1. Is there a letter?
2. Does it read like a letter?
3. Does it look like a letter?
4. Does it waffle?
5. Is it simple?
6. Does it use boring jargon?
7. Are there too many words?
8. Can you edit?
9. Is it active (not passive)?
10. Is it complete?
11. Are you worthy?
12. Is it warm and friendly?
13. Is there proof?
14. Does it ask for action?
15. Is it idiot-proof?

This is a useful checklist to run through prior to sending out those thousands of marketing letters.

I was very pleased when the course convenor approached me during a break and asked whether I was the one who had been blogging about the course the previous week.  He said that a prospective client had seen the blog posts on the web and had engaged him in discussions about running the same courses in Victoria and New South Wales.  The power of blogs!  A great case study.

The second workshop was all about producing great letters and copywriting.  Research shows that letters are the best medium for direct mail because they look and feel very much like personal letters and there is a greater chance that the recipient will read mail if it is enclosed within an envelope.  So the first lesson is: always use letters!

Your letters need to be REAL:

• Relevant
• Easy to read
• Australian
• Logical experience

Why Australian?  Well, Australians are culturally and socially different.  Most Americans receive 8-10 times as much direct mail as we do here in Australia, so they suffer from cognitive overload.  Australians enjoy reading mail and we enjoy stories and scenarios that we can relate to – that said, Australians are also generally more sceptical (less gullible?) than our friends from the US of A.  Our letters need to nuanced especially for Australians if they are to be read and achieve ‘cut through’.

Copywriting is all-important.  David Barratt identified some of the leading figures in copywriting and I have provided some links to there here:

• Siimon Reynolds – he’s the guy who created the award-winning Grim Reaper ads in the late 1980s
• Drayton Bird
• Herschell Gordon Lewis

Here are some of the lessons that came out of the seminar in relation to copywriting:

• Always write to ’somebody’, not ‘everybody’ (Drayton Bird)
• Organisations don’t write letters, individuals do – make your communications personal
• Use clarity, benefit and versimilitude (Herschell Gordon Lewis).  Verisimilitude is the appearance or semblace of truth – that is, your copy should include stories that may not be 100% factual, but which seem to be so.
• Pretend you are writing to a person you know – that way you will ensure that the copy is appropriately worded.
• Use you, you, you – not I or we
• Use active voice, not passive voice – subject verb object, rather than object verb subject (eg. ‘you get a money back guarantee’, rather than ‘a money-back guarantee is provided’
• Ask yourself what you want the reader to do?  The follow-up action needs to be clear, apparent and easily actionable
• Get rid of the big words – replace them with simpler words
• Use serif fonts (fonts with ‘feet’, like Times New Roman) – studies prove that serif fonts are more comprehendable – see this book by Colin Wheildon
• Younger audiences are more visual and can cope with ‘busy’ creatives
• Include a response device (eg a mailback coupon) and reduce the amount of work for the recipient)