Please, no more “dear friend” greetings!
You’ve seen it – the typical “dear friend” openers at the top of many a sales letter. And maybe you’re thinking, I don’t even know you! I’m for sure not your friend!
That’s not a bad knee-jerk reaction. And I bet a lot of other prospects cringe just slightly when they see the “dear friend” salutation.
So let’s drop that tired practice (unless it’s absolutely necessary).
Instead, use your salutation to further grab your prospect’s attention and qualify him. You want him to read the opener and say, “Hey! He’s talking about me!”
For example:
Dear Football Fan
Better than “dear friend.” But we can do better.
Let’s further qualify the reader by narrowing in our niche. Let’s suppose we’re selling to people who love NFL football. Then we might say:
Dear NFL Football Fan
And if we’re selling something to just one team, like the Vikings, then of course we could narrow it further by saying:
Dear Vikings Football Fan
Are we done?
Not quite. Just one more thing. Namely, let’s now build rapport with our reader. Let’s tell the reader, “I’m just like you!”
You’ll do this rapport-building all through your letter. But it starts right here in your salutation greeting by adding one small word: “fellow.” Like this:
Dear Fellow Vikings Football Fan
Now that’s about 100 times better than the ghastly “dear friend.”
