The indispensable condition for a newsletter to work

The greatest newsletter in the world cannot be successful without a special condition. And this indispensable condition is the following: If you want your newsletter to work, you have to enter a conversation that is already taking place in your reader’s mind.
Speaking in other words, you must tap into a pre-existing desire. For example, if a person is not looking to buy a car, you will never succeed in selling him or her car. As a matter of fact, the quality of your newsletter is of minor importance. Once you’ve found out that this person is looking for a car to purchase, the newsletter work can begin. You can build your arguments for why the car you are selling is the best. But we can assure you that nothing will come of your reasons if your recipient doesn’t want to buy a car, is not going to search for a new car for several months or even a year, or has already got a new car.
Your efforts, no matter how skilled, are useless with this person. It is also nearly impossible to sell a product that addresses a problem or need that your prospective customer has never heard of. Newsletters yield results because they appear at exactly the right time. We mean, the time when your (let’s say) future customer is searching for buying a particular product, no matter whether this product is from you or from rivals. The question then is not whether your reader will buy, but from whom will your reader buy. If your letter comes along at just the right time; if it’s convenient for your reader to buy from you; if you make a good case for your product; and if the price is right, you have a great chance to make the sale. So to be successful, what you need is a way to find qualified leads relatively inexpensively—to find those people who want what you are selling. A poor sales letter can be successful when mailed to the right list, but a great sales letter is likely to fail when mailed to the wrong list.

the newsletter writer’s two most important jobs

A direct mail copywriter has two important jobs to fulfill when writing a newsletter. The first one is getting and then holding a reader’s attention. Direct mail letter writing may be compared with a kind of starting a conversation in a bar with a construction worker or over a kitchen table with a mom. Your arguments must be clear, precise, as simple as possible, and to the point. You will loose your audience if you express your idea using the sentences longer than a dozen words. Letters must be written at a sixth grade level, or even lower. We are not trying to say that your readers are stupid. Neither should you think so. They are just very busy. They have no spare time for trying to figure out what you are saying. You have only a few seconds of their precious time at your disposal to grab their attention and evoke the interest. The second job of a direct mail copywriter is to present arguments and reasons so persuasive and compelling that your reader stops whatever else she’s doing and sends a check to a stranger, all based on what she has read in your letter.