Copywriting – The Order Form

In fact, in my booklet, “How To Make More money From Your Mailings” (available to download FREE of CHARGE – click here), I suggest that your should always start the creative process with the Order Form. You ‘ll notice how much importance I place on the Order Form from the fact that out of 101 tips included in my booklet, 39 relate to the Order Form!

There’s a very good reason for this. In the Order Form you have limited space in which to a) reiterate the offer, b) define the product or service you are selling, c) explain what action you want the reader to take and d) provide room for the reader to complete his details.

That’s quite a challenge, so I always prefer to make sure I can condense the whole thing into the space allowed for the Order Form or, in the case of a newspaper or magazine ad, the coupon. Only when I’m happy with the order form will I look at the sales letter or the leaflet.

Make it Logical – and easy to complete

The order form should always follow a logical pattern, too. You want the reader to feel comfortable reading it – not dodging all over the place to pick up all the information. Remember too, that you are writing the order form from the reader’s point of view. This is likely to be his only communication with you, so it needs to read well – from his point of view:

“Yes, please accept my order…”
“I understand that by returning this form within 7 days I will be entitled to a free copy of…”
“I prefer to pay by credit card…”

I cannot emphasise enough the importance of the Order Form. It's the essence of your offer AND it's possibly the only place where your customer communicates with you, so it makes a whole lot of sense to make it easy for him/her to fill it in. If you are building your database by mailing to 'cold' lists,what other information would you like to have? Address details, obviously, but also why not make a space for telephone and email address? Most people will fill in the information for you without question.

If you would like to use my skills and experience to create order forms that work for you, please click here to send an email to me and outline your requirements, or call me on 01803 875522. I'm always happy to have a chat!

You’ll see a number of examples of Order Forms I have created below. Simply click on each of the miniatures to see a full-sized version.

Sample Order Forms

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