Dear Friend,
I have a confession to make…
You see “Dear Friend” as the greeting on so many sales letters. It’s almost like some unwritten copywriting law…
… And it’s something I’ve tested on probably ~20 different products all in different niches. These are client sites so I can’t really show you an example or get too specific…
But in many cases, no greeting at all can DRAMATICALLY improve readership and conversions.
Why?
I honestly can’t say for sure, but I do have my suspicions…
1. Your greeting is in prime real estate, usually after the headline and before the lead. Maybe it’s serving as a roadblock before you suck them into the lead copy.
2. It’s overplayed. Especially in the bizopp/make moniez niches. It just screams “I’m selling something”!
3. It’s insincere. Most of the time when you’re selling in print you’re not *really* friends with your customers. Sure, hopefully you have a good relationship with them. I’m happy to chat with some of my subscribers from time to time, and in the case of my clients, we genuinely are “friends”, but that’s after we’ve already established a working relationship.
When I hit a complete strangers sales message, and I see “Dear Friend”, I think “Yeah, I don’t know you, what are you trying to sell me?”
But I’m not my prospect…
Point being, there are no “rules” in copywriting that are set in stone.
I’m not saying never use “Dear Friend”, sometimes it pulls better, other times it doesn’t…
But the differences are substantial enough to test.
The BIG takeaway here is even the little stuff is worth testing, because overtime even the small changes can lead to serious profits.
Peace,
-Scott Murdaugh
P.S. While we’re on the subject of “breaking the rules”, check out how these guys are quadrupling opt-in rates by… Get this… Removing the opt-in form from their squeeze pages! It’s pretty crazy stuff, but what’s more impressive is that it’s producing some incredible results for people… http://www.makestuffsell.com/Social
(The recorded webinar is only like 5-10 minutes and definitely worth the watch)…
http://www.makestuffsell.com/Social