Sample Sales Letters: 7 Full Letters to Copy and Adapt

A sample sales letter is a finished letter you can adapt and post to a prospect. A good one fits on one page, opens with something true about the reader's business and asks for one small thing. Here are seven for agencies and freelancers who sell to local businesses, starting with the one to use first.

[Your business name]
[Your street address]
[City, state, ZIP]
[Phone]
[Email]

[Date]

[Owner's first and last name]
[Business name]
[Street address]
[City, state, ZIP]

Dear [Mr. or Ms. last name],

I opened [business]'s website on my phone on [day]. [One specific finding, such as "the quote button leads to a page that says Coming soon"].

[One sentence on what that costs them, in their terms.]

I run [your business], a [web design studio] in [town]. [One sentence of proof you can back up.]

I have written down the three changes I would make first. Could I show you? It takes 15 minutes, by phone or at your office.

You can reach me on [phone] or at [email]. I will also email you on [day], in case this letter gets buried.

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
[Your name]

P.S. [A second, smaller detail that shows you looked.]

Six more follow. Every sales letter template on this page uses square brackets for the parts you change.

Which sample sales letter should you use?

Pick the letter by what you know about the business and whether it knows you. These sales letter examples cover seven situations that web design, SEO and marketing agencies meet.

A filled-in sales letter sample follows three of the seven, so you can see the brackets replaced. All three use one made-up electrician, Tidewater Electric at tidewaterelectric.example, and one made-up studio, Kestrel Web Studio. Neither exists, and the addresses and names are invented.

If you want a softer opening that asks for nothing, use one of our business introduction letters.

The letters

From letter 2 on, the address block is left out to save space. Put it on every real letter.

1. The website finding

Your first letter to a business whose website has a problem you can name. This is the template that opens the page, with its brackets replaced.

Filled in.

Kestrel Web Studio
31 Mill Road
Tacoma, Washington
555-0188
hello@kestrelweb.example

January 14, 2027

Karen Marsh
Tidewater Electric
208 Harbor Street
Tacoma, Washington

Dear Ms. Marsh,

I opened Tidewater Electric's website on my phone last Tuesday. The "Get a quote" button on the homepage leads to a page that says "Coming soon".

A homeowner with a dead circuit who taps that button has nowhere to go except back to the search results.

I run Kestrel Web Studio, a web design studio here in Tacoma. We rebuild websites for local trades, and I can show you two we finished this year.

I have written down the three changes I would make first. Could I show you? It takes 15 minutes, by phone or at your office.

You can reach me on 555-0188 or at hello@kestrelweb.example. I will also email you next Tuesday, in case this letter gets buried.

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
Sam Ortiz

P.S. Your photos of the panel upgrades are excellent. They sit four clicks deep, where few visitors will find them.

Why it is built this way. The first paragraph is about the reader, and the owner can check it in ten seconds. The P.S. adds praise that is as specific as the criticism.

2. The missing website

For a business with a Google listing, good reviews and no website.

Dear [Mr. or Ms. last name],

I searched for "[service] in [town]" on [day]. [Business] came up on the map with [number] reviews and no website to click.

A customer who wants to see your work or your prices before calling has nowhere to go. The other [trade] on that map each have a site.

I run [your business] in [town]. We build small, fast websites for [trade], and I have sketched what a first page for [business] could look like.

Could I send it over, or bring it by? It takes 10 minutes to look at.

You can reach me on [phone] or at [email].

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
[Your name]

Why it is built this way. It starts from the reviews, which the owner earned, so the missing site reads as a gap to close. The sketch gives the owner something to look at before they have agreed to anything.

3. The search finding

For SEO agencies. The finding comes from a search the owner can repeat.

Dear [Mr. or Ms. last name],

On [day] I typed "[service] [town]" into Google. [Business] was not on the first page. [What was there, with no rival named.]

[One sentence on the cause, which you have checked.]

