Write Your Direct Mail Sales Letters Like a Page on Google to Boost Response, Results and Business

You can lose a direct mail sale quicker than you think.

So your primary goal at the start of your sales letter is to demonstrate relevance. You must prove, and quickly, that what you have to say is relevant to your reader. That’s why I recommend you write your copy as though it’s appearing on page one of a Google search results page.

Your customers think in terms of problems, not products. That’s why a teenager doesn’t boot up Google and type “Accutane.” She types “acne” or “acne medication” or “acne treatment.” So think of the keywords that a buyer types into Google when looking for information about the problem that your product or service solves.

Your sales letter needs to have those keyword phrases, not the brand name of your product, at the top of your letter. You don’t demonstrate relevance by promoting your brand. You demonstrate relevance by showing prospects that you understand their problem. And you do that by talking about their problem in the same language that they use.

How do you know which keywords to us in your sales letter to hook your readers? Visit Google. Type in the top keywords associated with your product or service. Click the Search button. Now pay attention to the hits that appear on page one. These websites are ranked in order of relevance. The most relevant sites appear on page one, starting from the top.

Let me give you another example. My Dad has Alzheimer’s Disease. When I wanted to find information about the disease, its symptoms and its causes, I typed “Alzheimer’s disease” into Google. The first link on the first page of results was for the Alzheimer’s Association. Highly relevant, you’ll agree, and just what I was searching for. Then followed the pages on Wikipedia that discuss the disease in detail, and the page for the US Government site that does the same.

Here are some of the keywords that appear in the page titles and descriptions for the first two pages of Google hits:

Alzheimer’s disease

dementia

If you want to sell me a book about Alzheimer’s through the mail, put these keywords throughout your package, particularly in your outer envelope teaser copy, letter overline, opening lines of your letter and the PS. I might not buy what you’re selling. But you can be sure I’ll read every word of your letter, just so long as you prove that you’re relevant in my life, and do so quickly.