The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost Your Sales., by Dan S. Kennedy (4th edition, Adams Media, 2011). My rating: 5 of 5.

You need a letter or an email that gets read and gets an answer. You have a blank page and a good offer, and you do not know where to start. Kennedy gives you a sequence of steps and walks you through each one.

What the book covers

Kennedy spent decades writing direct-response copy, and this book turns his method into a step-by-step process. You study the reader, then the offer. You list every reason someone might not respond. You get the envelope opened, write the headline, and build the copy around proof and repetition. The fourth edition runs about 240 pages and stays focused on the letter, with templates and examples throughout.

What stayed with me

Know the reader. His ten profiling questions ask what keeps the reader up at night, what they fear, what angers them, what frustrates them every day and what they secretly want most. Answering them describes your reader better than any demographic chart.

Know the offer. List every feature and benefit on its own card and rank them. People buy for what a product does, and the strongest benefit is often not the obvious one. Kennedy credits that idea to Ted Nicholas.

Face the objections. Write down every reason someone will not respond and every honest disadvantage of your offer, then answer them. That list also makes a good FAQ page.

The wastebasket test. “America sorts its mail standing over a wastebasket.” Your letter is a pest until the headline says something that matters to the reader. “Gimmicks too often fail,” he adds.

Headlines and repetition. His fill-in-the-blank headlines (How to, Who else wants, Warning, a number of ways to) work just as well for email subject lines and video titles. And he stretches the old teaching rule: tell them what you will say, say it several ways, then tell them what you said.

A few cautions

Some envelope teasers he lists, such as refund enclosed or tickets enclosed, are deceptive when they are not true, and the FTC and the lawyer advertising rules both bar misleading mail. Testimonials in professional marketing need care, and naming a client takes written consent. Agitating a problem and building yes momentum can slide into manipulation. For legal and tax services, inform rather than inflame. Lawyers who send targeted mail also have to follow Washington’s RPC 7.3.

Who should read it

Small business owners, copywriters and anyone who writes letters or emails meant to get a response. Professionals will get the most from the chapters on research and objections, and should test every tactic against their own ethics rules.

Quotes are short excerpts credited to the author. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. The price you pay does not change. I read this book on my own, and no one asked me or paid me to review it. See Disclosures.