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Million Dollar Sales Letters For Your Own Use and Profit
INTRODUCTION
Selling by mail can be the easiest and least expensive method of
selling your services or commodities. It can also be the most
difficult and the most expensive method of doing the job. It
all depends on the method you use in presenting your offering to
your prospects; it depends on the kind of a letter you send to
them.
To write such a letter, a message that explains concisely yet
completely and in an action-compelling manner what you have to
offer, is a job that demands the services of an expert versed in
every one of the thousand phases of selling and one with many
years of successful mail order experience at his command.
If you would choose the one man in the United States who could
write for you a sales letter that would produce the results you
desire, you would probably ask Robert Collier to do the job.
Backed by many years of success in the field of selling by mail,
selling every commodity from trench machinery to fertilizers,
books and raincoats, stocks and bonds and services, he has
placed hundreds of millions of dollars into the pockets of the
clients for whom he has written his master sales letter. As a
consequence, he is today, America's premier writer of successful
selling letters.
We asked Mr. Collier to select from the many thousands of sales
letters considered the best of them all. It was a difficult job
to pick fifteen of the best from a list of ten thousand of the
best. but the job is finished and here are the letters. These
are the fifteen letters considered the best ever written by the
man acknowledged to be the best writer of sales letters in
America today. They have been actually tested, they have been
actually used, they actually sold over one million dollars of
services and merchandise.
These letters will sell for you. Choose those which are
applicable to your own business. Alter them only to such an
extent as to accord with the products and services you have to
sell. But it will pay you, too, to study them all, for they all
contain the essential elements that enter into every successful
sales letter. They contain ideas that you may apply
successfully in sales letters of your own dictation
LETTER # 1
THE LOWLY PENNY WILL OFTEN DO THE TRICK
Here is a letter to which a new penny was pasted. In
conjunction with the figures given, the penny aroused an amazing
amount of attention.
The idea could readily be used by Insurance Companies, Savings
Banks and the like. It was also used with unusual results by an
association trying to build a membership for the purpose of
cutting the cost of government.
{letter}
IT IS A MARVELOUS THING -
The Power of Money to Make More Money!
Just this little insignificant penny, saved each week since the
start of the Loan and Saving Association, would today amount to
$75.00 - and of that $75.00, $50.00 WOULD BE INTEREST DIVIDENDS.
$1.00 saved each week would today amount to $7,500.00! THAT IS
THE WAY MONEY GROWS!
No matter what his beliefs, every man will agree that the
Scriptures contain some of the oldest and greatest truths known
to mankind. There is one truth that the Wise Men of old felt to
be so important, that they repeated it no less than six times in
the very first chapter of the Bible, and referred to it
throughout both Old and New Testaments.
This age-old truth is that EVERYTHING INCREASES AFTER ITS KIND!
Plant a seed of corn, and you reap ears of corn. Plant
thistles, and you grow a profusion of thistles. Plant money,
and your money comes back to you after many days, increased a
hundred-fold!
What harvest do YOU want to reap ten or fifteen years from
now? Money to put your children through college, or start them
in a business of their own? Security for yourself? Financial
Independence?
You have only to set your goal in order to win it. The price of
$5,000.00 or of $50,000.00 is only so many seeds of savings.
$5.00 saved each week at the Loan and Savings Association will
in about 13 Years amount to $5,000.00 $25.00 each week will
grow to $25,000.00.
And mind you, here is the part that counts. Of that $25,000.00
only $16,250.00 represents money paid in by you. The rest -
$8,750.00 - is GROWTH INCREASE!
Do you know any other way you can buy $25,000 as surely, as
safely - and pay so little for it? Do you know any way you can
buy $25,000 or any other sum, and pay for it in little,
convenient installments each week that never depreciates in
value, which are like seeds sown in good ground that keep
growing and growing, year after year, always ready to give you
more than you sow.
How much do you want to buy - $1,000.00 - $5,000.00 -
$25,000.00? How much do you want to give to your youngster when
he goes to college, or gets married, or starts in business?
Here is the one sure and easy way of having that money when you
want it. $1.00 a week now, means $1,000.00 thirteen years from
now. $5.00 a week means $5,000.00.
What will you start with - $1.00 - $5.00 - $10.00? "To begin",
says Ansonius, "it is to be half done".
Will you begin NOW - TODAY? Will you fill out the little form
attached, pin your check, dollar bills or stamps to it covering
your first remittance and mail it back in the enclosed envelope?
Will you save the first $1.00 on your $1,000.00, or the first
$25.00 on your $25,000.00 TODAY?
Sincerely,
LETTER # 2
HOW HANDKERCHIEFS WERE SOLD BY MAIL
A few years ago, a merchant in the clothing business in Buffalo
failed. While he was waiting for the bankruptcy proceedings to
be closed, he had no money and little credit. But he did have a
family, and he had to do something to keep them from starving.
