Your PS – One of The Most Important Features of Your Marketing Letter
P.S. Used to signify that you forgot to say something in your letter, so you stuck it on at the end, right?
That was yesterday. Your reader may still believe that’s the truth — and it may be the truth if you’re writing a letter to Aunt Agnes — but today the P.S. Is one of the more carefully thought-out parts of a good sales letter — right after the headline or the subject line.
Why? Because for some reason, most people look at it before they even read the body of the letter. We don’t know why, but enough studies and tests have been done to make all copywriters pay attention.
I’ve often thought it would be fun to take part in one of those “eye movement” studies — not as a participant, but as an observer. I’d like to know how they do them.
But back to the P.S. – what should it say?
It can repeat and reinforce one of your benefits, or even add a new one. It can remind your reader about the ease of ordering, or it can stress the necessity to hurry because the offer expires on a certain date, or there is a limited supply of the product.
Remember that scarcity is a strong motivator – but please don’t copy what I saw one marketer put in his P.S. He was selling an electronic download — an e-book, to be exact. And he said that there were only 13 copies available. (I guess once 13 were downloaded the file would melt or something.)
It gave me a good chuckle, but I don’t think that was the response he had hoped for!
Now, if you wanted to say that the special price of $X would expire after 13 were sold, that would be believable, and should motivate people to hurry. Especially if the price was about to increase by a lot.
Where should you use a P.S.?
On any sales letter, of course. But think about some other spots. Often catalogs or brochures have a small space that’s a “personal note.” It could be from the company president or some other member of the organization. The bookkeeper might have a message saying “I told the boss these prices have to go up — but he insisted on keeping them as they are for one more month… ” And then a P.S. Saying “Remember, after July 15, prices have to increase by X%. So stock up now!”
If you sell garden seeds, your P.S. could remind your readers that they need to start squash or cucumber seeds indoors, so “get your order in now” – even though there’s still snow on the ground. If you clean swimming pools your P.S. could remind people that they need to call soon in order to be in your schedule, which is filling fast, or could remind them of pool chemicals they need (and you happen to sell.)
And what about your website? For most sole proprietors the home page is (or should be) a sales letter — a message from the business owner to the prospective customer. As such, it should have a P.S.
I believe you should try to add a personal message (and a P.S.) every place you can. We’re all getting tired of being treated like numbers instead of humans — and since a lot of that comes from dealing with huge corporations that seem to be run by committee, a message that shows there is a real person behind the business is a drawing card – especially if that real person has a real email address or phone number.
Go check your letters, brochures, and websites – see if you have a good P.S. And if you don’t – fix it!