Psychology of a Sales Letter, Part I

I thought it might be interesting to delve into the step-by-step process of receiving, opening and reading a sales letter. Each step is a world in and of itself - perhaps one day we can investigate each one in more depth. For now, the general overview will suffice.

What goes through our mind as we're reading it? What do we look at first? What motivates us to act?

To answer these questions, I picked up a sales letter I recently received and observed my reactions to it. This is what I came up with:

Step 1: I get a sales letter in the mail. Congratualtions! I made it on the mailing list. Ok, so Company X is off to a good start. In addition to getting my information from somewhere (how did they get it?), they also got my address right. Quite a feat indeed.

Step 2: I decide to open it. This is even better news for Company X. Countless letters across the country have already made their way to the trash at this point.

Whoever was in charge of the outer envelope design for this letter did something right. It caught my interest. Or maybe I was already familar with the company. Either way, I'm curious, so I open it up. Of all the decisions that occur during this process, this is probably the most significant. The second I open that envelope, I invite Company X into my home to make their pitch. By opening the letter, I subconsciously tell myself, "I'm interested in what's inside." In effect, I make a subtle commitment to keep going. To "play the game." To keep reading.

Step 3: The Investigation. At this stage I had yet another opportunity to throw the letter out. But after opening it, I am still interested enough to keep going. So I open the envelope and find a few things: A letter, a reply card with a SASE, a lift note and maybe even a free gadget or toy. Cool! There is nothing cerebral about this stage. I'm just noticing the different elements of the package.

Step 4: The Glance. Now I turn my brain on first gear. I flip through all the content, on the lookout for stuff that stands out. The lift note attracts my attention. Any free item of value will do the same. Free pen? I'll put that aside for safekeeping. But I'm not really "reading" anything yet. Just browsing. Basically my eye is naturally wandering, taking in the overall tone of the mailing.

Ok, now I have a good sense of what the mailing is all about. What are they selling? Am I interested? Is this a professional looking company? I can probably answer these questions already. Human intuition works incredibly fast. And amazingly, I haven't even read one sentence of the sales letter yet!

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That's it for Part I. Look out for Part II soon, starting with Step 5: Skimming the Letter.