I run [your business] in [town]. [One sentence of proof you can back up.]

I have a one-page list of what I would fix first, in order. Could I talk you through it? It takes 15 minutes.

You can reach me on [phone] or at [email]. I will also email you on [day].

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
[Your name]

Filled in.

Dear Ms. Marsh,

Last Tuesday I typed "emergency electrician Tacoma" into Google. Tidewater Electric was not on the first page. Three electricians from outside the city were.

Your site lists every service on one page, so there is no page about emergency call-outs for Google to show.

I run Kestrel Web Studio here in Tacoma. We do search work for local trades, and I can show you where two of them ranked before and after.

I have a one-page list of what I would fix first, in order. Could I talk you through it? It takes 15 minutes.

You can reach me on 555-0188 or at hello@kestrelweb.example. I will also email you next Tuesday.

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
Sam Ortiz

Why it is built this way. The owner can run the same search and see the same result. Rivals are counted and never named, because a letter that names a competitor reads as an attack.

4. The reviews

For marketing agencies. The business has strong reviews and a website that ignores them.

Dear [Mr. or Ms. last name],

[Business] has [number] Google reviews with an average of [score]. I read the last twenty. [One thing customers keep saying, in their own words.]

None of that appears on your website. A visitor who lands there sees [what the site shows instead].

I run [your business] in [town]. We help local [trade] turn what customers already say into pages, emails and ads. [One sentence of proof you can back up.]

Could I show you what your homepage would say if your customers wrote it? It takes 15 minutes.

You can reach me on [phone] or at [email]. I will also email you on [day].

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
[Your name]

Why it is built this way. It opens with praise the owner has earned, so what follows reads as a missed chance. Twenty reviews take about ten minutes to read, by our estimate, and they hand you the owner's best sales lines.

5. The neighbor

For a business near a client of yours. Send it only when the work is real and the client has agreed to be named.

Dear [Mr. or Ms. last name],

We finished a new website for [client business] on [street or area] in [month]. [Client's first name] said I could mention it.

While I worked on it, I looked at how other [trade] in [area] appear online, and I noticed something about [business]. [One specific finding.]

[One sentence on what that costs them.]

You can see what we did for [client business] at [their web address]. If you would like the same kind of look at [business], I can walk you through my notes in 15 minutes.

You can reach me on [phone] or at [email]. I will also email you on [day].

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
[Your name]

Why it is built this way. A name the owner knows does more than any claim about your studio. The finding still has to be about the reader, or the letter is an advertisement for someone else's website.

6. The past client

For a client whose website you built some years ago.

Dear [first name],

We launched [business]'s website in [month and year]. I went back through it this week, the way I would for a new client.

Most of it holds up. Two things do not. [Finding one.] [Finding two.]

Neither is urgent. Both are easier to fix before they cost you a customer.

I am free on [two dates]. Shall I call you on one of them and go through it? It takes 30 minutes.

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
[Your name]

P.S. [A personal line about their business since you last spoke.]

Why it is built this way. A past client already trusts you, so the letter can be shorter and warmer. "Most of it holds up" is honest, and that honesty makes the two findings believable.

7. The second letter

For a business that had your first letter and your emails and did not reply. Wait until the whole sequence has run.

Dear [Mr. or Ms. last name],

I wrote to you on [date] about [business]'s website and have not heard back. That is fine. A letter from a stranger is easy to set aside.

I looked again this week. [The first finding if it is still there, or one new finding.]

Rather than ask for your time again, I have put my notes on one page and enclosed them. Use them with whoever looks after your website.

If you would like help with any of it, I am on [phone] and at [email]. This is my last letter.

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
[Your name]

Enclosed. [One page of notes on the business's website]

Filled in.

Dear Ms. Marsh,

I wrote to you on January 14 about Tidewater Electric's website and have not heard back. That is fine. A letter from a stranger is easy to set aside.

