Effective Sales Letters

Promotional letters are still very well received - if they are done well. Certain mistakes must be avoided. Experts attest that the personal sales letter has a great impact on success. An advertising measure that is important and right even for small companies - provided you don't make the mistakes that others make! Advertising professionals are unanimous: Today, customer engagement and customer acquisition, measurable in orders, are no longer feasible without personal contact. Whether for maintaining contacts with existing customers or "cold" customer acquisition: With printed advertising materials, the advertising letter (mailing) has the edge here. Because: costs and benefits are in an excellent ratio - ideally. And that happens when you don't do one thing: make the common mistakeswhich have unfortunately brought many advertising letters a bitter end as unread waste paper. Mistake # 1: The mailing is sent to the wrong people What does the tenant of a 2-room apartment think when he receives a sales letter that suggests buying an ETICS system? Wrong connected? Correct! So be very careful when selecting the addressees for your mailing. Otherwise you will be displeased. After all, only home owners are interested in an ETICS system. And of course, the customers whose property you have already insulated should be removed from the mailing list. The same exact target group differentiation naturally applies to every other service that you advertise. When mailing to existing customer contacts, a well-managed customer file is your most important helper. To acquire new customers, you can rent addresses from the relevant service providers. Mistake No. 2: Addresses are incomplete or incorrect. Addressing them personally is the strength of the mailing. Evil is therefore in the eye if the speech is formally incorrect. Mr. Müller will not be pleased when he is addressed as Ms. Müller, the Bosch company attaches great importance to being written to as Robert Bosch GmbH, Mr. Mayher at Volksbank reacts sniffed if his name is written without an h. Then the personal effect fizzles out and turns into the opposite. This error can only be avoided by a consistently maintained customer file and correctly imported new addresses. Therefore, give the employees responsible for data entry precise instructions for entering personal customer contacts and entering purchased addresses and stop them with the greatest care. Mistake No. 3: Too little or too much personal contact Address mailings to commercial customers, especially in large companies, always with precise details of the contact person and the department. A sales letter to "Siemens Munich" does not go beyond the post office of the branch and goes directly to filing P. However, not only too little, but also too much personal salutation is not advisable. It seems very screaming to put the addressee name several times in the letter text. A "Dear Mr. Müller" in the salutation is sufficient. Mistake # 4:The letter is coming at the wrong time. Would you be thrilled if someone wanted to sell you warm sheep's wool socks in the middle of summer? Certainly not. You should therefore always place your performance-related sales letter offers in a seasonally appropriate manner - when the customer is most willing to offer them. Keyword thermal insulation: Cold feet encourage readiness as a consumer to deal with this construction measure. In winter this is the case in two ways. First, because of the weather. On the other hand, because then most people will see the heating bill in the house. Generally important when scheduling: Around Christmas, you should spare your customers with sales letters. There are also favorable days of the week for your mail. Private customers deal intensively with Saturday post,Tuesday to Thursday, business customers perceive their mailings particularly well. Mistake No. 5: The mailing offer is not specific The addressee of a sales letter presupposes that a painting company has wallpapers on offer. Unfortunately, a general mailing with the statement "We paper quickly and thoroughly!" Will be of little interest to him and the response to the promotion will be low. The situation is different when you become more specific, offer something special. For example, present the new collection of allergy-friendly wall coverings or individual wallpapers in digital printing. Or present a temporary discount offer for wallpapering. The clearer your message is, the higher the success rate will be. Mistake No. 6: The customer benefit remains vague Nobody hires a painter with a lime press technique,because he finds lime class or is fascinated by trowel and trowel. People buy smoothing techniques because they want a nice atmosphere, what the unusual love and want their neighbor or business partner to go green with envy. It is good to know the properties of techniques and products. However, the customer is always interested first in the benefits and personal advantages that he has from your performance. Please state this clearly in the sales letter. Mistake No. 7: Writing style is