make people open their wallets Think of a situation when you have to convince someone to do something for you. It’s important. You have to be at your most persuasive. You may not get a second chance. For example: You have to convince your bank manager to do you a favor or allow you more credit. You want to get a very good deal on a car. You’re the head of an organization, or an elected official, and you have to raise funds for an important project. You’ve got your eye on a fiat and you want the landlord to lower the price. You’re trying to get the Inland Revenue to grant you a substantial reduction. You want your major supplier to agree to more favorable terms of payment. You want to convince your housing association to install a lift in your building. You want to gain the romantic affection of a man or woman. You know you have a great product and you want to reach the largest number of potential buyers. There are many approaches and techniques at your disposal for convincing all these people. But the one we’re about to show you has four incomparable advantages over all the others. 1. You can use it in practically any situation.
2. This method can be used as a complement to any other technique. For example, it can serve as added leverage to any ongoing negotiations, or in your campaign to persuade people. 3. It is effective over long distances: there is no need for you to go anywhere. This makes it VERY economical and VERY easy to do. 4. You don’t need a charismatic personality, or nerves of steel, or a poker player’s ability to bluff opponents out. If you’re a shy person, or if you have trouble expressing yourself in front of other people, you can still use this method as effectively as Lee Iacocca or the president of the United States! This method, which allows you to sell, negotiate, convince people and obtain what you want, faster and more easily than you thought possible (from family, friends, suppliers, tax inspectors, judges, your boss, sales reps of all kinds etc.), was originally developed by some of the great names in advertising: names like Ogilvy, Hopkins and Caples. Add to these the knowledge and expertise of specialists in human psychology and psycho-sociology, and years of research, experiments and on-site testing costing millions of pounds, and you have the most effective, sane and gentle means of persuasion available to anyone, anywhere in the world. We’re not going to try to teach you how to manipulate people and get them to do things against their will. Not at all. On the contrary, what we’re trying to do is teach you how to understand people better, and also how to like people more, so that you can offer them a valuable service, be of use to them AND attain your own objectives, all at the same time. You can do all this, even though your personal objectives are very, very ambitious. So what’s the method called? It’s called copywriting. That’s right - copywriting, which literally means writing a model text that is subsequently copied. Because, very often, original texts are brought up to date, improved, adjusted etc. Or if they don’t need to be updated, only the ‘key’
(discussed in detail later on) may have to be changed.
Becoming a millionaire in 20 steps Perhaps becoming a millionaire isn’t one of your priorities for the coming months and years. But surely you would be interested in finding out about a way to earn more money, a lot more money, starting today. Imagine all the things you could do if you had more money at your disposal: buy a bigger house or a new car; take exotic holidays; go out more often; help your friends; give more to charity etc. You’d be able to make all the things you’ve been dreaming about come true. You’d experience that calm sense of assurance that financially comfortable people feel: a sense of complete security about the future and total confidence in themselves. What can you do to earn all this money? Well, I’m going to show you a simple process that can make you a millionaire. After that, it’s up to you to set your own limits: $50,000, $100,000, $750,000, $l,000,000 - it’s totally up to you! Later on we’ll take a look at the advantages and the risks of this method. And also at ways to limit those risks and obtain maximum benefits. Ready? Imagine that you’ve written a direct mail letter which brings you a return of $2 for every $1 you invest. Starting with only $1, you’d have to reinvest your earnings only 20 times in order to make a million dollars. Sounds too good to be true? Well, here’s the proof: Time Investment Return 1st $ 2 5 2nd $ 4 10 3rd $ 8 20 4th $ 16 40 5th $ 32 80 6th $ 64 160
6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th
$ 64 $ 128 $ 256 $ 512 $ 1,024 $ 2,048 $ 4,096 $ 8,192 $16,384 $32,768 $65,536 $131,072 $262,144 $524,288 $1,048,576
160 320 640 1,280 2,560 5,120 10,240 20,480 40,960 81,920 163,840 327,680 655,360 1,310,720 2,621,440
‘But,’ you may object, ‘at the rate of one mailing a month, using the same letter 20 times would take over a year and a half.’ Well, there’s nothing to prevent you, commercially, legally or financially speaking, from sending out a mailing once a week. At that rate, it would only take you five months to make your first million. Also, you’re not obliged to invest only $1 at the start. If your initial investment is $5, you’d only need 19 mailings to reach your goal. It’s always technically and financially better to send out the largest number of letters you can: doing this substantially improves the cost/ return ratio for each letter sent (we’ll be talking more about this later on).
Is there a limit to how large mailings should be? The answer to this question is simple: make them as large as the risk you wish to take. You can make a precise calculation of this limit by: using tests based on statistics and probability factors that help you predict the results of your mailings in advance (described in detail later on); calculating the costs of the mailing (suppliers, printers, delivery service etc.). But there’s more to it than that. What if some letters return three or four or five or six times your initial investment, instead of just twice as much? In many cases the returns are much higher and your chances of multiplying your stake improve as you become more proficient at writing copy.
