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Cath Lawson offered 5 writing tips on turning business writing into money. 

Five Things You Need To Know About Business Writing To Make Money

The Top Copywriters Earn Megabucks For a Reason: Not only do they need to be creative – copywriters also need to become a salesperson with a pen. And whilst you don’t need to be the best copywriter in the world to profit from your own business letters, you’ll save yourself heaps of time and money if you invest in a good copywriting book.

Put It In Your Own Words: You may be tempted to buy pre-written letters and adapt them for your business. But you’ll write a better letter if you use your own words. After all, you know your products and your customers better than anyone.

When I was a Rainbow International franchisee, they had their own prewritten letters. And the first one I read began something like: “A carpet is a thing of beauty”. Well, I couldn’t imagine saying such a thing – and I couldn’t see such a ridiculous statement appealing to my customers emotions. So the pre-written letter wound up in the bin.

Life Can Be Unpredictable – But You Can Overcome That: It’s useful if your business letters, postcards and promotions reach your potential customer at a time when they actually need your services. But, unless your business is seasonal, you’re not always going to know when that will be.

My biggest money earner in my last business was flood restoration. And much of our work was dependent on weather – which is always unpredictable. So, I made sure we were in the right place at the right time by sending several different mailings to potential customers, one after the other. And when the rain came so did the customers.

My persistence resulted in dozens of jobs from businesses we’d never worked with before. This approach can work for you too – just be persistent.

Don’t Let Anyone Tell You That Direct Mailing Doesn’t Work: “People in the know” used to tell me that writing to prospective customers alone doesn’t work. And what you need to do is call these people and also go out to see them regularly.

I can only assume those “people in the know” write letters that suck. I hate calling strangers as much as I hate receiving calls from businesses I’ve never dealt with. And although I do enjoy meeting people - my potential customers were spread all over the country. So visiting them all frequently would have been a never ending task.

Had I taken that route - I would have received a handful of jobs in the time it took me to get dozens.

Long Sales Letters Don’t Work For Everything: Long sales letters are wonderful but they don’t work for every single product or service.

When deciding between a long letter and a short one, consider the amount of time the customer might be willing to invest in making a buying decision. For example, if they’re in the market for a financial product that costs a few thousand dollars, an 18 page sales letter may be your best bet. But, most people won’t spend a lot of time choosing a low cost product, so sometimes a postcard will be enough.

Do you profit from writing in your business? Do you have any tips to share? Or have you ran a mailing campaign that flopped? What went wrong?

source: cathlawson.com

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