Your product or service may be the best of its kind, but it will not sell without the proper marketing and promotion strategies. Whether you are selling statement t-shirts, luxury cars, or discount tickets for a vacation to Europe, you will need to get word out on your product and service so that you can stand out in the global market. You may wish to hand out pamphlets if you are on a strict budget, or you may splurge on a television commercial to reach out to as wide an audience as possible. Both marketing methods, however, can be impersonal, not to mention annoying, to customers who want a product or service that caters exclusively to their needs.

One marketing technique you may want to explore is the sales letter. A sales letter is simply a letter promoting your product or service, discounts on your newest offerings, or even a share in your company. A sales letter, however, is more personal, as it addresses individual members of your prospective market.

This special trait of sales letters makes them difficult to write. Many of your prospective customers will have been saturated with hard sell, mass marketing methods. A sales letter, if overdone, can be irritating; if underdone, it can be ignored. Before you sit down and write your letter, take note of the following characteristics of a sales letter, and heed the tips on basic sales letter writing.

Sales letters, like any other letters, begin with a salutation to the recipient. The sales letter, however, will address a customer directly. How do you obtain the names and addresses of your recipients, and how can you catch their attention?

?You will need to identify the market of your product or service. Is your product something that will appeal to teens or adults? Who can afford it? Who might need it the most? If you know who exactly your market is, you will know who you should address your letters to.

You may be tempted, however, to simply pick up the nearest phone book and select names at random. This method, derogatively referred to as ?shotgun sending,? is counterproductive, and can waste your time and money. Shotgun sending, moreover, will make you appear even more careless, as you seem not to care about what your customers think and need.

A good method to narrow your market down is to do a search of your customers online. There are directories available for free on the Internet, although you must be sure that the online merchant is legal, and has gathered the names and addresses of the people in the directory with their consent. For instance, if you are selling textbooks on physics, you may want to search for directories of college professors, high school teachers, or even alumni of schools who might want to donate books to their alma mater.

?Make your letter attractive. If you are sending the sales letter through snail mail, you can have a colored envelope with an eye-catching slogan or catchphrase on the front. Such sentences as ?Do you want to know how to get great discounts on your grocery shopping?? or ?Know how to invest your money and get great returns? can make prospective customers open the envelope.

Making an email attractive can be challenging. Simply writing an attractive phrase in the subject line can sometimes land your email in the spam folder, or worse, in the trash. If you must send a sales letter through email, make your subject line simple, but your contents attractive. Go easy on the graphics; heavy emails can take longer to load, and you may end up annoying rather than attracting the recipient.

?The best sales letters are worded simply, but with force enough to jump out at the reader. How can a sales letter be forceful? It should address the reader directly, and must clearly show how the marketed product or service can directly benefit the reader. The best sales letters are not even cute or clever. They are simply convincing and innovative. For instance, if you are selling car parts, you can include a section on the top ten tips for proper car care.

A sales letter should make people read, and then purchase your product or service. If you are simple but convincing, you will certainly widen your market base and reach out to new customers. All you need to do is know your

market and your strengths, and you can find positive responses to your sales letter before long.