A writer friend recently asked me to critique her letter of introduction (LOI) to a large bank that was currently looking for content marketing writers. I gave her LOI a quick read and made mental notes of all of the things she did right:

1. She had found the marketing manager for the bank on LinkedIn and addressed him by name.
2. Her LOI effectively highlighted her experience working in the banking industry as a teller after college and also listed several financial publications she had written for.
3. Her email included links to clips that showed my friend’s experience writing about personal finance and banking topics. All links worked, were highly respected publications and were recent clips.
4. It was well written and free of grammatical errors.
5. She included a link to her LinkedIn page so the manager could easily view her resume and recommendations.

But I quickly realized that her letter was missing one crucial sentence. She had not included a sentence demonstrating that she understood the bank’s audience and the goal of its content marketing efforts. Most writers send LOIs that are all about their experience, their writing, and what type of writing they can do. But the writers who make it on the short list are the ones that effectively communicate what they can do for the company and demonstrate that they have a solid understanding of both the industry and the audience. I have found this one sentence to be the difference in crickets and money in the bank. Once I added this sentence in my LOIs and responses to job boards, my rate of response increased almost 50 percent.

Here is the sentence that I suggested that my friend add to her LOI:

Based on my writing experience and work in the banking industry, I am confident that I can create content marketing deliverables that will educate your bank’s customers and potential customers on both banking and financial topics to increase their trust in your brand.

The key points to get across is that you understand who will be reading the deliverables, the types of subjects that they are interested and what the company is hoping to accomplish with their content marketing. Depending on the business, the goal is either to increase revenue or increase trust. Be sure to customize this sentence with any industry knowledge that you have about the customer, their education and their goals. The more spot on this sentence is, the higher your chance of landing the gig.

The next week, I got an email my friend with the happy news that she had a phone interview with the marketing manager that afternoon. And yes, a few hours later she emailed me that she had gotten the project.

Do you include a sentence explaining what you can do for the company in your LOI? Any suggestions for other ways to convey your understanding of the brand’s audience and goal?