Effective Copywriting 106 Aesthetics

Is Aesthetics Important For Your Sales Letter?

 

Does appearance matter to you? Like most people—including your customers and prospects—your answer is "Yes." Predominantly in sales, appearance is essential. For example, in a competitive situation, all else being equal, the look of the salesperson can be the deciding factor in who closes the deal.

 

Appearance is also crucial to the success of your sales letter.

 

The marketer with an extremely targeted mailing list, a strong offer, and successful copy —and who pays cautious attention to how his letter looks — will definitely get more offers than the person who focuses only on content, with no regard to aesthetics. The catchier it is, the better.

 

Tips on how to make a sales letter look good:

 

Tip 1: Always use a reader-friendly font. Almost all newspapers and news magazines use serifed fonts for mostly all of their editorial content. Fonts like Times Roman, Courier, and Century are far more readable than fonts like Arial, Helvetica.

 

Tip 2: Make your headline a catchy one. You must also keep your opening paragraph to between one and three lines.

 

Tip 3: Try to restrict the length of all your paragraphs to between 4 and 6 lines. Your letter should have an inviting, reader friendly look. Your prospect will definitely not be too happy to see plump, 9 - 11-sentence paragraphs.

 

Tip 4: Vary the length of your paragraphs so that it does not become too mundane.

 

Tip 5: Set the body copy of your letter in 10-11 point type and use sub-heads, bullets and other devices to attract attention. Always consider the audience you are writing to. If you're writing for the 20-something crowd, you can most likely even use 10-point type. On the other hand, if you're targeting the "grown-up" market, you may want to use a 14-point font type. Centered, emboldened sub-heads and other eye attracting devices can enhance readership.

 

Sub-heads, bulleted lists, emboldening, and other devices will give your letter added appeal and augment response. But take care to use these devices carefully. Overuse of them can counteract their overall efficacy.

 

Using these 5 tips will attract more eyes, make people read for a longer time, create more leads, and, ultimately, close more sales.

 

Always remember that your letter will be contending with perhaps tens of other sales letters received every day, sent by sales-people vying for attention. To cut through the clutter, your sales letter needs to be excellent, diverse, proficient, and relevant.