Your sales brief - your 'shopping list' of what must go into your sales letter
I love working with great clients! The kind of business that sends me ALL the key information I need BEFORE I write their sales letter. (I've created a briefing questionnaire specifically for this purpose which I can send you.)
But there will always be the odd person that decides to send a load more information... often critical information... AFTER the sales letter has been drafted.
From experience I know how to dig deep to ensure I have all the information I need before starting work.
However I am not a mind-reader - and for more complex products or services I can't possibly be expected to know everything.
So before you brief me or any other copywriter, please make sure you provide a list of your main selling points in order of importance.
This way you'll be sure of getting a great sales letter, first time round, without any expensive re-writes!
Adding power to your original copywriting brief
You know your product or service better than anyone else. And hopefully you know your target market, too. So you should have a good idea of the sales message you want to get across.
But if I feel your brief is weak, I'll say so. I'll never start work until I am 100% sure we have the basis for a great sales message. A lukewarm message will result in a lukewarm response and if you're going to hire me, then you might as well get the very best results for your money!
I may also suggest ways of strengthening your original product offering, perhaps by including incentives or adding relevant enclosures. Or even adding extra benefits to the original brief.
Remember it's your product or service so there are no limits to what you can say to make it compelling and unique (providing it's true, of course!)
Other things I need before I start
I may also ask you to provide a copy of your letterhead so I can see how the layout will work. Good layouts make you look more professional, so it's important for me to see how much space I have to play around with.
Examples of past sales letters are also useful - sometimes they include additional service elements I can bring into the new letter. It's also handy to see how you've communicated with your customers in the past.
If you have a website, then I'll need to take a look at that too. Really, anything that lets me build up a real 'feel' for your business so I can represent you on paper in a convincing way.
And on that note, any general background information is useful. We're not talking huge dossiers of info, just anything that lets me get to know you, your company and its products or services better.