15 basic keys to writing a strong newsletter salesletter.

Writing advice about crafting a successful newsletter salesletter is beginning to feel like giving guidance on the care and feeding of your passenger pigeon. With the prevelence of forced free trials and other sample issue strategies, plus the increasing prominence of e-mail marketing, salesletters seem a bit old-fashioned.

But, if you are still using or testing "conventional" DM packages, here's a roster of things to keep in mind about the letter.

1. Long copy sells. The prospect who would "never read a long letter" will probably never subscribe anyway. For b-to-b markets, four pages is usually more cost-effective than six or eight. Investment newsletter salesletters going 12 or 16 or more pages are in a world of their own.

2. You aren't selling your newsletter itself or your company logo. Get it off the top of page one of the letter.

3. The only rule about headline writing that I follow is, "Don't ask a question in a headline to which the prospect can answer "No" and stop reading. (Sometimes the headline can run halfway down the first page.)

3. "Dear South Central Florida Franchise Motel Manager" is still as good an example of a targeted salutation as I can think of.

4. Use 11 pt. or so type font, certainly not less than 10 pt. Newsletter subscribers tend to be past the first flush of youth.

5. In Year 20 of the personal computer age, it may be that typewriter copy is finally dying but I haven't seen recent test results. Courier typeface, though, has traditionally been seen as more personal than non-typewriter-based fonts.

6. Break the copy mid-sentence at the end of page one. Force the prospect to turn the page. And instead of "Please continue" or "Please turn page," how about something more gripping, like "See inside for details about your special executive report"?

7. Try for short sentences and short paragraphs. Sentences should average about 15 or 20 words or a little more. Most paragraphs shouldn't be longer than tire or six lines. (What long reading reminds most people of is school, and what they remember about school is that they didn't like it.)

8. Subheads break up the grayness of the copy and provide a series of entry points for the skip-and-skim reader.

9. And, for the skip and skim reader, it doesn't hurt to repeat the key selling points more than once in a letter.

10. Prospects appear to like lists of benefits they will receive, although it may well be that no one buys anything for tire, seven, or 11 good reasons. Lists like these can be highlighted with a modest use of bullets, underlining, boldface.

To illustrate this point, the attractiveness of lists, in his seminars copywriting seminars, Rene Gnam would say, "And I can give you three reasons this is true" and observe that 100 percent of the audience would promptly pick up their pens and expectantly write: 1.

11. Don't break up the flow of selling copy with testimonials, but they can be set off as "pull quotes" in the vicinity of the reader benefits they endorse.

12. Similarly, listings of editorial features probably belong in a separate piece of the package.

13. The guarantee should be featured in the letter, emphasizing the "no risk" aspect for the prospect in responding to the offer you are making.

14. The P.S. is said to be the second most read part of the letter (as the prospect scans the headline and turns it over to see "who is writing this to me"). You can use it to restate the offer, direct prospects to the order device or into the body of the letter, of in some cases to restate a deadline for responding.

15. It's most likely impossible to overuse the words "you receive." In fact, "you" should be used frequently throughout the salesletter.