Whether you write copy for a living like I do, or whether you’re a business owner who creates your own copy for your marketing and sales efforts, here’s one way you can bump up the effectiveness of your copy efforts: A P.S.
Traditionally, the P.S., or post script, was used after the signature as a way to add more content — perhaps to clarify something you’d written earlier or as a brief update between when you wrote the letter and when you mail the letter.
No one writes by hand anymore, except my grandma (and her letters are always written on those impossibly thin shopping list notepads that real estate agents send out for free. My grandma is awesome). But everyone else in the world writes on a computer and doesn’t really need to add a PS because they can just go back and edit what they wrote or send a second email.
In copywriting, the P.S. persists and is a useful tool. When possible and appropriate, I try to include a P.S. in my copy (yes for sales letters and autoresponders, sometimes for blog posts, no for reports).
WHY YOU NEED A P.S.
It’s been said by someone (attributed to a couple of different people, most frequently to copywriting master Gary Halbert) that the P.S. is the second headline.
Less succinctly, my copywriting studies frequently urged that copywriters need to write a great headline and a great P.S. and just about everything was secondary… because it was usually skimmed (or even overlooked completely) by readers.
In practice, it seems that people tend to read the headline and, if the document is short, they’ll scan to the bottom and read the P.S. and then they’ll read the body copy. If the document is longer, this practice doesn’t happen as often (because of the work required to scroll down to the bottom) but the P.S. is almost always read, even if nothing else is read.
Since a headline and a P.S. are the two pieces in marketing copy that are almost always read, you need a P.S. as often as possible because it’s a second way to get your message to your audience.
Copyblogger gives another good reason to use the P.S.: In a list of things (and your marketing or sales piece IS a list of things), people tend to remember only the first and last thing. So your headline and P.S. are going to be remembered when everything else is forgotten.
Want some numbers to back up my pro-P.S. position? Here’s a compelling statistic from The Toppled Bollard, a British site about direct mail. They report on a split test between a sales letter without a P.S. and with a P.S.: The letter without the P.S. resulted in zero sales while the letter with the P.S. resulted in a 2% response and ultimately over 20,000 pounds in profit. Nice.
18 IDEAS TO CREATE YOUR P.S.
There are many ways to create a P.S. I’ll gather what others have said and I’ve added my thoughts in parentheses beside each one.
Michel Fortin says: The P.S. is a place to…
1. State or restate your call to action (this one’s my favorite)
2. Disclose a new piece of information (save a great piece of info to really hit home)
3. Summarize the main points of your letter (good but can make for a longer P.S.)
4. Recap your offer (similar to above but shorter)
5. Strengthen or sweeten the deal (especially good for a reluctant prospect)
6. Add a proof element (statistics work well here)
7. Overcome an objection (I recommend the most common objection)
Procopy tips advises to use the P.S. to…
8. Increase urgency (one of my favorites)
Ryan Healey adds these ways to use the P.S…
9. Reinforce the guarantee (make sure your guarantee has teeth!)
10. Restate the big idea (I haven’t seen this done very well)
11. Add social proof (especially your strongest testimonial)
Mike Kim lists these ways to use the P.S…
12. Restate the terms of the offer (be careful! This can sometimes be long or boring)
13. Add a bonus (similar to sweetening the deal, above)
HubSpot adds these great ways to use the P.S…
14. Provide a hook (including a link for the person to take action)
15. Give a final plea (similar to call to action but I like the sense of “plea”)
16. Personalize the offer (great to use if your offer has a corporate feel to it)
Copyblogger has this nice simple way to use a P.S.
17. Reiterate what the customer stands to lose (Love it! I’m going to try this one).
The Toppled Bollard gave this really interested idea…
18. Add a non-sensical P.S. (it creates interest, response, and drives people back into the letter)
HOW TO ROCK YOUR P.S.
Here are some tips I’ve developed over the years when writing P.S.s:
- Use it! When possible, use the P.S. Don’t waste the opportunity.
- Use it with purpose. A P.S. isn’t a throwaway piece of your marketing. I like to spend a large portion of my time working on my headline and P.S. If I nail that, there’s a lot of room for error in the body copy and I still get a good response. The skill-set I use to write a headline is the same one I rely on to write my P.S.
- Use only one P.S. Although some people practice using more than one P.S., and I have done multiple P.S.s in my sales letters, I prefer to use just one. I tend to think that multiple P.S.s clutter things up and you lose the edge you gained with one.
- Be succinct. I like shorter P.S.s. Yes, you might be able to argue for longer ones but I tend to think of a P.S. as a headline and headlines should be succinct.
- Test and measure. Key the links in your body copy separate from the link in your P.S. and see which one pulls better.