Over the Christmas break during a trip back to the UK, I finally got around to reading…

How to Write Sales Letters That Sell

…by the great Drayton Bird.

The book was first published back in 1994 and my copy is the second edition (from 2002).

The title is commendably straightforward and descriptive.  The book is all about sales letters.

And sales letters means those frightfully old-fashioned items, real pieces of paper with writing on them that (generally) are delivered through the mail in an envelope.

At this point, you may be thinking that a book covering this topic has no relevance to you…

…because you don’t use direct mail.

That would be a BIG mistake on your part for a number of reasons…

Firstly, because in any piece of sales copywriting, the most important element is NOT the medium through which the message is delivered.  It’s the message itself and the thinking and the psychology that lies behind it.

Secondly, even if direct mail doesn’t currently play a role in your marketing (and that in itself is a mistake), you may well be surprised at how often you need a “one off” letter of some sort.

Back to the book.

Most copywriting books, especially ones pitched at the introductory level, take a fairly linear approach to the subject.

That’s to say, after an introduction they start with the headline, go on to the salutation and opening and proceed sequentially through a typical letter to the close and the PS section.

For complete beginners, that’s probably the best approach.

Drayton adopts a somewhat different approach.

Pretty much every chapter contains an example of a sales letter and Drayton uses that example to illustrate a particular point.

The early chapters are devoted pretty much not to the nuts-and-bolts of the writing, but rather to the objectives of the letter, the sales context and the psychology involved.

Typically, the reader is invited to read the example letter and ponder what they would do, before reading Drayton’s main comments and suggestions as to the best approach.

You might describe this as a “case-study” approach to learning how to write copy, rather than a conventional text-book approach.

The early chapters devote a lot of time to the importance of getting to grips with the “big idea” of the offer, planning and research.  In fact, it’s not until Chapter 6 and page 83 that Drayton turns his attention to the process of writing.

No apology for that, indeed…

“…you may say (and I hope you do) that everything I have written so far about planning, preparation and trying to see things as your customers do is common sense.

That may be so. Bust as I pointed out at the very start of this book, most sales letters are constructed thoughtlessly, by people who see the job as simple, to be accomplished with the minimum of delay, the maximum of dispatch and hardly any preparation.”

And, of course, most sales letters written in that manner fail miserably.

From that point, Drayton takes the reader through a modified form of the AIDA formula, continuing to make liberal use of examples.

There is a wrap-up chapter at the end, “Common Questions”, that covers points of detail (salutations, for example) that have not been fully addressed before.

The great strength of this book is the vast practical experience of what really works in direct mail that Drayton shares with the reader.  Every chapter contains a number of gold nuggets that the astute copywriter and marketer can put to good use.

The example letters form a potential swipe file that is a great resource.

This is a book that anyone who already has a working knowledge of sales copywriting will find invaluable.  It’s full of practical tips and insights from Drayton’s long career in direct response marketing.

The man really has an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject and he has worked with many of the legends of the business from the last 50-60 years.  You’ll discover a lot about the business of direct response marketing as well as about the actual writing of the copy from reading this book.

One small qualification.  This book really focuses on the shorter, 2-4 pages, type of letter.  There are nods in the direction of longer copy, but there is little about how to write bullets, for example.  I suspect simply reading this book alone would not be enough to equip the beginner to write a long letter.

So, highly recommended for the copywriter or marketer who already has some experience of writing sales letters.

For the complete beginner there are easier places to start. To be sure, anyone who has the application and diligence to work through the book thoroughly will be rewarded. However, I suspect that will be beyond most people and a simpler book like Dan Kennedy’s “Ultimate Sales Letter” will be a more practical first choice for the novice.