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Nicastro  \nEvery year U.S. direct mail marketing efforts pull in hundreds of billions of dollars in sales and charitable donations. In fact, according to The Direct Marketing Association direct mail driven sales are fast approaching the 1 trillion mark. For those organizations who knowhow to use it, direct mail always has been and always will be a profitable core component of their overall marketing strategy.  \nSeveral factors are key to your direct mail marketing success. One of the most important is the letter. In many cases, particularly with small to mid-size service organizations, the sales letter may be the entire marketing package. But given the right list and the right offer, a skillfully-crafted sales letter can be all you need to turn a substantial profit --or, pull in a large number of qualified leads. With that fact in mind I offer you: Nicastro's Ten Commandments (Plus Five) of Highly Profitable Sales Letter Writing:  \nI. Thou Shalt Always Focus On The Wants, Needs, Hopes, Dreams And Desires Of The People To Whom You Are Writing  \nWhen writing your letter always keep your mind tuned in to the same radio station your prospect will be listening to when they read it. That station of course is WIIFM, What's In It For ME! So make sure your letters plays the same refrain over and over again--you, you, you.  \nII. Thou Shalt Always Write To Someone Specific.  \nAn aunt, uncle, brother, sister, cousin, friend, client--anyone. As long as it's a living, breathing person. This mindset will make your writing more personable, friendly, genuine-- important traits every professional must have, especially when you're selling on paper. As you write, keep in mind the words of the great copywriter Malcolm Decker, \"The Letter itself is the pen-and-ink embodiment of the salesperson who is speaking personally and directly to the prospect on a one-to-one basis. \"  \nIII. Thou Shalt Never Forget That Benefits Are The Reason Why People Buy  \nWhat your service does is a feature. What it does for me--Mr. or Ms. Prospect-- is a benefit. Give your readers benefits, benefits, benefits! As my good friend and top-flight wordsmith Barry Freed likes to say, \"Keep piling on the benefits till their head caves in.”Give them benefit after benefit until they simply have no choice. They have to respond. They have to pick up the phone. They have to schedule an appointment, request your White Paper or whatever the next step is.  \nIV. Thou Shalt Grab The Attention Of Your Reader With Your Very First Line  \n1-2-3-4. You have just about that long--4 seconds--to grab the attention of your readerso your opening line better be good. Because it's the most important line in your entire letter. The objective of your first sentence is to get your prospect to read the second sentence. The second sentence must get him or her to read the third. And so on. Every word, every sentence of your letter is important--and must advance the sale.  \nV. Thou Shalt Provide The Reader With Relevant And Specific Information  \nYou offer “world-class” service? What is it --specifically--that makes your service “worldclass”? And why should I care? For example, you operate an IT consulting business that specializes in network maintenance for small businesses. Your customer approval rating for the most recent full calendar year is 98.7% as verified by an independent third-party survey. That's relevant. That's specific and verifiable. That's a meaningful benefit. And that's what will make me respond.  \nWorld-class motivational speaker Zig Ziglar likes to ask his audience: \"What would you rather be, a wandering generality or a meaningful specific?\" So if you want meaningful response rates, forego generalities and fill your letter with meaningful specifics.  \nVI. Thou Shalt Write To Persuade Because That's All That Matters  \nWrite in a conversational, working person's, sitting-down-talking-to-someone-you-","cbCaid6evHIOxVY7","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaid6evHIOxVY7","pdf",30029,"English","# Nicastro's Ten Commandments (Plus Five) for Sales Letters\n## Focus on the reader’s wants and WIIFM\n## Write to someone specific and speak personally\n## Benefits are the reason people buy\n## Grab attention with the first line\n## Provide relevant, specific, verifiable information\n## Write to persuade with conversational language\n## Ask key questions while writing\n## Use active, action-oriented language\n## Write enough copy to get the job done\n## Add visual variety and appeal","[{\"question\":\"How should you structure your sales letter around the reader’s perspective?\",\"answer\":\"Keep your mind tuned to the prospect’s “WIIFM” mindset and emphasize “you, you, you” throughout the letter so the message matches what the reader wants and hopes for.\"},{\"question\":\"What is the difference between features and benefits in a sales letter?\",\"answer\":\"A feature describes what your service does, while a benefit explains what it does for the prospect. The letter should repeatedly give benefits until the reader feels compelled to respond.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are the opening lines so critical, and what should they achieve?\",\"answer\":\"You have only a few seconds to capture attention. The first sentence’s objective is to get the reader to move to the second sentence, then each subsequent sentence must advance the sale.\"}]","The Ten Commandments (Plus Five) Of Highly Profitable Sales Letter Writing | PDF",1789491839]