Techniques of writing sales letters | Seven steps in developing marketing and sales letters / sales messages

Sales Letters

Techniques of writing sales letters/Seven steps in developing marketing and sales letters / sales messages:

1. Assessing Audience Needs:

• Begin by assessing audience needs, interests, and emotional concerns.
• Try to form a mental image of the typical buyer for the product you want to sell.
• How can your product help them?
• Are they driven by price, or is quality more important to them?

2. Analyze Your Competition:

• In crowded markets, writers sometimes have to search for words and phrases that other companies have not already used. 

3. Determine Key Selling Points and Benefits:

•     Selling points—- attractive features of a product or service.
•     Benefits — the particular advantages that readers will realize from those benefits.

4. Anticipate Purchase Objections:

•    Objections—  high price, low quality, unacceptable rise, etc.
•    If price is not a major selling point, you can handle it in the several ways: You can leave the price out altogether or de-emphasize it by putting the figure in the middle of the paragraph that comes well after you have presented the benefits and selling points.
• If price is a major selling point, give it a position of prominence, such as in the headline or as the last item in a paragraph.

5. Apply AIDA or a Similar Model:

   Getting Attention ( A)

You can use a wide range of techniques to attract your audience’s attention:

• Your product’s strongest feature or benefit.
  • A piece of genuine news.
  • A personal appeal to the reader’s emotions or values. “ Our latest weapon against wrinkles.”
  • The promise of saving.
  • A solution to a problem.

Building Interest (I)

•  Build on the intrigue(curiosity)
• This section should also offer support for any claims or promises in opening.

Increasing Desire ( D) :

•   To build desire for a product, a service, or an idea, continue to expand on and explain how accepting it will benefit the recipient.
•   Think carefully about the sequence of support points and use plenty of subheadings.

Motivating Action (A)

•   After you have generated sufficient interest and desire, you are ready to persuade readers to take the preferred action.
•  Encourage the buyers for actions.
•   Make a respectful tone.
•   Example: You can give 50 percent discount for the first 100 people.

6. Adapt your writing to Social Media ( Writing Persuasive Messages for Social media) :

•   Communicating with customers in the social media requires different approach.
• In Social Commerce ( buying and selling products and services or supporting customers through the use of social media) , we have CONVERSATION MARKETING , in which companies initiate and facilitate conversations in a networked community of customers, journalists, bloggers, etc.
• Follow the guidelines:
• Facilitate community building.
• Initiate and respond to conversations within the community.
• Identify and support your champions. Champions are enthusiastic fans of your company. They help spread your message.
• Don’t rely on the news media to distribute your message. You can also directly speak to the audience through blogs and other electronic tools.
• Use the AIDA model at right time and in the right places. The AIDA approach is still valid for specific communication tasks, such as conventional advertising and the product promotion pages on your website.

7. Maintain High Standards of Ethics, Legal Compliance, and Etiquette:

Pay close attention to the following legal aspects of marketing and sales communication:

• Marketing and sales messages must be truthful and non-deceptive.
• You must back up your claims with evidence.
• Marketing and sales messages are considered binding contracts.
• In most cases, you can not use a person’s name, photograph, or other identity without permission. If you do, it is considered an invasion of privacy.

Sales Letters ( Criteria or Technique)
( For Students’ easiness) 

•  Maintain an effective technical writing style
• Avoid grammatical and mechanical errors
• Arouse Reader Interest ( In Introduction):
• An anecdote– a brief, dramatic story.
• A question
• A Quotation
• Data
• Develop Your Assertions ( Discussion part)
• provide data
• Document your credentials — certificates
• Make Your Readers Act ( Conclusion)
• Give directions to your business location
• Offer a discount if the customer responds within a given period of time.
• Give your name and contact number ( toll free number if possible)
• Style: 
• Format for reader – friendly ease of access
•     Achieve audience recognition
•    Imply urgency. Use the words now, today, soon.
•    Use of simple words.

Sales Letter Example

IMAGE GRAPHICS

       2629 Westport     Oswego, ND 55290           (405) 555-2121

October 9, 2020

Dave Moore

Media Publishing

10901 College Blvd.

Mountainview, ND 55292         

Dear Mr. Moore:

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  IMAGE GRAPHICS is the most technologically advanced graphic design firm in the Midwest, according to Printer’s Wheel Weekly.

 We are the only design firm in your area with an an in-house, 24-hour service bureau.

  We support all brand of software.

   Each member of our support staff has a Master’s degree in graphic technology.

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Sincerely,

Macy Hart

Enclosure