What if you don’t have any money to invest? ‘I’m broke…’ No problem. Apart from the postal charges, which always have to be paid up front, the other costs (delivery, paper, printing, warehouse space etc.) do not have to be paid in advance. All these costs can be billed on credit. Here’s a little secret. Selling by direct mail is just a game, where you can earn colossal sums.., mostly by investing other people’s money! The same goes for the stock market, except that stocks are more risky. With direct mail, results are a lot easier to predict, and the success or failure of a campaign depends, to a much greater extent, on you and you alone. The art of direct-mail sales is a game where hundreds of millions of dollars are placed on the table each and every day.
Are you a player? Maybe you like winning, like I do? In this book I’m going to tell you about my techniques as a professional player and I’m even going to let you in on a few handy tricks to make sure you come out a winner (all perfectly honest, of course!). If you’re serious about making money from direct mail then mastering the art of copywriting is essential. You’ll have to sweat a little, you may have doubts at some point, you may even get discouraged. But, stick it out, and you’ll be sure to experience the exaltation and excitement of success, and the joys of being rich.
Basic principles for a successful mailing What elements are necessary for a successful mailing?
Outer envelope This is the single most important element. If it isn’t opened, nothing happens. There are, of course, the traditional techniques of putting ‘PERSONAL’ or ‘SPECIAL OFFER’ or ‘RESERVED FOR ADDRESSEE ONLY’ on the envelope. But you can also use the envelope to state clearly what your offer is about, as long as you arouse the reader’s curiosity. (For more, see chapter 12.)
Sales letter This is the second most important element. It is a personal message which makes the reader want to buy (your product or service), and strengthens their conviction to do so. We’ll have a lot more to say about it later on.
Brochure Whatever the letter cannot do must be done by the enclosed brochure: its design, pictures, diagrams, endorsements etc.
Order form The simpler it is, and the easier to fill out, the better. Keep the sales message clear: the idea is to be able to convince someone by getting them to read only the order form.
Reply envelope
Reply envelope Always include one in your package. You mustn’t expect a potential client to find their own envelope - doing so could very well lose you the sale, since the client will probably put off replying (or forget about it completely) because they haven’t got an envelope handy. In direct mail sales later means never. Support letter Included in this category are any documents that can help sales, such as testimonials from satisfied clients. Adding them to your mailing or not may depend on the weight of your package: post offices usually set certain weight limits and surpassing them by even a fraction of an ounce can double the cost of your mailing.
Provide a return guarantee A study was conducted in Germany which showed that over 500 mail order firms in that country were ‘fly by night’ operations, i.e. they accepted orders from clients but never delivered the goods. For a while these kinds of despicable operators were threatening the entire mail order industry’s survival. Despite stringent laws and constant surveillance by consumer protection groups, people still need to be reassured that your mail order offer is ‘on the level’. Do anything you can do to reassure them. A return guarantee is indispensable if you want to establish a positive and honest relationship with your clients. Because when you think about it, what do consumers really have to base their decisions on? Promises, maybe a retouched photograph or a pretty drawing. What they don’t have in front of them is the product itself. So, to avoid mistrust and resentment, promise people a prompt and full refund if they are not satisfied. This will also protect you against any legal problems with consumer associations and protection groups.
Give your letter a personal look Print it up in different colors, use a friendly ‘typewritten’ typeface or type it on a typewriter instead of having it typeset. Sign the letter and use a different color for the signature than for the rest of the text. Choose a textured paper that looks more like paper you’d buy to write a letter to someone or print a subtle grain on to the paper. The more your letter looks handwritten, and destined for a single person, the better your sales will be.
Pay special attention to the text of your letter The major portion of this book is devoted to this subject, and this subject alone. It is the most important part of making your mailing campaign a success. Nothing will happen if your letter isn’t well written. You can have the best product in the world, you may be offering a fantastic price, but if your message doesn’t respect the rules of direct mail copywriting, then you’ll invariably lose money. Good copywriting can double your sales and even multiply them ten times over. Similarly, your profits will increase 100 per cent to 1,000 per cent. An added response of only 0.2 per cent can double your profits in some cases. Therefore, anything you can do to increase your responses, even things which may seem trivial, are worth the effort. A leverage effect comes into play, which can increase profits 10, 20, 50, 100 per cent and even more! A good sales letter (and this is very important to understand) can result in a considerable increase in profit. To prove the validity of what I’m saying, take a look at this study, conducted by an American company. The same target group was sent five different mailings: 1. A ‘self-mailer’ (including sales letter, order form and return envelope in the same document); 2. A brochure; 3. A brochure combined with a letter, printed on the first page of the brochure; 4. A very extensive brochure, accompanied by a short letter; 5. A great sales letter accompanied by a very small brochure. The results were as follows:
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