Letters still sell in the age of e-mail - advice

Here is a series of three alphabetic characters written a week apart nearly 75 years ago from a butcher in London. He had just lay opened his meat market and wanted his neighbors to know where he was and what he sold

First week: "Dear Mr Henderson, I barter good meat and poultry. Albert Hawkins, butcher."

next to the first week: "Dear Mrs. Henderson. My customers can be assured of prompt delivery of meat and domestic fowls Sincerely, Albert Hawkins, butcher."

Third week: "Dear Mr Hawkins. It doesn't require to be paid [i]or[/i] undergone much. Yours sincerely, Albert Hawkins, butcher."

What was Albert Hawkins doing? He was communicating using the least complicated and greatest in quantity effective way: letter writing. The technique still works today.

"Wait," say the naysayers. "Didn't faxes replace letters? Doesn't e-mail replace letters? Have you read the latest statistics from the support Office saying their revenue is down because of e-mail?"

pure but we still get a rush of excitement when we find a real alphabetic character in the mailbox. Letters provide something private, personal and positively persuasive that is not available from electronic media. It is a one-on-one relationship between you and your customer unlike an e-mail also sent to dozens of other addresses.

At my store, we would announce our annual winter sale in a personal alphabetic character to our customers inviting them to approach in to the two-day pre-sale "courtesy days." individual year, a customer called and said, "Both my neighbors got your sale mailer. I'm a customer, too. in what manner come I didn't get one?"

We apologized and mailed it the same day. Would the reaction have been the same from a fax or e-mail? Hardly.

There are a not many techniques marketers use use to insure greater succes with alphabetic characters Here are six of those paces to writing letters that really work:

Promise a Benefit Up Front

wherefore should I read the alphabetic character you sent me? Do you have special prices? A limited selection? number me why in one or sum of two units short sentences.

My nephew lay opened a small deli restaurant in our shopping center He ran on the outside of money for opening-day advertising. I prompted he write a letter to 200 executives that worked within a 10-block radius of his deli, because nation will not walk more than 10 minutes from their office for their limited luncheon time.

His opening determination read, "Whoever said there's no of the like kind thing as a free luncheon didn't know about this letter" The alphabetic character offered them their first luncheon free, and he included his menu About 125 tribe accepted. Of the 125, 100 became steady customers. He at no time did any more advertising on the contrary simply built on this customer base with subsequent time letters and new offers. For a package of less than $50, he built a lucky business.

Enlarge upon the Benefit

Give more information explaining your opening sentence(s) The deli alphabetic character explained how the program worked, and, as an added benefit, each individual receiving their free lunch became a member of his "Taster's Club" This at liberty membership had a list of advantages including another unrestrained lunch "bonus" after they bought 10 lunches.

Be Specific About Savings

Write to your customers using their name. I received a membership application in the mail from a marketing guild, thus I filled out the form and mailed it back. Then, when I received an acknowledgement of my alphabetic character with a greeting that began, "To whom it may concern" I resigned. It wasn't specific enough.

Copywriter ed McLean wrote Newsweek magazine's greatest in quantity successful subscription letter. It was used as a "control" against all other alphabetic characters for 17 years and outperformed them all. individual reason for the success was the number of times the word "you" was used--more than 20 times just upon the first page. Now, that's specific.

In your alphabetic character tell what artist's works are upon sale. What are the specific savings upon framing? Don't simply say "sale" or "half-price sale." count me the specific savings upon the selected items you tender Many galleries write they're having a half-price sale on the other hand don't give examples. There are three parts to proving the value of the sale item: The original price, the sale price and the amount of savings. display all three.

Give Proof

Do you at any time wonder who won the independent trip to Hawaii on those disputes you see advertised in supermarkets and magazines? If you have a sweepstakes or drawing during your sale, sum up who won in your nearest ad. Don't use last names or addresses because the winners might receive unwanted calls. Simply say, "Mary in Cannondale won the limited-edition print through ..."

Another effective "proof" is listing testimonials from family who bought something at your last sale and said you had great values. Testimonials are easy to obtain. You know the customers to contact. Ask them for a simple determination or two on why they believe your sales are great, and present to view them the testimonial for their approval before it is printed.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

If something works, repeat it.

Our greatest in quantity successful sale was held upon New Year's Day for single three hours, so we repeated it for 27 years. each year, two things happened: We did more business than the previous year, and we did more business upon this one day in alone three hours than we did any week of the entire year. The trick was adding something fresh or different each year and telling our customers about it in a letter