So he got a friend to advance him a few dollars and with that he
bought some cheap knitted ties, and started mailing them -
without orders of any kind to lists of likely buyers. With the
ties, he sent a letter, offering the ties at 50 cents apiece,
and enclosing postage for their return or for remittance.
Within a few months he is said to have cleared $200,000. In
five years, it is reported that he made a couple of million.
Similar offers were speedily made by dozens of other concerns.
Here is the letter that successfully sold some hundreds of
thousands of initialed handkerchiefs by this unique method.
{letter}
Here's the most unusual offer you've ever received.
For years, it's been the custom among well-dressed men who were
fastidious about their handkerchiefs to have BOTH their initials
embroidered on them. But up to now, they've always had to order
them specially at considerable expense. For there were so many
combinations of initials (630 to be exact) that no store could
possibly carry them all in stock.
The result has been that fine quality handkerchiefs individually
monogrammed have cost from 75 cents to $1.00 each. (Your wife
will quickly verify this.)
Now, we've conceived the idea of monogramming handkerchiefs
without orders (in quantities that would keep the cost low) and
sending them by mail to a carefully selected list of Business
Men who would appreciate the wonderful opportunity afforded them.
You are one of the men we selected. Your handkerchiefs are
enclosed - four of them monogrammed especially for you WITH BOTH
YOUR OWN INITIALS.
These handkerchiefs are of fine quality, are fully-sized - 18
inches square and have a neatly hemstitched border. You will
readily see that such handkerchiefs should cost 75 cents each
when specially embroidered in silk with your initials.
If you'd like to keep these handkerchiefs, send us - not 75
cents each, not over 50 cents each - ONLY $1 FOR THE WHOLE FOUR.
You can easily do it by slipping your check or money order in
the enclosed envelope.
But, if you don't want to keep the handkerchiefs, just put them
back in the envelope, paste the enclosed label and stamp over
the address and shoot them back to us.
Isn't that a fair way to do business? It's the only way we know
in which individually initialed handkerchiefs can be sold
so reasonably.
When you send us the $1, in full payment for the handkerchiefs,
please do not return the label with the stamp attached. Thank
you! Every penny counts in selling handkerchiefs in this
unusual way.
Yours for unusual handkerchief value,
P.S. There's a birthday or anniversary coming up soon for some
man you know, and you'll be looking for just such an attractive
gift as those individually monogrammed handkerchiefs. Why no
double the amount of your remittance now, tell us his initials,
and we'll get the handkerchiefs off at once - either to him or
to you!
LETTER # 3
CAN HIGH PRICED ARTICLES BE SOLD BY MAIL?
YES... though it is necessary to first use the inquiry-bringing
type of letter to winnow out the few interested people, and then
keep after those few with a whole series of letters until you
land their orders.
$25,000,000 worth of yachts were sold by mail this way.
Inquiry-bringing letters and mailing pieces were mailed to them
first, then to those interested, a series of letters and
booklets were sent, and where possible personal calls were made.
Here is a letter which was most successful in bringing inquiries
for a machine selling for about $2,500.00. It was mailed to a
restricted field - Public Service Companies - and it brought
interested inquiries in considerable volume.
{letter}
When Millions Were Actually THROWN IN THE GUTTER!
"The most expensive gutters in the world" that is what they
called the canals of 1830 which cost $200,000,000 to build and
were doomed by the locomotive. What do you suppose they will
call the trenches of today, where whole gangs of laborers, take
days to dig up stretches of expensively paved streets, JUST TO
LAY PIPES AND CABLES OR DRAINS UNDER THEM?"
"The most expensive ditches in the world" - probably. FOR THESE
SAME HOLES COULD BE BORED AT A TENTH OF THE COST WITH A
HYDRAUGER!
All the work of tearing up paving, all the expense of
resurfacing, might just as well be thrown into the ditch, for
all the need there is of it or all the good you get out of it.
You see, the HydrAuger bores UNDER the street. It can make any
size hole from 2 1/4 inches to 10 1/2 inches. It can bore any
length up to 120 ft. It works as fast as a foot a minute, AND
IT COSTS ONLY 10 CENTS TO 30 CENTS A FOOT!
"In 1930, we made plans for installing water mains in a newly
incorporated borough", writes the Richland Township Water Co. of
Windber, PA, "through which passes three paved highways. Our
permit was conditioned upon NOT BREAKING THE PAVED SURFACE OF
THE HIGHWAY. Thirty or more crossings were necessary. The
HydrAuger enabled us to do the work in 1931 at minimum
expenditure. We know of no better or more economical machine
for its purpose. We completed the job for less than half the
estimated cost of tunneling."
We can save more than half for you, too. May we tell you how?
Your name on the enclosed card will bring full information by
mail, without obligation.
