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Don’t P.S. Me Off
By barney | October 7, 2007
Use & Misuse of Post Script
Many copywriting mavens praise the use of a postscript as a ‘hook’ to capture the potential customer. And it does seem to work well. Many a reader has become a buyer after perusing a sales page and being prepared to decline, then changing their mind after reading a PS.
An ‘afterthought’ to the sales copy, presented as a PS, can be wonderfully effective - as long as it does not repeat something in the sales copy.
For instance, you might close your sales letter, then add an ‘afterthought’ as a PS like this. "P.S. [I forgot to mention/Don’t forget] that this [product/price/offer] is only available for the next x days. Hurry to take advantage of it, or you may lose out."
But if you’ve already mentioned that time limit more than once in the sales copy, it’s no long an afterthought. If you’ve mentioned the limit only once, or not at all, on the sales page, a reminder is a valid postscript,
Continuation vs. afterthought: the good, the bad & the ugly.
Continuation of a sales pitch after the close is considered as either ‘pushy’ or ‘desperate’, and automatically generates resentment in most cases.
On the other hand, a seemingly honest ‘afterthought’ appears more as a favor than as a sales pitch.
But there is a caveat here: don’t throw in too many afterthoughts.
A few weeks ago, I received an email, forwarded to me by a friend, that exemplifies that caveat.
It was a short, three paragraph sales pitch. But it had sixteen - 16! - postscripts. It was forwarded as a joke!
The author apparently decided that if a little is good, a lot is better.
The actual sales pitch was in the postscripts, not in the body of the email. The body merely introduced the subject; the postscripts attempted the actual sale.
A postscript is usually abbreviated as P.S., a second postscript as P.P.S. (not P.S.S.) or post-postscript, and so on. This aspiring copywriter ended his email with a P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.P.S. As you might surmise, the effect was ludicrous.
If you really have that many ‘afterthoughts’, you need to rework your copywriting from scratch.
Your customers will probably read one or two postscripts, maybe three, but they’ll soon tire of all the afterthoughts - you’ll actually distract their attention from the sales pitch.
Another thing to keep in mind about postscripts when copywriting is that you shouldn’t include them every time.
Like many of you, I subscribe to a lot of mailing lists and ezines. Like many of you, I have certain authors that I consistently read.
But there are a few - and well-known marketers, not newbies - that I stop reading as soon as the postscripts start. They habitually add at least one PS to *every* bit of copy.
I might miss something by not reading those afterthoughts, but I just can’t believe they ‘afterthink’ every bit of copy they send out.
To sum up these thoughts on postscripts, keep the following thoughts in mind.
- Use postscripts as genuine copywriting afterthoughts.
- Don’t use postscripts as a continuation of your sales pitch.
- Don’t use too many postscripts for any particular copy.
- Don’t use postscripts every time.
Don’t P.S. your customers off.
[Posted 2006-09-08, Moved 2007-10-07]
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Topics: Marketing |
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