5 Business Writing Tips You Can Profit From
February 28, 2008
Business writing can be a fantastic way to make more sales. Whether you’re writing for your own business or copywriting for someone else, it’s one of most profitable ways to make money from words.
I expected business writing to be boring. In fact, I thought my last business had brought an end to my love affair with writing. No more writing fiction for pleasure at 4am in the morning – my whole day was dedicated to my business. But I soon discovered that business writing can be creative and it can also bring in amazing profits.
Five Things You Need To Know About Business Writing To Make Money
The Top Copywriters Earn Megabucks For a Reason: Not only do they need to be creative – copywriters also need to become a salesperson with a pen. And whilst you don’t need to be the best copywriter in the world to profit from your own business letters, you’ll save yourself heaps of time and money if you invest in a good copywriting book.
Put It In Your Own Words: You may be tempted to buy pre-written letters and adapt them for your business. But you’ll write a better letter if you use your own words. After all, you know your products and your customers better than anyone.
When I was a Rainbow International franchisee, they had their own prewritten letters. And the first one I read began something like: “A carpet is a thing of beauty”. Well, I couldn’t imagine saying such a thing – and I couldn’t see such a ridiculous statement appealing to my customers emotions. So the pre-written letter wound up in the bin.
Life Can Be Unpredictable – But You Can Overcome That: It’s useful if your business letters, postcards and promotions reach your potential customer at a time when they actually need your services. But, unless your business is seasonal, you’re not always going to know when that will be.
My biggest money earner in my last business was flood restoration. And much of our work was dependent on weather – which is always unpredictable. So, I made sure we were in the right place at the right time by sending several different mailings to potential customers, one after the other. And when the rain came so did the customers.
My persistence resulted in dozens of jobs from businesses we’d never worked with before. This approach can work for you too – just be persistent.
Don’t Let Anyone Tell You That Direct Mailing Doesn’t Work: “People in the know” used to tell me that writing to prospective customers alone doesn’t work. And what you need to do is call these people and also go out to see them regularly.
I can only assume those “people in the know” write letters that suck. I hate calling strangers as much as I hate receiving calls from businesses I’ve never dealt with. And although I do enjoy meeting people – my potential customers were spread all over the country. So visiting them all frequently would have been a never ending task.
Had I taken that route – I would have received a handful of jobs in the time it took me to get dozens.
Long Sales Letters Don’t Work For Everything: Long sales letters are wonderful but they don’t work for every single product or service.
When deciding between a long letter and a short one, consider the amount of time the customer might be willing to invest in making a buying decision. For example, if they’re in the market for a financial product that costs a few thousand dollars, an 18 page sales letter may be your best bet. But, most people won’t spend a lot of time choosing a low cost product, so sometimes a postcard will be enough.
Do you profit from writing in your business? Do you have any tips to share? Or have you ran a mailing campaign that flopped? What went wrong?
Useful Resources
21 Amazing Business Writing Resources
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This might not be right for every type of business, but I make a point of making my emails look like they’re written by a person instead of by a company. I’ve had people write back and say how refreshing it is to get a real email for once instead of spam.
Of course true spam is never good, but I think they were referring to emails that were purely a sales pitch instead of offering some information, showing that you empathize with the person, etc. Sales pitches are not necessarily spam (assuming they’ve opted in), but sometimes they’re a little too blunt, as if saying “Let me explain why I want you to give me money.”
Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..Free Ebook: The Zen Of Blogging
Hi Hunter – that is good practise. Even though I’m using headed paper, I make sure all my letter sound like they’re coming from a real person rather than a company.
There’s nothing like using ridiculous jargon and sounding too official to put people off.
Hi Catherine,
We sometimes get sales letters, and often to save time and money, they take a sheet of paper, fold it in three and then put the address on the backside of the paper (and seal it). These end up in the garbage.
If someone wants to sell me something, take the time to put it in an envelope, address it, and then it might get my attention.
And, I agree, persistence pays off. If I keep seeing letters from the same company, I am more apt to take them seriously. Usually one letter doesn’t do it. It goes back to your “potential customers need to see your name repeatedly:
Also, a penned signature makes letters more personal, instead of one done on a copy machine.
It’s amazing how a single letter can tell you so much about a company. It can be a great first impression….then you just have to follow through.
Barbara’s last blog post..Why Wait – Blog For Dollars Now
Hi Barbara – we get those too, or mailings addressed to the occupier – I don’t even open them.