Sincerely,
LETTER # 4
THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE
Have you ever tried to sell fertilizer, shrubbery and the like
to suburbanites? It is not easy at the best of times, but
during the depression, when you couldn't get rid of real estate
for love or money, and when the mortgage companies were taking
over homes right and left, selling fertilizer and such for the
lawns was a real problem. Yet it was done. And here is one
letter that did it with amazing success.
{letter}
How To End Worries Over Scraggly Lawns
Dear Neighbor:
With your permission, I am going to make an analysis of the soil
of your lawn to determine - at my own risk and expense - what
elements are lacking in it, what you need for stronger,
healthier, more closely grown turf.
Mind you, this will not cost you a penny or obligate you in any
way. I am going to make this analysis just to show you how
little is needed to correct the texture of your soil and make
possible the growing of rich, thick grass.
You see, soil gets acid or alkaline such as your body does. Let
your body become too acid and the results are quickly apparent
in sallow skin, eruptions, disease. Let the soil of your lawn
become too acid and the grass on it will quickly grow sallow,
faded, full of weeds and noxious growths. But that condition
can be quickly corrected - the missing elements easily added -
once you have determined what the trouble is.
Will you let us make a chemical analysis of the soil in your
lawn - and send you a report of it - WITHOUT COST OR OBLIGATION
TO YOU? John Smith of Jamestown, VA, wrote us:
"I should never have believed it possible that so slight a
changing of the treatment of the soil could so quickly rebuild
and re-establish a lawn. Your analysis showed us how to work
wonders with our place."
Just your name on the enclosed card will bring you a FREE
chemical analysis of your soil condition, with clear directions
as to just what elements are needed to supply anything now
lacking. A similar analysis from any chemist would cost several
dollars.
Analysis will be made in the order in which requests are
received, so if you would like to get your orders quickly,
please mail your card NOW or telephone.
Sincerely,
LETTER # 5
A 100,000 MARK NOTE
To show how readily you can adapt to your business an idea that
has been used successfully in some other line, here is an
adaptation of the "Dollar Letter".. (See Letter #10.)
Pinned to the top of this letter was a 100,000 mark German note.
Its purpose, like that of the dollar, was to get the reader's
immediate attention and arouse his interest in the message of
letter.
It worked so well that the Wall Street Journal, for whom the
letter was written, reported that it was the most successful
subscription-getter they had ever used.
{letter}
Will You Accept The Enclosed German Reichsbank Note
For 100,000 Marks, With Out Compliments?
Dear Sir:
If the enclosed German Reichsbank Note for 100,000 Marks pays
for one minute of your time, consider yourself engaged.
Yes, it's a real Reichsbank Note, put out by the German
Government. Before the War, 100,000 marks were worth $23,820.00
in our money.
But when this particular issue of notes was retired, it took
10,000,000 notes like this to get a mark worth 24 cents in gold!
That is what uncontrolled inflation did to German money. As
fast as new issues were brought out, the old ones dropped in
value, until a man's only chance to get ahead lay in putting his
money in common stocks, or into goods or real estate - or
something that would go up in price just as fast as the value of
his money went down.
In a small way, something of the kind may occur here. Even with
inflation under perfect control, the value of the inflated money
is bound to drop, while common stocks and goods and real estate
will go up in value.
The question is - what type of stocks will depreciate most? And
what effect will inflation have upon various lines of industry?
That is where the Blank Street Journal can be of genuine help to
you. Its facts are not merely timely, but they are derived from
original sources, and their accuracy can be depended upon. But
that isn't all. The facts it brings to you each day are
interpreted from the standpoint of the investor and of the
business man, enabling you to invest your money or to plan your
business with understanding and foresight.
The Blank Street Journal is the source of information for
countless statisticians, newspapers and market services. Yet
the information for which you pay the high fees is just as
readily available to you in the pages of the daily Blank Street
Journal, as it is to them.
The enclosed card entitles you to the next SIXTY ISSUES of the
Blank Street Journal for $3. Not only that, but it brings you
FREE EXAMINATION of the first five copies. If these five do not
make clear to you the financial trend, if they do not show you
every phase of business and financial activity, just tell us to
cancel, and you will be out nothing.
Will you TRY it? Will you let us send you accurate news from
the very heart of the financial center of the country NOW - when
that news may be worth more to you than ever in your lifetime?
Will you mail the enclosed form TODAY?
Sincerely,
LETTER # 6
|CLOSE OUTS
End of the Season Sales are the plague of every merchant. How
to clean out the remnants of stock at a price that will appeal
to the public and still leave a modicum of profit is something
to make any advertising man rack his brain.
Here is a letter that we used first on books. When the Simond's
War History sale was over, there were a couple of thousand
returned or damaged sets on hand. The price was reduced to 25
cents and a letter along the lines of the attached was mailed.
