Seven copywriting tips to keep your copy pulling and to build customer loyalty. (Promotion).

1. Your prospect comes first. A promotion doesn't start with a product; it starts with a person. To make a convincing sales pitch, you need to know not only what you're selling but to whom you're selling. What does he need? What does he want? What is his biggest worry or threat? What would he be willing to pay you for in the form of a subscription? What problem does he want you to solve? What gratification can you fulfill for him?

2. Develop a clear, cogent USP. Without a specifically defined Unique Selling Proposition, you'll never claim your rightful part of the market. In an overcrowded world of information service providers, the acid test of your promotion is its ability to answer this question: "My product is the only one that..." What do you do better or different? What makes your editorial content one-of-a-kind? Try this: In 50 words or less, state exactly and precisely what distinguishes your product from your competitors'. If you have trouble, go back and rethink your product.

3. Put your guarantee center stage. Guarantees have become the unloved stepchildren of DM promotions. They're treated as an afterthought rather than miracles of persuasion. Instead of the safe, standard, sanitized disclaimer, breathe life into your guarantees by dramatizing them.

For example, a b-to-b newsletter on how to manage employees better could direct the prospect to follow your Best Practices column for three months. If worker complaints aren't cut in half in 90 days or less, demand that the subscriber call the publisher's private phone line for a full refund sent within 24 hours. Put 100 percent of the risk on your shoulders, then dramatize it to greatest effect.

4. Infuse your copy with the "gotta." An emotional appeal will outpull a rational appeal every time. There are two kinds of things in this world: things we'd like to have and things we've got to have. Doesn't matter if we're talking about a new movie, a date or a subscription--the rules of attraction are the same. "I've got to see that movie!" "I've got to ask him/her out!" "I've got to get this newsletter!" If your copy doesn't swell with the gotta--if the emotion is dead--why should prospects bother? Prospects want to care. They want to be sold. Why not by you?

5. Make big promises the lifeblood of your sales argument. If you're going to ask a prospect to shell out from $100 to $1,000 for a newsletter subscription, be sure you're giving genuine value for the money. By promising much, it forces you to aim higher and do better. It pushes you to create and maintain a superior product, even when you know you could probably get away with something second-rate.

6. Use lift letters as a cheap way to increase response. Some might argue that changing envelope color is cheaper. Perhaps, but a lift letter gives you a second chance to communicate in that one-to-one way direct mail prides itself on that a color change can't match. *

There are plenty of lift letter ideas you can try--everything from a celebrity endorsement to an anniversary message to a restatement of the guarantee.

7. Never, never lie. Buyers will forgive you anything if you you've been honest with them, but there's not enough time in the world to repair a trust that's been shattered by deception. This is a lesson corporate and political wrongdoers never seem to learn. Newsletter prospects have a closer, personal relationship with newsletter editors and writers than other buyers. They have a higher degree of ownership in your product. Don't violate it. Even when you have upsetting news, readers will remain loyal if you're frank with them instead of dissembling or misleading.

* While the term Johnson Box has a nice ring to it--named after the late, great Frank H. Johnson--the lift letter is the most aptly named tool in DM The little buck slip got its name simply because it lifts response.

Robert Lerose is a freelance copywriter with more than 20 years' experience in subscription marketing. He specializes in new subscriber acquisition packages and renewal and invoice series for bath consumer and business-to-business publishers.

628 Meadowbrook Road, Unionvale, NY 11553, 516-486-0472, [e-mail]