Overall, a winning sales letter follows a time-tested and proven

formula: 1) Get his attention 2) Get him interested in what you

can do for him 3) Make him desire the benefits of your product so

badly his mouth begins to water 4) Demand action from him-tell

him to send for whatever it is you're selling without delay- any

procrastination on his part might cause him to lose out. This is

called the " AIDA' formula and it works.

Sales letters that pull in the most sales are almost always two

pages with 1 1/2 spaces between lines. For really big ticket

items, they'll run at least four pages- on an 11 by 17 inch sheet

of paper folded in half. If your sales letter is only two pages

in length, there's nothing wrong with running it on the front and

back of one sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 paper. However, your sales letter

should always be letterhead paper- your letterhead printed, and

including your logo and business motto if you have one.

Regardless of the length of your sales letter, it should do one

thing, and that's sell, and sell hard! If you intend to close the

sale, you've got to do it with your sales letter. You should

never be "wishy-washy" with your sales letter and expect to close

the sale with a color brochure or circular. You do the actual

selling and the closing of that sale with your sales letter- any

brochure or circular you send along with it will just reinforce

what you say in the sales letter.

Ther's been a great deal of discussion in the past few years

regarding just how long a sales letter should be. A lot of people

are asking: Will people really take the time to read a long sales

letter. The answer is a simple and time-tested yes indeed!

Surveys and tests over the years emphatically proven that longer

sales letter pull even better than the shorter ones, so don't

worry about the length of your sales letter- just make sure that

it sells your product for you!

The "inside secret" is to make your sales letter so interesting,

and "visionary" with the benefits you're offering to the reader,

and he can't resist reading it all the way through. You break up

the "work" of reading by using short, punchy sentences,

underlining important points you're trying to make, with the use

of subheadlines, indentations and even the use of a second color.

Relative to the brochure or circulars you may want to include

with your sales letter reinforce the sale- providing the

materials you're enclosing are the best quality, they will

generally reinforce the sale for you. But, if they are of poor

quality, look cheap and don't complement thing, it will

definitely classify you as an independent home-worker if you

hand-stamp you name/address on these brochures or advertising

circulars.

Whenever possible, and so long as you have really good brochures

to send out, have your printer run them thru his press and print

your name/address- even your telephone number and company logo-

on them before you send them out. The thing is, you want your

prospect to think of you as his supplier- the company- and not

just another mail order operator. Sure, you can get by with less

expense but you'll end up with a fewer orders and in the end,

less profits.

Another thing that's been bandied about and discussed from every

direction for years is whether to use a post office box number of

your street address. Generally, it's best to include both your

post office box number, AND, your street address of your sales

letter. This kind of open display of your honesty will give you

credibility and dispell the thought of you being just another

"fly-by-night" mail order company in the mind of the prospect.

Above all else, you've got to include some sort of ordering

coupon. This coupon has to be simple and easy for the prospect to

fill out and return to you as you can possibly make it. A great

many sales are lost because this order coupon is just to

complicated for the would-be buyer to follow. Don't get fancy!

Keep it simple, and you'll find you prospects responding with

glee.

Should you or shouldn't you include a self-addressed reply

envelope? There are a lot of variables as well as pro's and con's

to this question, but overall, when you send out a "winning"

sales letter to a good mailing list, a return reply envelope will

increase your response tremendously.

Tests of the late seem to indicate that it isn't that big of a

deal or difference in responses relative to whether you or don't

pre-stamp the return envelope. Again, the decision here will rest

primarily on the product you're selling and the mailing list

you're using. Our recommendation is that you experiment- try it

boh ways- with different mailings, and decide for yourslf from