The copywriter Jay Halbert wrote: 'The answer to every business problem is a good sales letter'. Unfortunately, sales letter writing is often low on everyone's list of priorities because most of us:

� Hate writing them
� Are not very good at doing them
� Don't believe they work terribly well

Unfortunately, as the recession kicks in it looks as if we are all going to have to get better at writing such letters. Not just one-off letters but a series of consistent letters targeted at different market sectors

Last summer when moved to a new office in the centre of Cheltenham, I was inundated with 'sales letters' within weeks of arrival. Without exception all of these letters made the same mistakes. Here they are:

1. No Clear Headline

If you want someone to read your letter imagine that they are opening it whilst standing over a bin. - Which they probably are. You have around 6 seconds to attract their attention. If your headline is not going to attract their attention, the chances are that you will not skim over the rest of the letter to see if there is anything of interest.

Solution: Get good at writing memorable and meaningful headlines.

2. Only One Page Long

If you are going to take the trouble to write a letter, sell as much as you can in the space available. Blank space sells nothing. Most letters are kept short out of fear of boring the reader. Successful letters tend to be long and are more confident about the services or products the writer is 'selling'.

Solution: Get into the habit of writing longer letters and don't send 'one pagers'.

3. No Testimonials

If you want the reader to believe that you are capable of delivering what you offer, include as many testimonials as you can. When readers open a letter, a prominent testimonial is one of the first things they will pick up on after the headline.

Solution: Build up your library of testimonials and use them more effectively.

4. No Guarantee

If you include a guarantee it is a sign that you are confident about what you have to offer.
It can be a financial or satisfaction guarantee. As so few British companies are in the habit of offering guarantees, it automatically distinguishes you from the competition.

Solution: Be clear about the sort of guarantee you can offer.

5. The Letter Is Only Sent Once

If someone is going to become a customer of yours you need to first of all establish some kind of relationship with them. And like all relationships this will take time.

You need to accept that they probably won't read your first letter and that they will be too distracted or busy to respond to the second or third. This means you need to be prepared mentally to send out a sequence of letters. It may cost more but the results will be better than for the solitary letter.

Solution: Think of a sales letter as 'salesmanship in print' and as part of a on-going campaign.

If you want to find a low-cost but high-impact way of generating leads, make a commitment to avoid such mistakes and start to master the art of effective sales letter writing.

Your only other alternative is to continue to waste money sending out the same old letter in the mistaken belief that you will get 'results' because you are being proactive.

Author: Joe P�lissier

About the author:
Joe P�lissier is a marketing consultant who teaches companies how to use marketing media to communicate with existing clients and potential customers.
He works internationally, helping government organisations, trade associations and entrepreneurial small businesses communicate and market what they do. They then acquire the confidence and skills to obtain the communications success they deserve.
For marketing consultancy services visit: http://www.podcommunications.co.uk


Article source: Free Sales Articles.