How do you write a business letter that sells? Let's find out together!

How to write an effective business letter ? Perhaps, it's better to start with another question: why should one write a business letter nowadays?

Indeed, for years now, we have been living in the era of emails , which are a practical and economical tool. Yet email didn't kill direct mail. On the contrary: looking for customers via paper correspondence is an activity that still enjoys good health.

In short: in many ways, a commercial letter still represents a professional and, all in all, minimally invasive way of presenting one's company or business. Hence, business letters remain one of the most effective weapons available to marketing and sales departments. And of the owners of any business.

Also because, if you think about it, the letter has the advantage of being a physical object . Who sends letters today? Virtually none, because everyone uses email. But email is impersonal. And then just one click to throw it in the trash. Sales letters, on the other hand, have a physicality that is impossible to ignore. And that affects the recipient: whoever sends a paper document stands out, stands out from the crowd. In other words: a postal message always attracts the attention of potential customers.

That said, let's go back to our original question: how do you write a business letter that sells?

Before explaining how to write a business letter that makes you find customers, I have to tell you about something. This is an important element. And it is this: marketing always comes before communication. And that is? I'll get to the point: never dive into writing a sales letter if you haven't first reflected on the identity of your company and that of its competitors.

What does this mean in practice? Whether you write the letter or a professional copywriter writes it, it is essential to establish who your company is , what are its differences compared to the competition and, consequently, how it must present itself to enhance its commercial offer.

If you don't do this initial marketing analysis , you find yourself writing the same things everyone else is writing. That is, you risk communicating in a trivial, obvious way. That's the way it is because you don't say effective things, but what your competition says too.

This is a really big mistake, causing your paper mailing to fail. You have to avoid it. As? Reflect on the identity of your company, take note of what differentiates your offer from that of your competitors . Only in this way will your communication start from the right premises. Otherwise, you find yourself writing a business letter in good Italian, but nothing more. Too bad your goal is to sell...

Before you start writing a business letter , you need to ask yourself these three questions:

1. Who is the recipient of my communication?
2. What is the goal of my communication?
3. What reaction do I want to get from the recipient?

Let's analyze the first point. Wondering who is the recipient of a letter means deciding who to write to . Here you have to make a precise choice, because addressing everyone doesn't pay: shooting in the crowd is never a good idea in direct marketing. In fact, there is always someone who specifically needs you: that is your potential client. So try to understand who that category of people (or companies) is represented by. It's them that your business cover letter should hit.

Once you have identified your target, you need to study it in detail. Whether you communicate to a single person or to thousands of individuals, you must always do this: dig out as much information as possible about your recipient. In other words, you need to find as much information as you can both on the companies you write to and on the people who will receive your paper communication.

Finding out about a company means, for example, studying how it communicates. Inquiring about a person instead means looking for both personal information – age, gender, habits, educational qualifications, etc. – both working – position in the company, length of service, level of decision-making autonomy, etc.

All this is tiring, I know, but it is essential for writing a focused business letter . As I said: letters that are good for everyone don't work. In fact, effective communication - which is the only one capable of influencing the choices of others - is always tailored to a specific recipient.

The second point is less obvious than one thinks. In fact, the goal of a business letter may not always be to sell. For example, you can write a commercial letter to raise brand awareness, to propose a partnership, to collect data on your market. In principle, a sales letter is even more effective if it proposes an appointment than a direct sale. It is therefore essential that you identify precisely what the objective of your communication is.

Third point. Once you have chosen the target and objective of your business letter, you need to define exactly what action you want the recipient to take. Should his reaction be an order for your product? Or visit your website? Or do you want me to request more information about one of your promotions?

We have thus arrived at the moment in which to speak of writing business letters in a purely operational way . From here on, I'm going to tell you what you need to do if you want to write sales letters that harness the power of writing that sells. In this regard, I would like to point out some aspects to always keep in mind when drafting a letter:

1. Focus on the benefits for your reader
   Many think that writing a business letter means talking about how important your company is. Thus, their communication is self-referential and pompous. Too bad, however, that the reader does not care about how much a company is "market leader" or its "innovative technology". These are things that too many people already say: whoever talks like this is no longer credible. For example, at the time of writing, Google.it gives 45,200,000 results for the query "market leader"! The only one who is not the market leader is me! Writing a self-referential business letter is a waste of time (and money). Instead, focus on the benefits to the reader. For example, explain to him how much money he will save if he chooses you, how much more productive his company will become, how much time he can earn thanks to your services or products. In short: writing a business letter means stepping into the reader's shoes to meet his needs. I repeat: his.
2. Say the most important thing right away
   To write an effective business letter, use the inverted pyramid method (we'll talk about it in a future article, promise!). That is: get straight to the point, tell us right away what advantages you offer . Use the rest of the letter to justify the goodness of your proposal.
3. Be brief
   All companies try to gain exposure. Therefore, it is likely that you are not the only one in the world who writes business letters. Also, your reader typically has little time for you. Often, it's just a few seconds. So, it's important that you get to the nitty-gritty of your communication right away . Tell the prospect what you're offering them, what they're getting out of it, and how they should take advantage of the opportunity.
4. Use a formal tone
   Writing a business letter in a friendly tone is wrong. Or rather: it works only in certain and particular circumstances. To understand: in your paper sales letters you cannot use the tones of American sellers, those of the type: "Get rich in 3 days! Take advantage of this unmissable gift now that will give you happiness!". In Italy it doesn't work like this. Therefore, use a more formal tone towards the reader. Formal does not mean baroquely pompous. It means respectful, professional, credible. Remember that if you are writing a business letter to a person you should use her, if you are writing to a company you should use you.
5. Take care of the text structure
   It is curious how many of the rules of web writing can also be used to write a business letter. In essence: no wall of text but short paragraphs separated by empty spaces, use of bold to underline important concepts, use of lists. In short: it creates a textual structure with clean, easily readable graphics . In business letters, structure is an integral part of the message you want to communicate to potential customers.
6. Write in perfect Italian
   There is very little to say here: no spelling, grammar or syntax errors . Do you notice that there is a typo in the letter? No hand correction: reprint the sheet.
7. Insert photos of smiling people
   If you are thinking of including a photo in your business letter, here is the ideal one: smiling people. If they look at or use your product, even better.
8. Use calls to action
   The ultimate goal of a business letter is to get the reader to action, which most often is a request for your contact (or that of your salesperson). Therefore, your letter must end with an effective call to action . Much better if the call to action of the sales letter is valid for a limited period of time, for example: "It expires within 30 days!". This is to rush the potential customer, preventing him from shelving the sales letter and forgetting about it

