Brief and to the Point -- Usually

I have some six standard rules of thumb when writing sales letters. These are:

• I keep sentences as short as possible.
• Several small paragraphs work much better than one long paragraph.
• I inject a bit of light humor into all my correspondence.
• Rules of grammar only apply when marketing to (a) English teachers, (b) people who were once afraid of English teachers, or (c) people who have absolutely no sense of adventure.
• If I'm writing a personally addressed sales letter, I keep the letter to a hundred words or less (no one actually believes a personally addressed 3-page sales letter was really written just for them).
• All of the above rules can be broken if I can justify the infraction with increased response.

For example ... a long letter will help to describe my services better. But because it's a long letter, I'll leave the salutation and inside address off and make it a more generic letter. If I left the person's name on a 3-page letter, or even a long one-page letter, my prospects would be fools to think I wrote this especially for them, and I really don't need any fools for clients (unless they pay in advance, of course).

Rules of grammar actually do apply as long as you realize that you can break them to make a point. Having a poorly written letter is no excuse for bad grammar. But sticking an incomplete sentence in a letter for effect will make you sound convincing. Absolutely! Don't believe me? Try it! These last three sentences work because effective sales writing should sound the way we speak, and we speak in spurts (especially if you have young kids and try to talk around the dinner table).

Other basics include strong sales pitches and good motivators, but these I'll cover in future articles.

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