That is a good point about using the real name. It is so important. If you don’t have the name, it’s easy enough to call the company and see who you should be writing to. It’s rare that they won’t give you it.
And it doesn’t matter if you’re sending a few letters because it doesn’t take long to call a whole load of companies to get the name. I prefer doing that to using lists, as they’re often well out of date.
Hi Catherine,
Here in the States, the names of the company officials are public information
This just reminded me of a call I had a few days ago. A very polite woman called up, asked if she could send us a packet of information on their new equipment line, and asked who to send it to. With her being so nice, I gladly gave her the address.
Simple kindness goes miles….
Barbara’s last blog post..Why Wait – Blog For Dollars Now
Cath, thanks for taking part and for working the project into your business purpose – I knew you would!
I really enjoyed your post, it had lots of practical suggestions as usual and the bit about the carpet made me laugh out loud.
You are so refreshingly down to earth with a no-nonsense approach that that shines through in your writing, and that’s why you make such a powerful connection with your customers.
And you make business seem fun – which is why we hang out at your blog, and no doubt why people want to do business with you
Joanna
Joanna Young’s last blog post..Good Company Makes Writing Easier
Catherine, I agree with your point of a letter vs cold call. I don’t like sales calls from people I don’t know. A letter is much less intrusive.
Also, thanks for the recommendation and link for a good copywriting book. I definitely need to pick one up.
Barbara – Good point on using professional mailings with envelope and personalized with recipients real name. When a company skimps (like folding a paper in 3rds and stamping it), it really looks like junk mail. When the envelope and stationary are professionally designed it’s much more inviting.
sterling okura’s last blog post..Fishing With David Lynch: Creating Value From Nothing
Hi Barbara – that is useful that you are able to do that. And you are so right – kindness is important. I don’r understand the people who are rude when they call. They’re obviously not on commission.
Hi Joanna – thank you very much. I was keen to take part in the project no matter what, as I really love your blog and the way you inspire writers.
Hi Sterling – thank you. Getting a book is worth it as they also show good examples.
What Barbara said about personalised mailing is so important and should definitely be at the top of your list. Good luck and if you need any advice just give me a shout.
cathlawson’s last blog post..5 Business Writing Tips You Can Profit From
Just a quick note that long copy sales letters do outperform all other types every time… unfortunately. That doesn’t mean they have to be tacky-assed ones, though.
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..How to be Cool with Your Network Contacts
So James – are you saying you would read eighteen pages if you were considering buying a corkscrew ?
And what about costs? The lower the price of the product – the harder it is to break even.
cathlawson’s last blog post..5 Business Writing Tips You Can Profit From
Thanks for the post, Catherine.
You got me to think about what I can do to stay in touch with my current clients. Currently, we send out a custom-designed holiday card, but I’m thinking we need to do more.
Almost everyone’s commenting on direct mailing — worthy of its own post, methinks.
Nez’s last blog post..PLR Articles, the Microstock of Written Content
Cath,
I have made fortunes for previous employers using the tips in that book. And as you know, his blog is absolutely hilarious too!
I recommend it.
Direct marketing, whether it is email or post, is a bit like Google’s quest. Relevance.
If your audience is right and you talk to them as you would if you were in front of them, then your message wil be read.
Alot of it is down to crunching the numbers.
Long copy from all the research I have read does indeed outperform.
Direct marketing is all about measurement. Long copy versus short copy can alway be tested in an A/B split test.
If you have say 2000 contacts in your database, you can test by splitting it equally and trying a short copy approach against a long copy.
The thing you are looking to test is the profitability.
And this has to include the cost. Long copy may cost you 20% more to produce. The acid test is the number of responses andmore importantly the percentage of these that converted into sales.
Your split test has to be representative. It’s no good sending half to large companies and the other half to smaller ones. that won’t give you an equal split.
You have to have the same blend in both sets.
Ideally, you should also send at the same time so you can rule out other factors such as seasonality, best day of the week to send etc.
Claude Hopkins (if you Google it you’ll find a pdf of his book somewhere – it’s now free from any copyright restrictions) was the guru who influenced all the modern thinking. He’s recommended by Drayton Bird and many others – even PPC gurus.
Essentially he advocates appealing to just those people in the crowd who are your ideal buyer.
I think one of the reasons in particular long copy is frowned upon is that it won’t maximise the readership levels – i.e. those who get to the end of the letter.
One of the purposes of long copy is not to win prizes for maximum readership through to the end, it’s to filter out those who aren’t the type who would buy.
Equally, it is to have given those who are ideal clients every conceivable reason to buy and hence maximise responses/conversions/sales.
