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Traditionally the P.S. was used at the end of letters to add an afterthought, with P.S. standing for ‘postscript’ which is Latin for ‘written after’. In the days before the editing delights of wordprocessing software, if you’d written a letter and forgotten to include something you could either rewrite the entire letter or simply add it as a P.S. at the end. So why do copywriters still use the P.S. today, I hear you ask? Well, it’s for the simple reason that the P.S. is one of the most powerful elements in a sales letter. Whether it’s in print or a long form sales letter on the internet, when confronted with pages of text people will instinctively fast forward to the end to read the letter’s conclusion or final summary. This will then help them to decide whether the entire letter is worth reading. For this reason, copywriters regard the P.S. as the second most powerful element of a sales letter after the headline. A well written P.S. can dramatically improve response rates because they can encourage more people to read your letter and buy your product as a result. Ways you can use the P.S. to increase your response rate There are many ways in which copywriters use the P.S. to increase the number of people reading their sales letters and ultimately buying. Here are a few popular tactics: • To quickly summarize the letter’s contents • To repeat the big promise made throughout the letter • To add more benefits not previously mentioned to act as a final clincher • To create curiosity by restating the problem your letter offers to solve • To build urgency in your offer with a limited time or limited quantity claim • Add credibility and proof with a testimonial, survey findings or test result • To add another bonus to your offer, such as a free eBook or a peripheral for your product To give you a couple of examples, here are two P.S. sections I added to a soccer coaching eBook: P.S. FC Barcelona: Style and Domination, A Tactical Analysis of FC Barcelona is a comprehensive guide to coaching players in the ‘tika-taka’ style of play. Through its diagrams, detailing of FC Barcelona’s common practices and dozens of soccer training exercise, this book shows you how to coach your players so you can improve their possession, passing and fluid movement so you can dominate opponents like the greatest team in the world. P.P.S If you are not 100% satisfied with the quality of the soccer coaching resources in FC Barcelona: Style and Domination, A Tactical Analysis of FC Barcelona after six months then we will refund your purchase in full, no questions asked. So as you can see, rather than merely an afterthought, the P.S. can be a powerful copywriting tool for increasing the numbers reading your sales letters and buying your products. ____________________________________ Article provided by Matt Ambrose from The Copywriter’s Crucible - an award winning melting pot of copywriting tips and marketing ideas.
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