It pulled so well that the 2,000 sets were disposed of at once,
and the order cost was found to be so low that it paid to
deliver some 6,000 brand new sets on the orders that
came in.
Adapted to Travelling Bags, the letter did just as well. Here
it is, used to dispose of the odds and ends of a stock of
Overcoats. It has been successful on every product on which we
have used it.
{letter}
790 Leftover Ulsters At A Big Discount!
Dear Sir:
In the rush and excitement of selling, in the past two months,
of 21,000 "Keep Warm" Winter Ulsters - there was no time to pay
attention to exactly how sizes and colors were running.
The result is that now, with the season near its end, we find
ourselves with 790 coats left over - in all sizes - BUT WITHOUT
A COMPLETE RANGE OF SIZES IN ANY ONE COLOR!
There are dark grays and blues and beautiful brown
heather-mixtures, in Greatcoats that we sold in the past all the
way up to $47.00 - really handsome colors, all of them - but we
can't be sure of having your exact size in the color you specify.
And you know how the Overcoat season is - if these Ulsters are
not all disposed of before Christmas, some of them will probably
be on our hands until next Fall.
So rather than carry any of them over until then, we have
decided to make one sweeping reduction, and offer these 790
smart, distinctive, beautifully tailored Greatcoats of fine,
warm, double-texture pure wool cloth - for only $27.65!
This is the lowest price we have ever made on these all-wool
"Keep Warm" Ulster Coats. Just try to find their equal - in
style, in workmanship, in fine quality material for $40 or $50.
{letter}
Only 790 Coats Left
We have just 790 of these double-texture all-wool Greatcoats to
sell at this low price. When they are gone, your chance to save
on your Winter Ulster will go with them. But while these 790
last, you can get as perfect-fitting, as good-looking, as
fine-quality a Winter Greatcoat as ever you would want to wear,
at an almost unheard-of bargain.
If you will just write your name and three simple measures on
the enclosed card and mail to us, we will send you a "Keep Warm"
Ulster - that will exactly fit you - by prepaid Parcel Post.
You may keep the overcoat for a full week. Then, if for ANY
REASON AT ALL you don't care to keep the coat, you can send it
back AT OUR EXPENSE. But if you are so well-pleased with it
that you don't want to part with it, just send us $27.65, the
low price at which we are offering these last remaining 790
coats.
SEND NO MONEY - simply mail the post card. But do it at once,
this opportunity to save money will not occur again.
Yours up to 790,
PRESIDENT
LETTER # 7
USING A PREMIUM
When you want to land a fish, you bait your hook with something
that the fish likes. When you want to land a lot of orders, the
same principle applies.
A client wanted to sell a new, small size traveling bag. He
tried selling it on its merits alone, and got 3% to 4% of
orders. Since the bag sold for $7.95, and 3% gave him an order
cost of only $1, that was profitable. But he wanted volume.
So he tried using a bit of bait. To all who would send for this
new bag, he offered a Fountain Pen with their name die-stamped
on it in letters of gold. Instead of only 3% or 4%, that
attractive bait brought the orders up to 10%, 12% and even on
some lists, to 14%.
{letter}
Will you accept one of the latest model, self-filling Fountain
Pens with your name die-stamped in raised letters upon it - in
return for a little favor I want you to do?
The courtesy is a small one, pleasant and easy to render.
For years, you know, the standard size Traveling Bag has been
an 18 inch bag like the famous "Twentieth Century Bag", but
lately many friends have been writing that they would like a bit
smaller bag than this - something light and inexpensive, but
with all the strength and fine appearance, all the unique
conveniences of the "Twentieth Century".
Now we are trying one out - a bag so convenient that we don't
believe its equal has ever been made before - certainly not
anywhere near the price.
Every time you pack this Bag, you will be thankful for the
TIME-SAVING convenience of its wonderful interior pockets. It
has a place for everything you need on a trip - and it almost
"packs itself".
Ever have toothpaste or shaving cream get all over your clean
shirts and collars? Or the stopper come out of a bottle and the
contents run over everything?
Then you'll appreciate the convenience of the moisture-proof
pockets lined with the long-wearing, high grade hospital rubber.
No moisture can leak through it.
These five moisture-proof pockets will hold shaving gel, talcum
powder or toilet water - all your toilet needs.
On the opposite side of the bag are two full-length pockets with
folders for carrying shirts, ties, underwear, socks, and any
papers that you need when you go on a trip.
These handy pockets are collapsible and take up no room when not
filled. They not only enable you to pack your bag in half the
time it used to take, but they keep all your things shipshape,
and leave the entire bottom part of the bag free to pack suits
of clothes and other large articles. A wealth of packing space.
I am writing a few of our customers for their opinion of these
new Traveling Bags. We call them "RedypaktBags" because
they're handy for so many different uses.
