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Timeless Advice
From a Past Master of Letter Writing
How to Start a Letter — Attention
Most men want to read your letters. Even a busy man—a man whose daily mail runs into hundreds of pieces—is just as anxious to read what you have to say as you are to have him.
But he can’t—he simply can’t.
He opens the sheet with interest, even with enthusiasm. “What’s this?” he says. “From Jones and Company—who are they?—what’s their proposition?—blank books, eh?—we’ll be needing some pretty soon and I’m not entirely satisfied with the last lot we bought from Smith and Company.”
That’s your man’s attitude nine times in ten. He’s ready, willing, anxious to be favorably impressed with your sale letter, and what does he get?
A stereotyped opening.
A pointless proposition that probably does not contain the very information he wants.
A groveling, beseeching spineless superscription.
The first acts upon his interest about as a pail of cold water would; the second irritates him; the last—if he ever gets that far—simply adds speed to the fillip with which he files it in the nearby waste basket.
If your letters do not bring results, do not console yourself with the false belief that all sales letters are scrapped by the clerk or boy who opens the mail. Once in a hundred times—maybe. The other ninety and nine failures are due to some fault with the letter or the proposition it presents.
Not, understand me that I claim any letter will give returns in every case, but the right sort of a letter will invariably leave the right sort of an impression. Your man may not be in the market, he may not feel able to make the immediate investment, he may be engrossed with maters of such importance as not to be able to study your proposition. But if the letter is right, it will do its work.
A bad start will kill an otherwise passable sales letter.
What is a bad start? I should say any opening which does not nail attention with the first phrase, which does not turn this attention to vital, personal interest.
Attention!
Study that word carefully. There are as many ways of attracting attention as there are colors in the rainbow. A few primary rules are involved, but these are subject to an infinite number of shadings and variations. Personal taste will determine how best to attract attention in different classes of letters.
Your start should make the reader feel as if you yourself were at his desk, making your talk.
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