Hook Your Sales Letter Readers with Good Transition Sentences
by Alan Sharpe
Published on this site: August 11th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
Anglers in Maine catch trout using dry flies with barbless
hooks. Unless they keep tension on the line all the way to
the net, they lose the trout. Your sales letters must do the
same. But how?
One secret to keeping busy business readers hooked is to
use irresistible transition sentences. Transition sentences
come at the end of one paragraph and the beginning of the
next. Good transition sentences leave your readers hanging
in a number of ways.
One of them is to tell your reader that a number of things
are coming up, forcing your reader to transition to the next
paragraph to learn what some of those things are. If you've
ever listened to a person with a pronounced stutter, you know
how hard it is to wait while that person completes a thought.
Your prospects are the same. If you almost complete a thought
at the end of one paragraph, they will begin reading the paragraph
that follows to complete your thought. But that's not all.
Another way to keep your reader hooked throughout your copy
is to end one paragraph with "that's not all" or
a similar phrase. Or to start your next paragraph with the
word "another." Each device shows the prospect that
you have not finished, that the prospect has more to learn.
And so the prospect keeps reading. And yes, there are some
other hooks you might want to try.
You can start a paragraph with the word "you,"
the one word that prospects and customers never tire of seeing
in print. Or you could try another proven tactic.
And that is starting a paragraph with the word "and."
Read the Gospel of Mark in the Bible sometime. It's one of
my favorite books. You'll find the narrative almost impossible
to stop reading, it's so exciting. That's because the writer
begins so many of his sentences with "and" that
you are compelled to continue reading to discover what comes
next. (I won't give away how the book ends. Read it and find
out.) But there's another device that's just as powerful as
the word "and." Do you know what it is?
It's the question mark. Put one at the end of one paragraph,
with the answer at the beginning of the next paragraph, and
you'll keep your readers headed towards your net.
So here's the one thing you need to remember. You've figured
out by now that the secret to effective transition sentences
is to keep your prospective buyer in a state of suspended
satisfaction, one where they must keep reading your letter
to the end before they feel gratified. And there's only one
sure way of doing that.
Alan Sharpe is a business-to-business direct mail copywriter
who helps business owners and marketing managers generate
leads, close sales and retain customers using creative
direct mail marketing. Learn more about his services and
sign up for free weekly tips like this at www.sharpecopy.com/newsletter
|