I would like you to try one of them for a week - USE it on your
next trip - see how convenient, how time saving, how handsome it
is. Compare it with bags you have paid $12 or $15 for. And
then tell me what you and your friends think of it.
It is a small favor, but it means a great deal to me. We are
thinking of making a general offering of these "RedypaktBags"
all over the country, but before doing it, I would like to have
your opinion.
Just your name on the enclosed card will bring a "RedypaktBag"
to you to try out for a week FREE. At the end of the week, if
you should like the BAG so well that you want to keep it for
your own, you can have it for only $7.95. If you don't want to
keep it, please send it back at my expense, telling me what you
think about it, and I'll be deeply grateful to you.
Naturally, this special price holds good only if your card comes
in at once, while your advice will still be of value to us.
Won't you, therefore, put your name on the card and mail it now?
I thank you for your courtesy.
Gratefully yours,
P.S. The new model, sell-filling fountain pen which I'll send
along will have your name die-stamped upon it. And whether or
not you keep the "RedypackBag", I want you to keep the pen as a
present from me, entirely free of charge. It's a return for
your courtesy in examining the "RedypaktBag" and giving me your
opinion about it.
LETTER # 8
AN INDIRECT APPROACH
The longest way around is frequently the shortest way home -
when it comes to selling people an idea.
If we were to come to you, and tell you that we'd be glad to put
your name in some "Who's Who" provided you would dig up $10 for
a copy, you'd shy off at once. It would be too apparent that
the only reason we were listing you was to get your $10.
But if we approach you tactfully and indirectly, there is a good
chance we shall get both your listing and your $10. Here is an
example of the indirect approach that worked well.
{letter}
Dear Madam:
Would you be good enough to do me a favor? I promise not to ask
too much.
You can help to solve a problem which is of significance to all
officials of Women's clubs. You know that for 34 years, the
leading Club Women of the United States have been recorded each
year in the So & So of Women's Clubs.
This year, a symposium is being conducted among the leading
officials of Women's Clubs, to determine whether it would add
measurably to the So & So's value to include an entirely new
section - a "Who's Who Among Club Women", - giving a short
biographical sketch with the offices you have held and all the
outstanding achievements of your Club life.
Your Club Activities entitles you to representation in this
exclusive section. Will you be good enough to give me your
opinion of the value of a section?
There will be no charge for the listing, but since each listing
will mean considerable additional expense in the way of
typesetting and the like, we shall ask each of those whose
biographical sketches appear in this "Who's Who" to subscribe
for one copy of So & So. To make up for this however, we shall
send it to them - not at the regular price of $5.00, but at a
special pre-publication discount of 15% - making the net price
to them $4.25, and even from this figure we shall give them an
additional discount for advance payment.
We shall greatly appreciate an expression of your opinion from
you. If that opinion is favorable, please fill out the Record
attached, giving your Club connection and all those little
personal items that Society Editors and others ask for, when you
own or your club's activities bring your name into the news.
The enclosed envelope needs no stamp. Won't you, therefore fill
out the Record NOW - while it is in your hands and mail it right
back in the enclosed envelope?
Thank you!
Appreciatively,
LETTER # 9
BARGAINS
Everyone offers bargains - at least, everyone claims that if you
take into consideration the quality and so on of his product, it
is a bargain at this price.
But what everyone claims, no one believes. So you've got to do
more than claim that your price is low or you offer an unusual
bargain. You've got to show the reason why.
Here is a letter that was unusually successful in convincing
readers that they were getting something unusual in the way of
price reduction, and therefore brought back their orders in
profitable quantities.
{letter}
Mr. Business Man:
"Name your own price!" said the manufacturer.
And we did.
You know how most factories are - busy and working overtime
eight or ten months of the year and idle the rest. And those
idle months, like the famines of ancient Egypt, eat up most of
the profits of the busy ones.
We offered to keep this factory busy making new Carozy Robes all
during the idle season.
"Name your own price", was the answer.
We named a price. It was accepted without cavil or question,
with the result that we can offer you, at $9.85, a Motor Rob
that customers tell us could not be equaled in stores at
anywhere near that price. The folder enclosed will give you
some idea of the beauty and richness of this luxurious Robe.
Naturally, bargains like this won't last long. We got this one
manufacturer's output for three months, but while three months'
output is a lot of robes, they won't go far among our more than
300,000 customers.
The enclosed card will bring one of these beautiful new Carozy
Robes to you for a week's examination - FREE! No money - no
risk - no obligation. Just the postcard.
"A direct saving to me of at least $7.50," wrote John Smith of
Clarksburg, WV, when he saw his robe.
The card will be worth good money to you, too, IF YOU WILL MAIL
IT AT ONCE.
