The One Sentence Everybody Reads
Do you know why most professional copywriters always add P.S. to the bottom of their sales letters?
Historically (back in the day when letters were handwritten), the P.S. was used when writers remembered there was something they wanted to say, and didn’t want to re-write the entire letter.
Logically, we don’t need to worry about that anymore – if an edit is needed, the computer does it for us.
But advertising is not about logic. It’s about persuasion. And since people tend to glance at the end of a letter even before reading the body copy – the P.S. is seen as one of the most frequently read – and remembered – portions of any written sales message.
So What Should the P.S. Contain?
There are two basic approaches to writing copy for the P.S. – both of which are good:
- A recap or summary of the most important and compelling argument in the letter
- Something new, not mentioned before, that you want to highlight, like money-back guarantee … offer ends this weekend, etc.
And here are a couple of techniques you might want to try for even more punch.
- Keep the P.S. to a maximum of 2 or 3 lines
- Use a cursive font, à la a handwritten note
- Use multiple post scripts (P.S., P.P.S., etc.)
- Instead of P.S., sometimes use NOTE or BY THE WAY or ONE LAST THING
