HOW TO GET THE RIGHT LOOK

One of the first things we discovered when we began using
the written word as a means to reach our customers and business
contacts was that the 'look' of these letters had a tremendous
impact on how our company was perceived by the recipient of the
letter.


For example, in our earliest letters we used a computer word
processor to develop the correspondence and printed the result out
on our cheap dot matrix printer. When we mailed these letters, we
got little or no response. We discovered much later that the reason
these letters didn't work was that they looked like they came from
amateurs. They did not have the look of a letter from a successful
business. And this caused a lack of credibility in anything we said
in the letter.

This lack of credibility cost us money, and lost the respect
of the people we needed most for survival -- customers who bought
our products and magazine editors who made the decision on whether
to print our press releases.

It was pure luck that we solved this problem. We had just
upgraded to more powerful word processing software, and the
examples in the manual showed what the program could do if you were
using a laser printer. We were so impressed by these examples that
we gathered up all our credit cards and went out and bought a
Hewlett Packard laser printer.

And that was one of the best moves we mad. Because from that
point on, everything we printed and mailed had the look of
success. And the results were overwhelming.

Just from the look of our letters people got the impression we
were a well-funded corporation that went to great lengths to make
sure everything was right. And that perception gave people added
confidence in our company which translated into more and more
sales.

About the same time we noticed that more and more magazine
editors, the same ones that had trashed our earlier press releases,
were beginning to print our most recent ones. And this too
translated into sales. And these new sales were not because we had
changed the wording of our sales letters or press releases, but
because we changed the way we printed them.

Adding a laser printer to your business is probably one of the
fastest ways to improve the perceived image of your company to the
outside world. If you don't already have a laser printer you can
use to print all your sales letters, press releases, and general
correspondence on, get one.

Your letters, press releases, and ads will look like a million
bucks. And that can make all the difference in your success.
(Which would you rather do business with ... a company that sent
you a very professional letter, or a company that sent something
that looked like it came from someone down on his luck living in a
mobile home?)

It's kind of funny really. When I got started in this
business my home had just been destroyed by a tornado and I was
living in an 8' by 32' mobile home. I didn't have indoor plumbing,
and my telephone was fifty yards from my front door attached to a
temporary pole. My nearest neighbor was eight miles down a dirt
road.

I was living in the backwoods of Arkansas in true poverty
conditions. Yet when people received business correspondence from
me, they just assumed from the 'look' of the letters that I was a
major player in a profitable corporation. And that gave them the
confidence to do business with me.

People do judge a book by its cover. And first impressions do
count. So be sure to take a look at every piece of correspondence
you mail.

Every time someone sees printed information from you company
they receive subliminal impressions about your business.
Impressions about whether you are a professional or an amateur,
precise or careless, neat or messy, in control or negligent. These
messages are all in the appearance of you letter, ad or press
release.

The good news is that you have complete control of the
impression you deliver. You control the layout, the font size
and type of letterhead. Getting these elements to work together to
your advantage is as important as what the words say on the paper.

There are several good books on graphic layout you can use for
reference, but perhaps the best reference is letters sent out by
the really successful people in the industry. These letters can be
invaluable reference tools when you are trying to develop the look
that works.

We save and file every piece of mail we get, and use these as
guides to improve our own letters. I suggest you do the same
thing.

And never forget or take it for granted ...

The look of a letter is almost as important as
what the letter actually says!


GOOD LUCK!!