Direct Mail Marketing Agency Copywriter Says “Start at the Start” with Sales Letters.

Call me a dunce, but I can’t write a single line of copy until I write my opening paragraph.

Unlike many successful copywriters, I can’t follow the advice of the many direct mail copywriting gurus who suggest I write the reply device first because that’s the tool that closes the sale. I can’t start there. That’s the last thing I write.

So writing for me is agony. I can’t begin anywhere else but at the beginning. Which, for me, is the opening line of the letter.

So I write “Dear [blank].” Then I hit the return key twice. Then I wait for inspiration. Or hunt for inspiration, depending on how close my deadline is.

I get an idea. I craft the opening as a question. Too pompous. Hit delete.

I start with an anecdote. Too long in getting to the point. Backspace through that one.

I quote Aristotle. Too obscure.

I quote Mark Twain instead. Funny. But irrelevant. Delete.

I head in another direction. A statistic. A real grabber. But I sound like I’m preaching, not starting a letter written by me to a real, living prospect. So I delete again.

I hunt through 3,500 Good Jokes for Speakers. Nothing.

Maybe I should try a colloquial approach. I hunt through Yiddish Wisdom, Yiddish Chochma. “The husband is the boss–if his wife allows,” I read. Now there’s a great quote. But not for this letter.

A search through The Forbes Book of Business Quotations lasts over an hour because I get sidetracked by a great line from Henry Ford and end up reading every quotable thing he said, none of them germane to my topic.

And so it goes until I finish my start. Only when I am confident that I have hooked my reader do I have the courage to write the copy that will keep the reader hooked to the end of the letter. I can’t enjoy my trip until I know where I’m headed.

Now if only I knew how to end this article with a bang I’d have it finished by now.