Yours for mutual cooperation,
PRESIDENT
LETTER # 10
THE DOLLAR LETTER
Here is the most successful letter we have ever heard of - the
famous "Dollar Letter". Pinned to its top was a crisp, new
dollar bill - a real dollar bill.
This letter pulled better than a 90% response. The writer of
this letter told us that from 175,000 mailed, he got back
$270,000, plus more than 90% of the $1 bills mailed out with
them.
But this was only the start. From the list of more than 150,000
people who gave that $270,000, further subscriptions were
secured to the amount of nearly $14,000,000.
{letter}
Dear Mr. Jones:
Here's a dollar: Yes, it's a REAL dollar - nice and clean and
new.
Keep it if you want to, after you've read this letter - but I
don't believe you will, then.
Here's what it's all about:
I've made an investment of a thousand dollars in human nature -
human kindness. I've mailed a thousand dollars - in a thousand
letters to a thousand people picked at random. I have done this
because I believe that every one is really kind, way down inside
- that no one is REALLY heartless and that the only reason why
folks do not help where help is needed is just because these
needs are not IMPRESSED upon them hard enough.
"And that's the mission of each of my thousand dollars - to
impress the importance of a need. This thousand dollars is my
subscription to the Blank Hospital - and I'm investing in the
belief that every one will bring back several more - at least
another - with it. So our subscription - which I'm starting in
this way will be at least two thousand - maybe five - for
there's going to be a lot of you who will send a five or a ten
or more - when you mail my dollar back.
Remember - both my dollar and your dollars go to help crippled
children.
Will EVERY ONE come back?
Will everyone bring something more?
Are people really kind - or REALLY heartless?
Have I made a good investment?
What is YOUR answer?
Sincerely,
LETTER # 11
SELLING SECURITIES BY MAIL
How about selling stocks by mail? Millions of dollars of such
sales have been made, and when properly done, it is one of the
least expensive methods of selling known.
The easiest way, of course, is to send an inexpensive letter to
your list first, to find out who can be interested in that
particular type of investment. To those who answer that letter,
you can afford to send a whole series of follow-ups, booklets or
make a personal call.
Here is a type of letter which has met with marvelous success in
offers of this kind.
{letter}
Here Is The Industry That Started
MANY OF THE GREAT FORTUNES OF TODAY!
Dear Sir:
Men made iron and steel for thousands of years. Along came a
new process and a man named Carnegie to capitalize it, and made
a thousand millionaires. When "in steel" while this magic
change was in process, made fortunes almost overnight.
Men have been brewing beer for thousands of years. Along came
Prohibition and practically closed the industry. Breweries were
dismantled, their working crews scattered to the four winds.
BUT NOW, WITH A STROKE OF THE PEN, PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT HAS
CHANGED ALL THIS. NOW, ALMOST OVERNIGHT, COMES A DEMAND FOR
BEER GREATER THAN THE COUNTRY HAS EVER BEFORE KNOWN!
The stocks of the few active, well-equipped breweries soared
overnight. In two weeks, they increased 48% in value, while the
average of all stocks went up only 6%. Yet if the record of
earnings means anything, that is only the start. Men with good
brewery stocks should see them rise to almost phenomenal heights
as did those "in steel" back in Carnegie's day. Breweries today
should make even more.
Yet there is one brewery which has been in continuous operation
in the same family for 77 years, with a splendid plant and a
fine old name, and which has so far escaped the notice of stock
market investors. To us, it seems to offer greater
possibilities of profit from small investment than anything you
can put your money into today.
May we tell you more about it?
Sincerely,
LETTER # 12
SECURING INQUIRIES FOR A BOOKLET
How can you most easily find the people interested in new
courses, new sets of books and the like?
By offering to the most likely lists of prospects, to send
without cost a booklet of interest only to people desiring that
particular type of knowledge. The encyclopedia Britannica, for
instance offers a booklet containing sample pages and
illustrations from its new Encyclopedia. Collier's offers a
booklet telling in the words of Dr. Eliot of Harvard what he
considers the essentials of a liberal education, and thus finds
the people who can be interested in Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf
of Books.
Here is such a letter, designed to winnow out from the other
lists the names of all those interested in learning the art of
Public Speaking. It is one of the most successful
inquiry-bringing letters we have used.
{letter}
Now For The First Time -
THE SECRET OF EFFECTIVE SPEECH - FREE!
Dear Sir:
At your request, I shall be glad to send you one of the most
talked-of little books ever written. It will cost you exactly
one cent - the price of the stamp that will bring the enclosed
card back to me.
The name of this booklet is - "The Secret of Effective Speech".
The principal part of it was written by perhaps the most
successful speaker of modern times, the man who made over
$4,000,000.00 from his lectures, and then used it to send young
men through College - Russell Conwell, author of "Acres of
Diamonds".
