Robert Collier's Million Dollar Letters · Robert Collier's Million Dollar Letters ... Gary Halbert...
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“The Forbidden Knowledge Archive” by Matt Bacak and Brother Mesmer Robert Collier's Million Dollar Letters The forgotten underground million dollar sales letter course from the "Father of Direct Mail" and other long lost secrets of direct marketing updated and adapted for smart Internet marketers
Transcript of Robert Collier's Million Dollar Letters · Robert Collier's Million Dollar Letters ... Gary Halbert...
“The Forbidden Knowledge Archive”
by Matt Bacak and Brother Mesmer
Robert Collier's Million Dollar Letters The forgotten underground million dollar sales letter course from the "Father of Direct Mail" and other long lost secrets of direct marketing updated and adapted for smart Internet
marketers
Table of Contents
PART ONE: ROBERT COLLIER — SALES LETTER GURU! 3
22 NOTES COMPARING THE OSBORN EMAIL - COLLIER LETTER #3! 12
PART TWO: 15 MILLION DOLLAR SALES LETTERS! 17
LETTER # 1 THE LOWLY PENNY WILL OFTEN DO THE TRICK! 18
LETTER # 2 HOW HANDKERCHIEFS WERE SOLD BY MAIL! 20
LETTER # 3 CAN HIGH-PRICED ARTICLES BE SOLD BY MAIL?! 21
LETTER # 4 THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE! 22
LETTER # 5 A 100,000 MARK NOTE! 23
LETTER # 6 CLOSE OUTS! 25
LETTER # 7 USING A PREMIUM! 26
LETTER # 8 AN INDIRECT APPROACH! 28
LETTER # 9 BARGAINS! 30
LETTER # 10 THE DOLLAR LETTER! 31
LETTER # 11 SELLING SECURITIES BY MAIL! 32
LETTER # 12 SECURING INQUIRIES FOR A BOOKLET! 33
LETTER # 13 SPORTS APPEAL - SALES APPEAL! 34
LETTER # 14 USING PRESSURE! 36
LETTER # 15 USING THE "YOU" ELEMENT! 38
PART THREE: FOUR LONG LOST MARKETING SECRETS! 40
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #1: Avoid the "Dead-End" Free Offer! 40
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #2: Mail-Order Mind Control! 46
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #3: The Secret of the Second Sale! 49
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #4: The Magic Key to Killer Copy! 51
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PART ONE: ROBERT COLLIER — SALES LETTER GURU
This report is mostly about the remarkable contribution of
the late Robert Collier to modern marketing. Best known
for his wildly successful direct mail sales letters, many
leading marketers of today are his enthusiastic followers.
Reading his biography, it would be safe to say that Robert
Collier was, for want of a better word, a mystic. This may
account for his profound insights into the depths of human
nature. His application of his mystical knowledge was not
to Tarot cards or a crystal ball, but to million dollar sales
letters.
Robert Collier's inspirational books have changed the lives of
thousands. He was a prolific writer and progressive publisher who strongly believed that happiness and abundance were within easy reach.
Robert Collier (1885-1950) (1)
Robert "Bob" Collier was born April 19, 1885, in St. Louis, son of Mary Ferguson and John Collier. His mother died when he and his older brother were not yet teenagers. His father traveled widely as a foreign correspondent for Collier's Magazine (founded and published by his uncle, Peter F. Collier). Robert was educated in a church seminar school and was expected to become a priest, but before taking his vows, he decided against the life of a clergyman and headed for West Virginia to seek his fortune.
There, he worked as a mining engineer and learned first-hand to deal with life and humanity. He was a prolific reader, and the books in the mining company's office, which included applied business correspondence and books on advertising, gave him the basics of the writing that became his career.
