For a while everyone used to talk about sales letters, you could buy a pack of sales letter or get sales letter software to help you out. But things have started to change, I dont know if people have gotten more sense or maybe the penny has finally dropped?

But, every where you look now everyone seems to be talking about building mailing lists and profiting from them. Ive even noticed that there has been an increase in the free e-books in circulation about mailing lists. Is this the end of the sales letter?

When you look at it even with a very good sales letter the response rate can be only 2-3%, but by building and maintaining a good mailing list the response rate can be 10% and more. The problem with a sales letter is that the prospect only usually comes to it once has a quick look decides Yes or No to themselves and off the go. So with a 2-3% response rate you lose out on the other 98% of your customers. Some of the experts claim that the main reason for having a website is to collect e-mail address and nothing else. Once you have the e-mail address you can follow up on your prospect as often as you want until they either buy something off you or unsubscribe.

So where does that leave you, should you pull down that sales letter and put your copywriting books away?

Well no, but you should consider building an opt in web page as your first point of contact with your prospect. Give something of value away or get them to sign up to an e-mail course youve put together, so now you have an excuse to contact them over a period of time and build up a relationship. When they start to get to know you and trust you, youll start to see your sales letter conversion rate start to climb and once theyve bought off you its easier to sell to them again and again.