Creating an effective cover letter.

The "look" of your cover letter can be a key factor in determining whether the prospect reads it. This look also has an influence on the response rate. The letter must establish interest and credibility quickly. A reader spends only seconds looking at what's inside an envelope before deciding whether to read or toss it.

Standard format

The standard format remains a good choice for many mailings. Its look is what you would expect it to be: date, inside address, salutation, body and signature. In other words, it is straight type.

This format is most effective when you have a straightforward message for the reader and when you are advertising products that meet more serious needs. Thus, it's useful for trust and investment services such as estate planning, investing and financial planning or for letters to commercial prospects where a business look counts.

It also can be appropriate for higher balance loans such as mortgage refinancing, in which the emphasis is on the process, service and speed. You can often boost response to this type of format by adding a postscript summarizing the key benefits.

But there are instances when you may want to go beyond the standard style.

Modified format

Here you can add visual life to your letter with a variety of techniques. One of the most familiar is the "Johnson Box" at the top of the letter with a headline literally inside a box. The headline serves the same purpose as an ad headline--to give the reader a reason to continue.

You can change the margins, too. For example, make the left margin 2 inches wide and put subheads or "pull quotes" there. These can give the reader key benefits that may induce them to read the letter's details. You also can add bullet points, underlines, bold or italicized type to emphasize benefits and features.

For most financial products, a table can be compelling and a quick way to communicate a lot of information. For instance, show the low monthly payments on a home equity line of credit or car loan based on different principal amounts.

Graphic techniques

As the cost of four-color printing continues to decline, more graphics such as credit card images are appearing on letters. These are usually shown as objects, not in a real-life setting, and typically one is enough. Digital printing especially allows for multicolor printing in a customized format.

You might even try cutting the cost of your brochure inserts by testing small four-color photos on the cover letter and reducing the brochures to either a smaller size or two-color printing. Well-planned tests will guide you as to whether such letters can be as effective as larger, more costly brochures with expensive graphics.

While call-outs, circled items, handwritten notes and similar techniques have declined in popularity as the personalization of letters has become more common, there may be occasional times when you will want to test them.

For example, try adding one color, yellow, to the letter and use it to highlight in marker style the key points of your sales message. Techniques such as the marker can be an effective shortcut to show readers how they will benefit from reading the rest of the letter.

You also can use two different looks on the same sheet of paper: Try printing your letter on a legal size page in black ink, with perhaps color on your logo, for the top three-fourths of the page. Then use the bottom one-fourth for an application or reply device. Make the bottom more colorful with either two- or four-color printing and provide for the prospect to check a box or add personal data for a loan application.

As with most direct mail techniques, there is no single answer as to which style will always be the most effective. However, with proper testing you can learn with a high degree of accuracy what works best to improve the overall profitability of your mailing for various products and offers.

To see samples of cover letters discussed in the column, go to aba.com/bankmarketing.

Tim Turner is President of Etra Corp., Naperville, Ill. The company provides advertising and research services. He can be reached at [phone] or at [e-mail].