The Secret of Effective Speech should be read by every executive
who ever has to face a hostile audience, whether that audience
consists of one man or a thousand.
It is not made up of rules and principles, but of the few
common-sense essentials which Conwell found of most importance
in his thousands of appearances on the public platform. It is
radical. It is stimulating. AND IT IS FREE!
Your name and address on the enclosed card will bring you a copy
of "The Secret of Effective Speech", with out compliments. You
will like this little book. It is short, but there is a
tremendous lot in it. Every time you read it, you will realize
more clearing why Russell Conwell had so many thousand
enthusiastic admirers, who audiences hung upon his every word.
Frankly, we are taking this means of bringing to the attention
of a few alert business executives a new method of teaching
Public Speaking - a method so striking and simple, yet so
amazingly successful, that it is taking the country by storm.
Will you use the postcard NOW - TODAY?
Sincerely,
LETTER # 13
SPORTS APPEAL - SALES APPEAL
Sports articles are notably successful in mail selling, where
you can get lists of people interested in any particular sport.
Fishing tackle, golf clubs and balls, tennis racquets and a host
of other products have been successfully sold by mail. There is
even a concern in Baltimore which sells fine saddlery by mail
and has built a surprisingly profitable business.
Here is a letter that sold Field Glasses by mail, and sold them
in goodly quantities. Its basic idea is just as applicable to
dozens of other products that appeal to all sportsmen.
{letter}
Now the Far Distances are Yours
WITH MAGIC EYES THAT SEE FOR MILES!
Dear Friend:
Here is a wonderful way to add to the enjoyment of your trips,
to give you "ring side" seats at every sporting event, to bring
anything you want to see within a few feet of you MULTIPLYING
YOUR OWN EYE-SIGHT BY THE POWER OF THESE EIGHT MAGIC LENSES!
Four-Mile Eyes - that is what they give you, spanning distances
like the fabled seven-league boots of childhood. For the
hunter, they are a necessity. For the tourist or traveler, they
add a zest that doubles the enjoyment of sightseeing. For those
who love sports, they make a nearby window or hilltop as
desirable as the most expensive "ring side" seat.
Yet for a little while, they can be had FOR LESS THAN THE COST
OF A SINGLE SEAT!
You see, the finest glasses in the world are made in Central
Europe. And you know how conditions have been over there - many
highly skilled artisans getting lenses for a month's toil than
they would for a single day's work here. The result? Bargains
as you will never get again. Bargains such as we never dreamed
of being able to offer in Fine Field Glasses. Prices are higher
over there now and are stiffening rapidly, but up to a few weeks
ago, you could get the finest achromatic day and night lenses at
figures so ridiculously low as to seem like a gift.
We had a lot of extra powerful Officer's Field Glasses shipped
to us at those prices a month ago. They have just been unpacked
and gone over, and they are beauties. Filled with specially
large achromatic day and night lens, and equipped with compass
and focusing scale. They are the most powerful glasses of the
kind we have ever seen at anywhere near the price.
I have a pair on my desk before me as I write, and through them
I can mount the high tension wires on a hill a couple of miles
east of here, and through these glasses, I can watch every move
of the builders. If they were football players, I could see
them better than from the choicest seat.
And the reason? These glasses were made for the use of Army
Officers, and they had to be good. They are the only 8-lens
Galilean Field Glass with compass and leather case that sell for
less than $30.00! But while they last, I am going to let you
have a pair for $7.95!
Not only that, but if you mail the enclosed card right away, I
will send them to you, postpaid, for a week's FREE EXAMINATION
and TRIAL!
SEND NO MONEY! Just your name and address on the enclosed card
will bring a pair of these extra-powerful, *-lens Officer's
Field Glasses to you at our risk, our expense, TRY them! Test
them against the finest glasses you can find selling at $30.00
to $40.00 a pair. If these are not clear, stronger, more
satisfactory in every way, send them back. If you are willing
to part with them for any reason, send them back. Otherwise,
$7.95 makes them your own, an endless source of pleasure and
usefulness. On that understanding, will you TRY a pair of these
Magic Eyes? With that distinct agreement, will you put your
name on the enclosed card, and mail it NOW? You will never have
another such opportunity.
Sincerely,
LETTER # 14
USING PRESSURE
Want to start a business of your own by mail? Here is a letter
that brought in more than $1,000,000.00 worth of orders for a
new concern in its first six months.
Every man wants to make money. Every man wants to see his money
grow. When you start by asking your reader if he'd like to see
one dollar grow to a hundred, you have his attention. when you
prove to him that he can learn how to work such a miracle before
he pays out a single penny, you are sure of his interest. After
that, the bringing back of the actual order is mere detail.
This letter is high-pressure... to much so for many projects -
but for those that can stand it, it embodies every feature of
the successful selling letter.
