Writing Subheads for Direct Mail

By Apryl Duncan

 The importance of writing subheads for direct mail and online sales letters is often overlooked. Writing a solid subhead begins with a few ground rules to make every sales letter effective.

• Sales Letters for Direct Mail 

When was the last time you received an uninspiring sales letter that was a front and back page of text, text, text? No bold. No italics. No imagination. Just gobs of information on white paper. 

With sales letters, subheads can be the key to turning a scanner into a potential customer. Use subheads in your sales letter to break up the sections of your copy.

You can be creative with your subheads for a sales letter. (If you're writing an online sales letter, see "Online Sales Letters" below to get the most return for your sales letter.) 

You want to make sure that your subhead isn't too cutesy. You have some flexibility here over writing an online sales letter but your number one goal is to write a subhead that entices that prospect to keep on reading. 

Your subhead needs to tell your readers why they must read that section. Otherwise, they'll keep skimming and never read the body of your sales letter. 

This shortened sales letter sample shows you how to write subheads that can keep your potential customer reading all the way through: 

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Dear Mr. Smith, 

You're tired of working for someone else. The boss gets all the glory while you're stuck in your rut waiting for 5:00 to roll around day in and day out. 

Don't be someone else's lackey anymore. 

Stop Dreaming About Firing Your Boss and Do It

Most people dream of being their own boss but you can turn that dream into a reality today. The only boss you'll ever have again is YOU. 

Kill the Time Clock

Say goodbye to punching time cards. Once you get started, you'll work when you want. No more putting in a request for vacation! 

Rake in the Cash and Live the Way You Want

You set your own hours so it's up to you to decide how much money you want to make each month. Bring home the bacon one month and live it up the next. 

The Nitty Gritty That Will Change Your Life

Our five-day program shows you exactly how to get started. We'll even provide a list of your first ten potential clients. 

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With sales letters for direct mail, you have a little more creative room than you will for online sales letters. Your goal is to get the attention of your reader and reel them in but for online sales letters, you're wanting to write for the reader and for search engines. 

• Online Sales Letters 

When you publish a sales letter online, you need to change subheads that you used for direct mail. Online sales letters need subheads that will bring in additional traffic because you used SEO to create them. 

You don't want your subhead to be so clever that search engines skip over it. You'll lose more customers that way because search engines won't pick up the keywords you could have used to make your subhead effective for the reader and search engines. 

From the sales letter example we used above, let's turn that into an online sales letter with SEO subheads. 

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Dear Mr. Smith, 

You're tired of working for someone else. The boss gets all the glory while you're stuck in your rut waiting for 5:00 to roll around day in and day out. 

Don't be someone else's lackey anymore. 

Become Your Own Boss

Most people dream of being their own boss but you can turn that dream into a reality today. The only boss you'll ever have again is yourself. 

Flexible Work Hours

Say goodbye to punching time cards. Once you get started, you'll work when you want. No more putting in a request for vacation! 

Make Money at Home

You set your own hours so it's up to you to decide how much money you want to make each month. Bring home the bacon one month and live it up the next. 

About the XYZ-123 Program

Our five-day program shows you exactly how to get started. We'll even provide a list of your first ten potential clients. 

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Research your subheads to make sure they are the best SEO copy you can include. The more effort you put into making your online sales letter subheads and copy SEO ready, the more people you'll have reading your letter and finding your products/services.