Maximize Your Print Mailing with a Well-Written Cover Letter

Whether you’re sending direct mail or proposing a new business partnership, your presentation is always significant. Including a cover letter with your printed pieces is a compelling way to make connections, distinguish your team from the competition, or give a formal introduction for your skills and services.

Business cover letters can accompany other print marketing pieces in your mailing, acting as a greeting, a sales pitch, and a “next steps” proposition. Here are some tips to help you outline, style, and sharpen your next letter:

1. Opening

Promise a benefit in the headline or first paragraph and lead with your strongest sales point.

2. Supporting paragraphs

Expound on your most important advantage and tell readers what they will specifically receive as a benefit of your services.

3. Supplemental evidence

Back your statements with statistics, examples, endorsements, or testimonials.

4. Call to action

Tell the reader what is lost if he/she doesn’t act. Rephrase the benefits in a closing offer that incites action (i.e., deadlines, limited time offers, act-now incentives).

5. Closing

Rephrase the benefits and state your ideal outcome or objective. Reference any enclosed documents/resources and communicate a positive plan of action in a summary statement like this:

“Please review the enclosed proposal, try out the loan estimator on our website, or call me at ____ with questions. You’re welcome to contact me at your earliest convenience, or I’ll plan to follow up with you on Wednesday, May 1.”

Polish your presentation with these style guidelines:

Start with a short opening paragraph (four lines or less). Additional paragraphs should be shorter than eight sentences. Close your letter with a 2-3 sentence summary.
Avoid generic salutations like, “to whom it may concern.” Use the name or title of the decision maker you’re trying to reach and thank them for the opportunity to share.
Use deep indents and bullet points for clarity. Boldface key points or call-to-action statements to make your offer stand out on the page.
Use professional letterhead, weighted paper, or custom color envelopes for extra impact.

Add Dimension to Your Delivery

Well-written letters are an effective marketing supplement! Add a cover letter to your next print mailing to forge a personal connection and to produce a prompt, profitable response.

Advertising Creative: Strategy, Copy, and Design

by Tom Altstiel and Jean M. Grow

Written in an accessible style, Advertising Creative has become a key resource on the most recent trends of strategy, concepts, design, and integration of media and technology. The Third Edition gets right to the point of advertising by stressing key principles, illustrating them, and then providing practical information students and working professionals can use. Drawing on their own personal experience as award-winning experts in the creative advertising field, Tom Altstiel and Jean Grow offer a unique blend of real world and academic perspectives as they examine relevant and cutting-edge topics, including global, social media, business-to-business, in-house, and small agency advertising. Indeed, this hands-on textbook takes you well beyond traditional media topics, offering engaging examples and case histories on hot issues such as digital technology and tools, diversity, and an ever-expanding global marketplace.

In the new edition, Altstiel and Grow take a deeper dive into the exploration of digital technology and its implications for the industry, as they expose the pervasive changes experienced across the global advertising landscape. Their insightful discoveries reveal how brands now cut across geographic and cultural boundaries with lightning speed, and how the interplay of technology and culture, both local and global, is fast creating a marketplace that knows no boundaries. However, as cultural, geographic, and economic boundaries shift under our feet, the most important revelation of all is the identification of the three qualities that will define the future leaders of this industry: Be a risk taker. Understand technology. Live for ideas.