{letter}
My dear Sir:
Would you like to see $1.00 grow to $60.00 - $8.00 grow to
$500.00 by next March?
Let me tell you how:
I am going to send you within the next few days a set of seven
little books. These books are probably not like any you have
ever seen before because:
They are about YOU!
They show you that you have been using but a small part of your
real abilities - that back in your subliminal mind", as the
scientists call it, is a sleeping Giant who. awakened, can carry
you on to fame and fortune almost overnight! A
Genie-of-your-Brain as powerful, as capable of satisfying your
every wish, as was ever Aladdin's wonderful Genie-of-the-lamp of
old.
They make your Day Dreams, your visions of wonderful
achievement, of fortune, health and happiness COME TRUE - not
five, ten, or fifteen years from now, but TODAY, A.D. 1925!
I am going to send these little books to you - with no
obligations on your part - for you to read and ACTUALLY TRY OUT
for a week at my risk and expense.
But - there's just one thing - I don't want to send these
without first getting your permission. You can grant that in a
moment on the enclosed special "Courtesy Card".
When I send the books, there's absolutely no obligation on your
part to pay for them. You can return them for ANY reason, or
for no reason at all.
BUT HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!
If you; find these little books are everything I say about them
(and you're to be the sole judge), how much would you expect to
pay for them? $30.00? $50.00? $100.00? That's what ordinary
courses, which merely promise to show you how to do some special
kind of work, cost you. Certainly, if this one will do the half
of what I've promised you, it will be worth all of that - and
more!
Well - if you decide to keep these books, you need send me - NOT
$50.00 or $100.00, not even their regular price of $13.50 - but
my SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY PRICE TO YOU, good only on this ADVANCE
EDITION of $6.85! (If you prefer the more convenient monthly
payments, send only $1.00 a month for eight months.)
And that isn't all!
If within 6 months your $1.00 hasn't grown to $60.00 - if you
can't credit to the $6.85 you pay for this Course at least
$500.00 of ADDITIONAL EARNINGS - send back the books and I'll
refund to you cheerfully and in full every cent you have paid to
me for them.
There are no conditions - no strings attached of any kind to
this offer. If within 6 months these little books have not
brought you the pot of gold at the foot of the rainbow, then
they are not for you. Send them back and get your money!
LETTER # 15
USING THE "YOU" ELEMENT
There is a concern in one of the Eastern states which built a
business running into the millions on four letters. Those four
letters were used over and over again, year after year. They
finally wore out, but after several years' rest, they are again
good for an occasional mailing.
All those letters were built around the most important and
interesting subject you can write about to any reader - HIMSELF.
Here is the most successful of these four letters - "Will you
give me a little information about YOURSELF?"
{letter}
Dear Sir:
Will you give me a little information about yourself - just your
height and weight?
I want to send you one of our famous "Rainproof" Coats (designed
especially for substantial Business Men) for you to examine,
free of charge; but I can't send one in your size without
knowing your height and weight.
Over 36,000 Men-of-Affairs, in all parts of the country, wear
these "Rainproof" Coats on rainy days. They are just the kind
of coat EVERY well-dressed business man needs in the Spring and
Fall, for they are really TWO COATS IN ONE - a perfect raincoat
for stormy days and a well-appearing Topcoat for cold and windy
days.
More than 36,000 keen business and professional men who have
ordered "Rainproof" Coats during the past two years paid us
prices varying from $17.85 to $23.50 for their coats.
NOW FOR ONE MONTH ONLY - WE ARE OFFERING THESE "RAINPROOF" COATS
AT THE LOWEST PRICE AT WHICH THEY HAVE BEEN OFFERED IN THE TWO
YEARS - $16.65!
From Ohio, Mr. John Jones, Vice-President and Treasurer of Blank
Cement Co., writes:
"I never got as much comfort and satisfaction out of any coat as
I have from the "Rainproof". I had been looking for
such a garment for years - a coat I could wear on all occasions
and be proud of."
And this is just one out of hundreds of letters and telegrams
that have come from men who have ordered these "Rainproof" Coats
and been delightedly surprised with their fine style, great
usefulness and good value.
Won't you fill in your height and weight on the enclosed
postcard, and mail it to me? Then I can send you one of these
famous "Rainproof" Coats - in your exact size by Parcel Post for
a week's FREE TRIAL. You can examine the coat at your leisure,
with no insisting clerks at your side, and WEAR IT A FULL WEEK
FREE. If you don't think it is just the kind of coat you've
always wanted, just fire it back at MY EXPENSE, and accept my
thanks for the privilege of sending it to you.
But remember - this is the only month in which we are going to
offer "Rainproof" Coats a the special "lowest-in-years' price of
$14.65!
Hadn't you better drop the postcard into the mail RIGHT NOW -
while you can take advantage of this Special Offer?
Yours very truly,
PRESIDENT
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