not very attractive The reader only gives a sales letter a few seconds to inspire him. You have to take advantage of this opportunity with an interesting writing style. With short, accurate sentences. With phrases that contain as little "I", "We" and "Our" as possible, but all the more "You", "You" and "Your". With a PS line,in which you name the main sales argument again and ask to act. Because this last paragraph is preferred when the text is quickly scanned. Error No. 8: Call for action to the reader is missing Do you call? Arrange an appointment for consultation? Request information material? Visit your homepage? Tell the reader exactly what to do next if you are interested in your offer. Because exactly this request for action is forgotten in many mailings, which are accordingly unsuccessful. It is even better if you make it easier for the potential customer to reply with an answer option (voucher, reply card or fax). This also gives you a simple means of checking returns and success. Mistake 9: Formally unconvincing Content is important - but optics too. In the sales letter an important argument for the addressee to pay attention to you. Your business letterhead should be attractive and contemporary. The letter text itself is best read if the lines are left-justified (avoid justification and hyphenation, this seems monotonous). Break the text into paragraphs, none of which should be longer than seven lines. Do not write more than one page at a time. A sales letter is particularly personal if it is not sent in a window envelope, but in a closed envelope with the address printed on it, including a beautiful stamp. The icing on the cake in an appealing design are small, light and flat additions such as For example, a refreshing towel (“Refreshment for your facade!”) Or a tea bag (“Wellbeing completely natural:Renovate healthy living with … "). Of course, these “gimmicks” should always fit the topic. Then they multiply the attention that the reader pays to the entire letter. Error No. 10: Return is processed incorrectly The mailing is on the post - time to sit back? Not quite. Because the most important thing is just now - the return of customers and thus your job opportunities! The responses of the addressees are often processed unsystematically, slowly or incompletely. Make sure that nothing goes wrong here. Make sure that the telephone number given in the mailing is staffed consistently and competently. Send the requested documents promptly. Suggest timely appointments to prospective customers. And note the results of the mailing campaign (unresponsive / unresponsive, no order / unresponsive,Expressed interest in …, resubmission on … / responds, order via …) for all addressees. Professional support Advertising letters that work require a lot of detailed knowledge and consistency in implementation. If you do not consider yourself a copywriter and you are frightened by the organizational preparation, you can still start a successful mailing campaign. In addition to advertising agencies, some companies in the paint industry also support their customers with mailing services or even with text templates for many craft services and for different target groups. Contact: Brillux KundenClub Kerstin Dieckmann Tel.: (0251) 7188-731 Fax: (0251) 7188-439 [email protected] www.brillux.derequire a lot of detailed knowledge and consistency in the implementation. If you do not consider yourself a copywriter and you are frightened by the organizational preparation, you can still start a successful mailing campaign. In addition to advertising agencies, some companies in the paint industry also support their customers with mailing services or even with text templates for many handicraft services and for different target groups. Contact: Brillux KundenClub Kerstin Dieckmann Tel.: (0251) 7188-731 Fax: (0251) 7188-439 [email protected] www.brillux.derequire a lot of detailed knowledge and consistency in the implementation. If you do not consider yourself a copywriter and you are frightened by the organizational preparation, you can still start a successful mailing campaign. In addition to advertising agencies, some companies in the paint industry also support their customers with mailing services or even with text templates for many craft services and for different target groups. Contact: Brillux KundenClub Kerstin Dieckmann Tel.: (0251) 7188-731 Fax: (0251) 7188-439 [email protected] www.brillux.deIn addition to advertising agencies, some companies in the paint industry also support their customers with mailing services or even with text templates for many craft services and for different target groups. Contact: Brillux KundenClub Kerstin Dieckmann Tel.: (0251) 7188-731 Fax: (0251) 7188-439 [email protected] www.brillux.deIn addition to advertising agencies, some companies in the paint industry also support their customers with mailing services or even with text templates for many craft services and for different target groups. Contact: Brillux KundenClub Kerstin Dieckmann Tel.: (0251) 7188-731 Fax: (0251) 7188-439 [email protected] www.brillux.de