I looked again this week. The quote button still leads to "Coming soon", and the opening hours on your homepage now differ from those on your contact page.

Rather than ask for your time again, I have put my notes on one page and enclosed them. Use them with whoever looks after your website.

If you would like help with any of it, I am on 555-0188 and at hello@kestrelweb.example. This is my last letter.

Kind regards,

[Signature in ink]
Sam Ortiz

Enclosed. One page of notes on tidewaterelectric.example

Why it is built this way. It gives something away and removes the pressure. Saying it is the last letter is honest, and it leaves the decision with the owner. We have no data on how second letters perform, so treat this one as a courtesy.

What should you change before posting?

The first line, every time. Each letter above depends on one true, specific finding about that business. Without it, all seven are form letters.

Here is how a finding becomes the line. The examples are made up.

Change four more things.

1. The proof. Use only work you can show. If you have none yet, leave the sentence out.
2. The ask. Keep it to 10 or 15 minutes.
3. The email day. If the letter promises an email on Tuesday, send it on Tuesday. Our follow-up templates include one that refers to the letter.
4. The trade words. A dentist has patients and a roofer has customers.

Finding one true line per business by hand takes minutes for each site. In Leadodo, Twip scores every website in a search, and its findings become the opening line of each letter and email. Read each letter before it goes, because your name is on it.

For the reasoning behind each part of the page, read how to write a sales letter.

What does the data say?

Less than most pages claim. We found no response rate for sales letters that we could read at its source, so this page quotes none.

Two things are on record. The first is the ANA's Response Rate Report 2021, which drew on 581 qualified responses from marketers. Letter-sized envelopes gave the best return of any mail format on prospect lists, at 112% (ANA). That is return on investment, reported by marketers in several industries.

The second is our own test, on email. Businesses with weak websites replied positively 1.60% of the time to a generic email and 2.35% of the time when the email named the problem on their site. That gap was not statistically significant (p = 0.238). The choice of business mattered more. Businesses with the weakest 20% of websites replied positively about 3.2 times as often as a random sample of the rest, as our write-up shows.

The test covered Dutch companies and email only, so it says nothing about letters directly. The lesson we take from it is to choose who gets a letter before you polish the letter.

How should a sales letter look on paper?

Like a letter from one person to another. Six rules cover it.

1. One page, printed on one side.
2. Your address at the top, then the date, then the owner's name and address.
3. A plain font at 11 or 12 points.
4. Short paragraphs with space between them.
5. A signature in ink.
6. A plain envelope with a stamp and your return address.

Leave out anything dressed up as an invoice or an official notice. It gets opened once and remembered for the wrong reason.

Our pillar on direct mail for agencies explains why the letter goes before the email. When you are ready to send more than a handful, the direct mail campaign plan covers 200 letters in four batches.

Questions

What is a sales letter?

A sales letter is a letter written to persuade one reader to take one step toward buying, such as a call or a meeting. For an agency, it is one page, posted to a business owner, about something specific in that owner's business.

How long should a sales letter be?

One page. The letters on this page run from about 75 to 125 words between the greeting and the sign-off, which leaves room for the address block and a signature. If a letter needs a second page, it is trying to do the job of the meeting.

Can I copy a sample sales letter word for word?

Copy the structure and the closing lines. Write the first paragraph yourself, from what you saw on that business's website or in its search results. A copied first line is the part the owner will recognize as a form letter.

Should a sales letter be mailed or emailed?

Post it, then email. The letter introduces you, and the email three working days after it arrives is easy to answer. Each one gives the other a reason to exist.

Do sales letters still work?

They can. The one public survey we could read, the ANA's from 2021, found that letter-sized envelopes gave the best return of any mail format on prospect lists. We have no response rate of our own to publish for letters.

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Next step. Your Outbound Machine opens with a posted letter that arrives on day 1, then sends the emails and LinkedIn steps, and stops for every business that replies. See the sequence.