Welcome to winstonmarsh NewsBrief…

You are receiving this e-mail newsletter because you asked to subscribe. If you do not wish to continue receiving it please refer to the opt out instructions at the end of this message.

How To Write Letters That People Want To Read!

It never ceases to amaze me how most of us have lost a skill we had in abundance in second grade. And what’s that?

It’s that ability to write something that people want to read.

The reason we have lost it is because we’ve been fazed and flummoxed by parents, teaches and bosses. Nowadays we tend to write for their satisfaction rather than for the interest of our reader.

And that’s the critical thing. A letter is only a conversation in print and, because you are interesting when you talk to somebody face-to-face, your letters can be too.

To help you write letters that people want to read here are some hints that I have found really do work.

1. Forget what your old English teacher said: All that stuff that dear old Mrs Crossley taught you about letter writing is garbage. That stilted, formal writing observing all of the rules of grammar keeps English teachers happy but sends readers to sleep and racks up no results.

2. Write letters like you talk: That’s it. When you write to somebody it should sound like you’re talking to them. So write it that way. In fact, one of the best ways to write a great letter is not to write it all! Say it into a tape recorder just as if you are talking to the person. It might sound like this “G’day Joe! I was thinking about you last night and I suddenly realised that there is something I am just bursting to tell you…”

3. Make the opening your headline: Now this is a great secret because it is what you learnt in bubs grade at school. Remember? The teacher gave you a choice of subjects to write about. You could choose “My day at the beach,” “A trip to the farm” or “My visit to the Zoo” and once you chose your headline you started writing and didn’t stop until you had finished. It was easy, you just wrote all you knew on what you had chosen.

So, once you’ve got your opening sentence as your headline, all you have to do is write about it until you’ve told them all that you want them to know. This is how the start of your letter would look.

G’day Joe!

I was thinking about you last night …

And I suddenly realised that there is something I am bursting to tell you…

Your English teacher might frown but, for anybody else, the start of the letter is pretty compulsive reading. You’d want to read on wouldn’t you?

The most important part of your letter is that headline. It’s got to catch the reader’s eye and make them want to read on (and by the way it is even more important for e-mail where the subject in the In-Box has got to suck peoples’ eyes into the screen). For example

I have a complaint!

There is something I have heard about you!

I promised not to tell anybody but…

If I ever catch you doing that again…

Leave her alone…

These are headlines that would seize the reader’s attention and make them want to read more. Yet each of those headlines could be about a business or personal issue.

4. Keep on writing until you’ve told them: Now you’ve got your headline and you’ve started writing tell them what you want to tell them. Just let the thoughts in your brain flow down your writing arm and through the pen to the paper or the keyboard to the screen. At this stage don’t worry too much about grammar or spelling just concentrate on getting the message down.

Before you start writing you may find it useful to list out all the points you want to make and then sort them into order of importance so that you make the most important point first, the next most important point second and so on.

5. Don’t fog it up: Resist the urge to use big words, long sentences and industry jargon. You should be pitching your writing at about Year 10 level because most people stop learning English about that time. The Melbourne Herald Sun is the largest newspaper in Australasia and is written for people with grade 8 level education! It has small words and short sentences and, although you may sneer, the paper gets read very well.

6. When you’ve said what you want to say --- shut up: One of the problems that many people have is they spend half the letter selling their ideas and the other half of the letter buying them back. The way to overcome this is to know what you want to achieve with the letter and, when you’ve given enough information to achieve that, stop writing!

So, if you are writing to get an appointment, explain who you are and why they must see you but don’t tell them what you want to show them when you meet because, if you do, why the heck would they want to see you? If you are writing to get them to buy your widget give them enough reasons to make a trickle of dribble run down their chin and then ask them to take whatever action is necessary to buy.

7. Check the spelling and grammar: Now that you’ve got this far its time to go back and check the spelling and grammar but resist the urge to start trying to please your old English teacher.

What your letter must do is seize the attention of the person you are writing to, compel them to start reading and keep on reading, and then take the action you want them to take. The more it sounds like you talking the better.

If you are writing a sales letter a great way to check it out is to ask somebody in your target market to read the letter. If they say they like the letter then throw it away because you’ve got a bad ‘un! If, on the other hand, they say something like, “Hey this is great, how do I get one?” you’ve got a great letter.

8. Don’t measure numbers, measure value: People often tell me they sent out 100 letters and only got 1 or 2 responses which has disappointed them. But say sending out 100 letters cost $100 and that resulted in a couple of thousand dollars worth of sales. How would you feel about that? Fantastic. In any mailing campaign it’s not the number of responses you receive but the value of them.

9. Don’t forget the follow up: No matter what sort of letter you are writing you can’t assume that the recipient will always do what you want them to do immediately. Even though what you suggest may have huge appeal when they get the letter they may not have time to respond. And being human, when they put the letter aside for later, there’s a big chance that they will never get back to it.

That’s why a follow up phone call 3 or 4 days after they have received the letter is a great idea.

That’s also why either sending a copy of the original letter with a note or a with compliments slip saying, “Just thought you might have overlooked this” after a week or a different letter about the same subject a few weeks later is a great idea.

10. Steal ideas: Although I am often credited with writing great letters I have to confess that sometimes, although the words are mine, the idea behind the letter came from somewhere else. One of the best books to get ideas for great letters is called Letters That Sell! and it has 90 letters to help sell products, services and ideas! When you’ve got a letter to write do what I do and flick through this book for a few ideas and you’ll end up feeling like a pro!

I liked this book so much I imported a few copies from the States. If you want one its just $35.00 including postage. But I do suggest you hurry because there are only a few copies left.

To order your copy choose one of the following:

1. Click here to order at our website.

2. E-mail us your credit card and address details and we will do the rest.

3. Send us your credit card and address details by fax (+613 9887 5581).

4. Call us directly with your order (+613 9887 5511).

By the way you can click here to visit our bookshop for more fantastic books/audios.

Please feel free to share this NewsBrief with your friends and colleagues by sending it to them in its entirety. If you'd like to republish the information contained in it feel free to do so but please don't make any changes to it without our permission. Reference to this NewsBrief would also be appreciated.

We don't send unsolicited e-mail nor can this material be used in any unsolicited e-mail. We do not pass our subscriber list on to anybody for any reason.

To get a regular dose of Winston Marsh's amazing profitable ideas you are invited to visit our web site at http://www.winstonmarsh.com.au. You'll see that there are great business ideas for you to use to turn your business into a money-making machine. Enjoy!

To delete yourself from our free e-zine magazine e-mail us by clicking unsubscribe.