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A sales letter is a letter written to publicise and ultimately sell a product or a service to the consumers. It is a type of business letter; meant for generating business. It also has the bearing of an Announcement Letter. A sales letter is also referred as Letter of Sale, Marketing Sales Letter and Business Sales Letter. It is also known as direct mail as it is being directly sent to the client. A definition of sales letter provides additional and assisting information in understanding the one mentioned.
| Direct mail meant to generate sale of an item or service through tactful writing meant to arouse and initiate a purchase. |
The definition sums up all about sales letter. But how is it created? and what to write and what not to write? In the ‘Tips’ section we have offered almost all the essentials of a good sales letter. It is also essential that we know a wee bit more about these letters.
To begin with, sales letter is a marketing strategy often employed by businesses that do not have the budget to advertise their product / service through television or other means. They are also used by certain organisations whose mode of operation is specifically through mail order only. A certain number of companies use these to inform their loyal customers about special offers and discounts. While most firms use ordinary mail to communicate, many use electronic mail. A sales paper mail is different from electronic one both in presentation and format. The latter one will be more graphical and the former one will be more textual. There is, however no hard and fast rule and one can stick to a certain format which works best for the business. But that format should always contain Four Essentials to make a sales letter work.
AIDA is the most commonly used technique to write a sales letter that will always work.
| A | I | D | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attention | Interest | Desire | Action |
Attention – First and foremost step is to attract attention towards your product or service. An appropriate Headline does that to full effect. It is the initial and the first things that can guarantee a sale, like they say ‘First impression is the last impression’.
Interest – The second important incumbent of a sales letter is to generate interest. Once the reader has got the attention, it is time to generate and hold their interest. Providing relative information with a sustained flow generates enough interest.
Desire – Desire, the third essential feature is initiated by providing real life and practical examples. Showing the benefits through a simple language does create a desire.
Action – The first three features are meant to lead to a final call for action. Sometimes, that is not enough and you need persuasion to generate a successful sale. In this case, it also becomes your (sender’s) call of action as you have to persuade a prospective customer into an actual buyer.
To use these essential factors in writing a sales letter, we have provided detailed information in the Effective Sales Letters Tips section under 'How to write a Sales Letter'
