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Guest post by: Melinda Copp Become an Author

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Letters—and even e-mails—are person-to-person communications; they are usually written by one person and read by one person. They have the power to win you’re your reader like no other marketing material can. However, there is no such thing as a routine letter. As soon as you start to regard external correspondence as just a task that needs to get done, your letters may lose their personal touch and competitive edge.

To make your letters more successful, consider the following tips.

Know Your Reader
The first thing you need to consider when writing letters is the reader—that one person who will be reading what you write. What do you want to tell that reader? How does the reader’s perspective differ from yours? What impression do you want to leave? And what action do you want the reader to take? Let the answers to these questions determine your tone and how you present your information.

What’s Your Purpose?
Letters can be sent to confirm or request information, deal with misunderstandings and complaints, sell new ideas and services to prospects and clients. And your letter’s purpose will dictate the best way to organize the message. This starts before you even set the pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, as the case may be. Before you even start to write you should think about how the readers will react to the contents of the letter. Remember that routine business letters often fall into one of three categories: information, bad news, or persuasion.

If you are sending a factual letter, use an information-driven format. Start with a compelling opening fact or anecdote that informs the reader of your purpose, and then present your main points one paragraph at a time. This format should also be used when you are conveying good news, and remember to jump right in with the good news in the first paragraph. By using this manner, the reader will then play close attention to the details that follow in the letter.

On the other hand, if you're writing to give some unsettling news, a more indirect approach may be more appropriate. The bad news format is gently direct and comes to the point of the letter only after an introductory paragraph that opens the correspondence with some background information. If the reader is given a bad news first, they may skip over the rationale that follows or read it with a biased view.

And of course it should be obvious that the persuasive viewpoint that builds a case for your goods or services is used when you are trying to sell to a prospective client. Use examples, statistics, and testimonials to reinforce your features and benefits. Remember that if you are writing a sales letter, you only have ten seconds to grab the reader's attention. If you don't grab their attention within that timeframe, the reader will not likely finish the letter.
Be Concise and Specific
The length of your letters will vary depending on your purpose and the amount of information you need to convey. But regardless of what you need to include, you should always aim for conciseness. Research has shown that the best sales letters are approximately one to one-and-a-half pages long, which is probably a good general guideline for other types of correspondence as well.

In general, the experts suggest that you keep all your letters short so your message is conveyed as quickly as possible. Be as specific as possible and to tell the readers only what they need to know.

Using Letters Successfully in Your Future
When writing letters for your business correspondence, don’t make the mistake of thinking that the how you convey your message isn’t important. Your letters have the potential to build new relationships, win over new business, and establish rapport with your clients—one reader at a time. Regardless of your letter’s purpose, a great amount of care should be taken to ensure that the contents are the best they can be.

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