There’s a duality in business communications that not only hard to ignore, it’s annoying. Think for a moment about when you go to your mailbox or startup your email. The first few moments – minutes – are spent sifting and discarding junk mail. We’ve all gotten pretty good at spotting the sales pitches, the free offers that aren’t, and the too-good-to-be-true deals. Looking at it from the other side, somewhere there is an entrepreneur that is using mass media to try to better their business. What about when you send out a great offer? How do you think people will react to that?
Most of the time it is a struggle to balance spending money and getting the word out. Advertising is expensive, but if you don’t do it, your business will most likely fail. This is why inexpensive mass marketing techniques such as direct mail pieces and email offers are so attractive. However, as we all know, these methods can be very ineffective if not done properly. In businessknowhow.com, Ernest Nicastro writes how to improve your mass communications by revealing deadly sales letter mistakes.
The first mistake is obvious enough that it is understandable why it is overlooked so frequently. Unlike speaking to an auditorium, a letter is a one-on-one form of communication. Yes you are mailing to thousands of people, but you are addressing them one at a time. Crafting your message to address all of the people on your list is very impersonal and will turn off any interest you might have gained.
Another mistake is to assume long letters are bad letters. As Nicastro points out, "People read long books, take long trips, and watch long movies and plays. And evidence abounds that people read long letters." A long marketing piece is not a bad thing as a concept, but you have to be careful in its execution. Take all of the space you need, but make sure each line is engaging and not self-serving. Also, put all pertinent and most important information at the top. If they want to know more, they will read more. If they have to read a lot to find out they aren’t interested, they could become hostile.
It was drilled into you all through your school years, but grammar is not as crucial as you might think. You aren’t writing a literary treatise here, you’re trying to communicate with a fellow person. How you would talk to the person should be reflected in your letters. That means its okay to start a sentence with "but" or "and." AND if the mood strikes you, a preposition is something you could end a sentence with. Remember, too formal is just as bad as too informal when it comes to tone.
