Experts agree that when promoting your services and writing the email, sales letter or website promo the key activity is to ‘plan your writing’. 90% of the thinking should happen before those eager fingers start tapping at the keypad.

The focus of your communication, from a sales perspective, is usually to win new business. So here are a few key tips to consider when crafting your communications:

• Focus on the objective – what’s the end game? Ask yourself the question – what do you want your communication to achieve? Consider this and then work backwards – asking yourself key questions such as: “How do we best communicate that?”
• Be yourself – personalise the communication as much as you can and demonstrate a sound knowledge of your audience’s business dynamics and a clear understanding of the obstacles they face. If the reader believes you have empathy with their situation – they are far more likely to continue reading.
• Don’t talk too much about yourself – readers are interested in what you can do for them – not what you do. Focus on the opportunities your products and services present for them. That’s what matters.
• Use the words ‘you’ and ‘your’ as much as possible and minimise the ‘we’s’. This will warm up your communication considerably. And avoid words such as: difficult, fail, failure, hard, loss, obligation, try, sold, worry, cost, bad, fail, lose, sold, worry (believe it or not, consumer psychology has tested communications littered with such words – and findings have proven that they cause a negative impact on your audience. Be sure to use positive words such as: results, discover, approve, deserve, easy, money, proven, save, trust, truth, understand, value and vital – when you can.
• Use sub-heads, bullet points and highlighted or underlined text to convey key points. Be sure your key messages don’t get lost in a sea of text.
• Be very direct about your offer – and get the value proposition or the offer in quick. If you can save them £500 immediately – then tell them this in the headline. And of course, repeat the offer again, half way through the communication – don’t let them miss the opportunity.
• Make it easy for people to buy – have clear ‘call to actions’ – instruction of how to take advantage of the offer: ‘simply call Jack on ….’ ‘simply email Fred Jones’ etc.
• Be sure to keep your response mechanisms simple and provide a few response options. Don’t stipulate that orders must be done ‘online’ etc – as, even today, that may present an obstruction to buy for some.

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Michelle Carvill is owner and Marketing Director at Carvill Creative – a graphic design and marketing services agency based in Maidenhead, Berkshire.  The agency covers all aspects of graphic design and marketing – covering social media marketing and website planning and website design.