Mailshots & Sales Letters

During the course of running your business, you will need some variant on marketing your products. As a new start-up, funds will be short, but do not use this as an excuse to employ low cost methods which will not bring home the bacon.

Concentrate on the media which is best suited to your business and how much you intend to spend on this project.

We will take you through the actions of setting up a sales letter which you can use as a mail-shot.

It may be quicker to use a professional writing service to produce a sales letter, but it would be more beneficial to you and your business to write yourself. The secret is to write the same sales message several times in different forms until it really shows that you are a business to be contended with.

The completed letter can be sent via snail mail or as an email. Be sure you adhere to the spam laws when emailing.

The Benefits

A sales letter is cheap to produce and can be changed readily.

• Use targeted mailing lists (from your customer base – never be tempted to buy lists)
• Make sure that all relevant contact details are prominently shown.
• As opposed to using TV/Radio Newspaper to get your message across, the sales letter is a permanent reminder of the company, its address and phone numbers/web address.
• The products can change from issue to issue; The cost is minimal compared to the other forms of advertising.

Types of Sales Letter

Sales letters can be used for a number of reasons which are highlighted below:

a) Product/Service Awareness

The reason to send a sales letter is simply to make the customer aware of your products and or service offerings.

b) Preparation for Future Contact

The letter can be used to pre-warn the customer of an impending sale or discount offering.
If you make house calls, the letter can make them aware of that.

c) Enquiries

When responding to an enquiry, it would prove an investment include the response with or on the sales letter. Do not miss an opportunity to get the message over.

Objectives of a Sales Letter

To help you to write your sales letter, you need to identify your objectives. These are highlighted below:

a) To Sell a Product or service

If you are trying to persuade the customer to buy a product or service, you have to convince them that your is the best and value for money.

b) To Inform a Consumer

If it is your business practice to give a customer all the relevant product information, do not forget the technical “How it works” sections. Using a sales letter allows you to include photos and diagrams to illustrate this.

c) To Get a Response

Push for a response. Use free offers and trials, samples or even a personal visit.

Often, customers do not like making a purchase without physically seeing or trying the product/service. By allowing them the opportunity to do so, they may respond so that they can make a confident purchasing decision.

d) In Conclusion

Spend time looking at other people’s mail shots/sales letters and “borrow” the best ideas, make them your own. Do not copy and paste unless you want a nice law suit on your hands. It doesn’t take long to make a paragraph personal, do it and be safe.

Don’t forget to find the freebies and trial offers. It will make you customers interested in you and your website.

Important: Don’t forget to add an “Unsubscribe” link for those who do not want any more communications from you. There will be some, believe me. Beware of becoming a SPAM operator; it is a very good way to lose business.

So, off you go. Have fun and have lots of new customers and orders.

- 16th September 2004

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