It’s for those reasons I suspect that in testing, long copy always outperforms – and outperforming in the ultimate category – profitability.
Ian Denny’s last blog post..Non-US Citizens Vote In Next US President
Hi Ian – I’m going to do a seperate post on profit in marketing, because I think it’s one aspect where small business owners get into serious trouble.
You need to at least break even on your marketing if you’re going to stay in business for long and if you think it only costs 20% more to produce a 16 page brochure than it does to make a postcard, you must have a very generous printer. Especially when you bear in mind that it is never enough just to send out one letter – you’re going to need to send out at least 3.
Every single copywriting book I’ve ever read gives examples of marketing that has performed well in long copy and they are always for things like financial products, magazine subscriptions, book clubs, or some kind of membership. If it works well for everything, then why aren’t they giving more varied examples?
Long copy v short copy seems to be being debated all over the Internet at the moment. I’m going to put together the figures in an article and see if anyone thinks they could write break even on a 16 page letter for a $20 product.
I have heard some guru copywriters say that it’s better to make a loss on the first mailing, but that’s easy to say when you’re using someone elses money isn’t it? I wouldn’t trust someone to perform well on a second mailing for me if they’d made a loss on the first one. Even testing and measuring costs money.
cathlawson’s last blog post..5 Business Writing Tips You Can Profit From
@ Nez Hi – Glad it helps. You can definitely do more to stay in touch. I try to stay in touch with mine every month or so – but never less than 2 months. It really is worth it no matter what business you’re in.
I was concerned that we wouldn’t get repeat business from something like plumbing – but we do. And, even if your customers don’t need anything else right then – your letters will remind them to refer their friends to you.
Good point on the long or short sales letter. It depends on the audience and whether they will will be engaged long enough depending on the product/service. I’ve never done a mailing campaign so this was pretty insightful.
Persistence, Persistence, Persistence.
Giun Sun’s last blog post..Establishing Credibility in Your Blog: Practical Approaches
Thanks Giun – I’m going to do another post to show the cost differentials of doing a long mailing for a lower priced product, because you’d need a really high response rate.
It is so easy to get burned in marketing, but there’s ways to control it and test and measure.
““A carpet is a thing of beauty” – now that is just grand. Just grand.
I have to be honest, I’ve never cared for the process of copywriting. I never had the patience for it. It wasn’t that I wasn’t good at it; I did, I think, more than a passable job. But it was just a bit too dry for my tastes. I dunno.
Sterling – I’ve always preferred the cold call. For whatever reason, I’ve had more luck with this than I have with any method I’ve used to drum up writing business. Maybe its the fact that I come from a long line of salesmen, or maybe I’m so unenthused by copywriting that my sales letters stink. Maybe I just pick the right potential clients. At any rate, I think there is nothing better than the thrill of making a sale on a cold call.
It could also, thinking about it, be that I’m a bit fan of Claude Hopkins (Good reference, Ian!) I have only ever targeted companies and individuals that I knew were in the market for some of my work. Did I miss out on some potential business because I didn’t contact the companies that were in my field but I didn’t have any info on? I’m sure. But I missed out on a lot of rejection too, I’ll wager.
Bob Younce’s last blog post..Beating Internet Writer’s Block
I know Bob – it sucks. I was speaking to the guy who wrote that line today and confessed that I’d made fun of it on my blog.
He is also more like you – he usually sends a letter out then calls. Mind you – it’s probably just as well he calls because his letters suck.
I really hate doing the calls. I’ll do them if I have to – but I don’t like it. To make matters worse, many of our customers are elderly and I often get the impression I’ve woken them up from an afternoon nap – which makes me feel even more guilty about calling them.
cathlawson’s last blog post..How Radar Can Improve Your Business
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The problem with sales letters and emailing customers directly is that customers can hit the “spam” button and disregard these letters completely. These emails should therefore be personalized and must capture a customers interest and encourage them to communicate with you, building a profitable, long lasting business relationship. Here is a blog link to a professional public relations writer that talks about how to use writing to promote a business in innovative ways.
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Hi Rebecca – I agree completely. Nowadays I only use snail mail, as an awful lot of emails wind up in spam. Emails can still work – if they’re useful to the reader.
[...] 5 Business Tips You Can Profit From by Cath Lawson at Catherine Lawson: Business writing can be a fantastic way to make more sales. Whether you’re writing for your own business or copywriting for someone else, it’s one of most profitable ways to make money from words. [...]
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