A key and commonly used communication medium, sales letters are advertising methods

that sell a product or service. Its goal is to encourage the reader to purchase what the letter

contains. A promotional letter that is results-oriented involves meticulous preparation and must

include the concepts of good sales writing. The main goal of a sales letter is to generate sales by

offering as many compelling arguments to buy as possible with a prospect, educate and

communicate your business and your goods and services to prospective clients and request an

answer from the viewpoint[ CITATION Yun12 \l 1033 ]. A sales letter should be sent to a group of

prospective buyers who follow a set of requirements that have been developed. This helps the

company to know more about the core audience such that the content of the letter is tailored for

the selected group of people.

Bell & Smith (2010) put forward an easy pattern to follow while writing "S-A-L-E-S"

letters which are sparking the imagination of the reader, announcing the product, listing the

advantages, expressing appreciation, and specifying the client's response. The first goal of the

letter is to spark the imagination in readers and get them to read the next sentence. The four ways

of sparking the imagination of the reader are:

Offering something unique

When the letter opens with an offer for something new and unknown to the reader, they

will most likely be interested to read more about the unique opportunity for them. Writing an

attention-grabbing headline with some sort of mystery makes the reader inquire more about the

mystery. For example, a new skincare product may write "We offer new ways of making your

skin glow!".

Mention a celebrity
 Public figures have the power to influence a lot of people just by using their names. If the

reader sees the name of a celebrity associated with their personality, they tend to be intrigued to

read more[ CITATION Bel10 \l 1033 ]. For example, a toothpaste manufacturer may ask “Celebrity

X uses this toothpaste for whiter teeth, do you?”.

Use simple vocabulary

Most of the time readers don't want to give an effort towards understanding an advertisement.

Hence, using language in an easy to read and understand manner is crucial to keep the potential

buyer interested in the letter. For example, the letter might include short and sweet sentences

rather than longer ones makes an easy entry for the reader.

Empathize

Suppose, the reader of the sales letter is looking for a better way of managing their

website. If you can acknowledge the difficulty of managing websites to the reader, they feel

connected to the text as they are struggling to do so. It is wise to make the readers realize their

struggles and problems by empathizing with them and showing them the variety of problems that

are solved by your product or service.

References
Bell, A. H., & Smith, D. M. (2010). Management Communication. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

Zhu, Y., & Hildebrandt, H. W. (2012). Effective Persuasion of International Business Sales Letters.
Management International Review, 391-418.