Essential Guide to Copywriting – Part 4: How to Write Powerful Direct Mail
0
You only have a few seconds to grab your reader’s attention with direct mail. That’s the easy part. Then you need to persuade your readers to take action.
Top 10 Tips
- Don’t fall into the junk trap. Is direct mail junk mail? Only if it’s done badly. To prevent your mailer going straight in the bin, it must be relevant and persuasive. Everything must resonate with your target audience, from copy to design and choice of print/packaging.
- Understand the market. There is nothing worse than sending out direct mail when you have no idea who is going to read it. A target market isn’t good enough. You need the right person in the right department of the right organisation. You also need to know what makes your readers tick. With a good understanding of your prospects, you can write from their perspective, not yours.
- Keep it simple. You need to grab the readers’ attention. Get to the point and stick to it. Don’t over complicate things. Convey one message simply and your mailer will be more powerful.
- Get them hooked. What’s your unique selling point for the market you are attacking? Is there one? You must have something that will impress your target audience. Make it clear what this is and describe it in the most enticing way without using too many words.
- Bold or subtle? The tone and style of your copy is just as important as the content. Again, you need to know your target audience inside out. A charity letter aimed at persuading an intelligent readership to make a donation requires a great deal more subtlety than a flyer promoting a special offer to engineers.
- Call to action. The aim with direct mail is to impress your target audience and persuade people to make contact with your organisation. Make it easy for them by including a clear ‘call to action’ and clear contact information. Offer a good incentive to make it worth their while and include a reference code so you can track the enquiry.
- Be different. The chances are your target market will not be expecting your mailer and will certainly not want to spend long reading it. Make it stand out. Think of clever ways to get your message across, not just in terms of careful wording but also original design, paper and packaging.
- Break it up. Avoid long sentences or paragraphs. It turns readers off. Write short, punchy sentences and break up the copy into reader-friendly chunks of information.
- Be exclusive. Make your readers feel special by personalising your mailer with the name of the person you are sending it to. This requires good, up to date data. If relevant, include an exclusive reader offer. You need to justify sending unsolicited mail.
- Use a professional. We would say that wouldn’t we! It is very hard, not to mention time consuming, to write powerful direct mail to capture the interest of your readers and hold it long enough to impress and persuade. That’s where we come in.
Free help with your copywriting
This article is written by Ian Lavis, Director of The Writing Room, a copywriting agency that creates words to inspire business. By conveying key messages simply and powerfully, The Writing Room helps clients win sales and impress customers, employees and stakeholders.
The Writing Room produces copy for all forms of written communication, from corporate brochures and direct mail to newsletters and websites. For a free, no obligation meeting to discuss your writing requirements, please contact:
Ian Lavis
The Writing Room
t +44 (0) 20 8656 5441
e info@inthewritingroom.com
www.inthewritingroom.com
Leave a Reply