How Long Should a Sales Letter Be? The Ideal Length of Your Next Lead Generation Letter

by NASA Goddard Photo and Video

When the topic is sales letters, invariably the question comes up “What’s the ideal length? How long should it be?” Although there are a lot of variables that need to be considered, and no shortage of conflicting opinions, here’s how to get the greatest response for your next mailing.

First of all, it is important to make a distinction between the business-to-business market vs. writing letters aimed at consumers. There are some important distinctions that will impact the success of your mailing. Chief among these is that consumers have more time to read a lengthy sales letter than those who are literally glancing at your letter while they’re at work.

The old saying that “the more you tell, the more you sell” has some relevance to the length of a sales letter, particularly if you are writing to consumers. Numerous studies have shown that a 4 page sales letter gets a better result than a two page. A 10-page letter does better than a 5 page.

This raises an interesting point: At what point are there diminishing returns? Interestingly there really doesn’t appear to be one as long as you pay attention to two factors. 1) Make sure you are mailing to a list of highly targeted prospects, and, 2) Write in a style that engages readers.

There are a couple of tactics you can use around format and structure that will increase the likelihood that your letter gets read. The first is the use of stories. As one writer of fund raising letters stated, “Tell me that 1,000,000 people died of starvation in Africa, and I’ll probably just throw the letter away. However, tell me the story of Sam, who’s an orphan, reduced to eating bugs to survive, and I’ll whip out my checkbook.”

You also want to pay attention to how the letter is laid out. Keep in mind that a lengthy sales letter is likely to be initially scanned, rather than read in detail. Thus, sub-headlines are an important part of the layout. They indicate areas that may be of particular interest for the reader.

The rules are different in the world of B2B sales letters. It’s still important that your letter be targeted to a specific niche. Remember that the more the reader sees a reflection of themselves in your copy, the greater the likelihood is that they will read the entire letter. The tone and style should be welcoming and appropriately informal so that it engages the reader. This is why letters that are one or two pages in length tend to do the best.

It is important to keep in mind the environment in which B2B letters are read. The main difference is the level of distraction that exists in the B2B environment. Competing with your letter are constantly ringing phones, people waiting for appointments, and a myriad of other demands. Thus it is imperative that the first sentence hooks the reader’s attention.

One more important point to keep in mind when writing any sales letter is, “What do you want the person to do once they have finished reading the letter?” Unfortunately a “call to action” of asking for a meeting tends to be too-much/too-soon and usually fails to elicit a positive response.

The calls to action that work the best are either 1) offers of additional information or, 2) a statement that the writer will be calling to arrange for an appointment in the next few days. I remember that when I was an executive at Kraft that if the letter raised an interesting issue I would give it to my secretary with the directions that “If this person calls go ahead and schedule a brief meeting.”