In the first post of this series we discussed how to create attention grabbing headlines to sell your product or service with direct mail. Now we are going to focus on communication in the body copy so your message reaches your audience and you sell. Let’s take a look at how to most effectively do this.

Tips for clear direct mail communication:

1. Focus on Prospects and Customers– You need to write copy that speaks to the reader. Put yourself in their shoes and see what would persuade them to buy from you. Use the word “you” to communicate directly to them.
2. Selling Points – Take the time to whittle down your selling points into concise direct points. You want your message to be easy to understand and not overwhelming. Strong selling points stand on their own merit. Organize them so that they are in order of importance. Your number one will get read.
3. Layout of Copy – If your copy is going to be really short you will not need to spend much time on this. However, if you have a good amount of information to cover you will need to breakup your copy layout. Keep short paragraphs and sentences. If you can section your copy do so and use subheads for people to easily find what is of interest to them quickly. Long chucks of copy are intimidating to readers.
4. Words – Use simple words. Don’t make your prospects and customers work to understand what you are trying to say. You want people to quickly read and understand your message. The simpler the words, the better your message will be understood.
5. Technical Speak – Avoid this! You want to communicate with your prospects and customers on their terms not yours. Do not assume they understand your industry the way you do. Do not use technical terms or acronyms. This will not give you clear communication.
6. Be Specific – Provide specific details and information about your product or service that show the reader why they should buy from you. Pick the most important things about your product or service.
7. Friendly – Be sure that your copy is friendly and conversational. You want to be inviting to your customers and prospects. A light friendly style is not only easier to read, but people want to read it.

As you can see a lot of thought needs to go into creating the copy for your direct mail that communicates your message correctly. There are a few other tricks you can use as well such as end your sentence with a preposition. Use sentence fragments to break up your word flow and add some flare. Don’t forget that bullets, numbering and white space all help to break up your copy and move the reader along without intimidation. Are you ready to get started? Contact us today!

Next time we will talk about how to write and sell with your direct mail.