So what is the structure of a business letter that sells ? How should the contents and graphics be arranged in it?

A premise here too. There is no basic structure for writing a business letter – everyone has their own variations. If you browse the web, you'll notice: everyone has their own idea of a structure for a business letter. And I have it too. My proposal is based on my professional experiences and a little common sense.

The header of your commercial letters must contain the sender's data, top left. That is: your company logo and its name, address, telephone and fax number, an e-mail address and company website address. For example:

COMPANY NAME
STREET NAME, HOUSE NUMBER
TELEPHONE - FAX
E-MAIL
WEBSITE

When writing a business letter, the addressee's data goes to the top right. Here is an example:

Dear COMPANY NAME
To Dr. PERSON NAME
STREET NAME, HOUSE NUMBER
ZIP CITY (PROVINCE)

In business letters, the date is placed at the top right, below the addressee's data. The day is written in number, the month in letters – it is more elegant – and with the initial letter in lower case, the year in number. The place must be entered before the date. Place and date must be separated by a comma.

In the subject, in a nutshell , we explain to the reader why we wrote him a business letter. Usually, the subject goes bold.

The subject is one of the elements to take care of most in writing a business letter. It must be brief and must make you want to read the letter. Personally, I love writing an object that contains a question. Because it is very effective. Here's an example: "Subject: Want to learn how to write a business letter that sells?"

Start with the adjective polite, followed by the title and the person's name. By now the formula egr. it is no longer used. Then you put a comma and go to the top, leaving a blank line, to start writing the real business letter . At the end of the body, insert the call to action.

Again: education but no baroque pomposity . The formula I prefer is: "Thanks for your attention and best regards".

The pre-signature precedes the actual signature and consists of your company name, your name and your position. It should be inserted at the end of the body of the business letter. An example:

SENDER COMPANY NAME
TITLE AND SENDER NAME
UPLOAD SENDER

In business letters, the signature should be placed at the bottom right. It is elegant that, under the signature, the name and surname of the sender are printed in brackets.

The post scriptum is classically an addition to the letter (the famous PS), after having already finished and signed it. It should therefore be inserted at the end of the communication. Its function is to emphasize an idea already expressed in the text, relaunching it. When writing a business letter, the postscript is a great place to restate your offer, placing emphasis on the main benefit to the prospect. Among other things, the PS strongly attracts people's attention: often, what the sales letter failed to do can be done by the PS!

Attachments are additional documents, related to the topics of the business letter. To indicate the presence of an attachment, add the abbreviation All. , at the bottom left, followed by the page number of the attachment.

Here, these are the guidelines for drafting business letters that really help you sell your products or services. But before closing this long article on how to write an effective business letter, there is room for some other ideas or advice... so...

Many entrepreneurs send only a few dozen sales letters and then immediately draw conclusions. Like: "I wrote 32 business letters and nobody answered me: sales letters don't work!". Well, thinking like this is wrong. First of all because a sales letter is a cold contact: the recipient knows nothing about you or your company. This means that you will most likely need to send them more than one business letter. Secondly, the sums are drawn on large numbers (that is, on at least a few hundred letters, if not a few thousand), otherwise you risk having contacted a sample that is too small to make any assessments.

And here we are with a second point. Generally speaking, writing a business letter (or rather: a sequence of business letters) means that you should expect a response of around 2-3% . Yes, I know: sales letters don't work miracles, but that number definitely grows if you rely on someone who knows persuasive copywriting. We at Insight Agency have been dealing with marketing and direct marketing for over 15 years, communicating effectively is not only our job, but it is our passion. Don't hesitate to contact us if you need a free consultation.

Another suggestion, which is often not clear to those who contact us asking us to write a cover letter for their company or business. Writing a text that is persuasive is obviously essential. Just as it is very important to identify the name of the company decision maker to whom to send the letter (you want to avoid the secretarial filter, don't you?). But there is more. A large part of commercial negotiations arise from a phone call that follows the sequence of letters sent .

I'll explain. Part of the negotiations will arise from the fact that whoever receives the letter will contact you (in the way you have indicated). This is, after all, what we want to happen. But many won't. After all, there is no direct mail marketing campaign that is 100% successful .

And so? What to do with those who have not contacted us? Shall we let it go? Do we assume that he is a lost customer? Certainly not. Because we have to do the so-called telephone recall (others call it differently). What is it about? All those who have not answered us must be called by us by telephone. "Hello, I wanted to know if you received our letter and what you think about it". This is the meaning of the phone call.