How To Write Effective Post Scripts for Websites and Direct Mail
By Mike Jezek Copyright 2007 Mike Jezek. All rights reserved.
Good copywriters know that certain "hot spots" of a sales letter carry more weight than others in the sales process. One of those "hot spots" is the P.S. or post script of your sales letter. Some marketers have reported that a well-written, well-thought out P.S. can actually triple response. It's easy to see why when you consider the P.S. is the tail end of your sales letter, the last argument to nudge prospects to look at the order coupon/page.
There are many ways of structuring your P.S., but for the sake of this article, we'll talk about a few effective tips you can employ immediately. What follows are several types of post scripts.
Restate the offer in the P.S.
Describe the guarantee in the P.S.
Describe a free bonus in the P.S.
State that the offer is tax deductible in the P.S.
Describe a new benefit your prospects will love in the P.S.
Write about your price advantages in the P.S.
Emphasize your U.S.P. in your P.S.
Describe a new bonus your prospects will love in the P.S.
Summarize what people are receiving and close them again in the P.S.
Use an endorsement as a P.S.
Use a testimonial or list several testimonials in your P.S.
Hit on the main benefit again in the P.S.
So how many P.S. s should you write? It all depends on your style of writing copy and whether or not it would be appropriate for the offer at hand. My take on this is that by the time Mr. Prospect gets to the P.S. he needs to be in a state of feeling confident (secure) about ordering and he needs to be feeling urgency. My methodology typically is to use a guarantee P.S., an urgency P.S. and sometimes either a re-statement of the primary benefits or a P.S. that re-states the free gift.
However, keep in mind that when it comes to direct mail, prospects sometimes do read the P.S. before wading into the body copy. With that in mind, you'll want to use a strong benefit-oriented, usp-descriptive P.S. along with re-stating your guarantee, free gift and urgency/scarcity factor. Technically, you're summarizing the offer in the P.S. portion of your direct mail package.
As for website copywriting, an urgency/scarcity/sale P.S. plus a guarantee and free gift P.S. is what I use in many cases.
One more note. Personally, I feel that offering too many post scripts at the end of a sales letter be it online or in direct mail may imply desperation on the part of the seller. A copywriter should have done a well-enough job of generating a strong desire and conviction to buy that the P.S. simply gives that nudge that pushes Mr. Prospect over the fence.