After eight years in West Virginia, he went to New York City and worked in the advertising department of the P.F. Collier Publishing Company. With the help and guidance of such experts as Bruce Barton and Fred Stone, he developed ideas in sales copy, persuading the
top men to test them in new circulars he wrote. The results were fantastic. He sold many thousands of the "Harvard Classics"--a five-foot shelf of books by Dr. Elliott, and his circulars on the O. Henry stories brought orders for over two million dollars, followed by orders for over 70,000 books on "The History of the World War."
Because of an earlier, seemingly undiagnosable illness, finally cured through Christian Science, Bob became interested in health products and felt that 98% of our illnesses came from chemically treated, denatured foods. From this illness came the desire to investigate how the Mind could so quickly and surely cure a trouble that doctors had been working on for months--that there must be powers in the Mind he had never even suspected; and if it had dominion over his physical self, why could it not cure business problems too? Why could it not correct any financial lack? Why could it not bring him anything of good that he might wish?
He decided that it could--and proceeded to find the way. For long months, he studied hundreds of books and courses on everything relating to New Thought metaphysics, occult, and success. Whole religions seemed to be built on it. He delved into the deepest mysteries of the Masters. It was a long time before he began to find parts that were really workable in everyday life, a long time before he realized tangible results from his efforts, but when
results began, they came quickly.
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We don't use the word "amazing" lightly. We will
Robert Collier had the idea for a long time for a set of books on practical psychology. He
put this idea into action, working night and day writing the books. Within six months after the books were published, he received more than one million dollars worth of orders for them. The books were entitled "The Secret of the Ages." He sold over 300,000 sets of them. The books really worked. He received thousands of letters telling of results obtained from reading these books.
Robert Collier wrote four more courses, which he sold separately as "The God in You," "The Secret Power," "The Magic Word," and "The Law of the Higher Potential." He later combined this excellent material into one book and named it "The Law of the Higher Potential." It has since been renamed "Riches Within Your Reach." He also condensed the seven volumes of
"The Secret of the Ages" into one book, which has proven to be a best seller for many, many years. It has been translated into German, Italian, French, and Spanish, and sold all over the world.
Robert Collier was a devoted husband and the father of six children. He passed on in 1950, but his books endure. Robert Collier Publications, Inc., still exists through the efforts of his widow and now his children and grandchildren. The messages remain--still relevant--still needed. (2)
Collier was a thought leader on several fronts. He was a leading self-
improvement author. For many men, that would have been enough.
He transcended even that impressive level to become the acknowledged
grandmaster of the sales letter form. Without exaggeration, he sold the
modern equivalent of billions of dollars in products and services via simple,
short direct mail letters. For this reason, some call him the "father of direct
mail." (3)
His magical tools?
Words, just words.
He sold books — hundreds of thousands of books — but he didn't just sell
books with his friendly little letters. He sold stocks, bonds, jewelry, raincoats,
machinery, handkerchiefs, coal, and fertilizer in the same way. (4)
Then, in 1934, he gave birth to his revolutionary
"The Robert Collier Letter Book." Fortunately for
us, the edition now sold on Amazon.com, the 1937
edition, is the best one to get. An edition that
came out in 1950 had changes made to it that
make it less desirable for us. (5) (6) (7) (8)
Obviously, we cannot convince the reader in a few
paragraphs of the exceptional power and value of
this book about writing letters. So in the best
tradition of copywriting, we provide a fairly
amazing set of testimonials for it.
The Robert Collier Letter Book be hearing from no less than Jay Abraham, Dan (1937 Edition) (9) (10)
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Kennedy, Ken McCarthy, Gary Halbert, Carl Galletti, Joe Vitale, Clayton
Makepeace, and Yanik Silver. They make it sound like it is the best thing since
electricity, so just maybe it's worth getting.
Jay Abraham says:
"I remember reading 'The Robert Collier Letter Book' years ago when I first got into direct mail. It was a revelation for me. It showed me exactly what 'salesmanship in print' is all about, and moreover, I learned how to actually write the kinds of sales letters that produce astonishing results for my clients... Even now, I'm writing two sales letters for a client of
mine, and I'll get paid $50,000.00 when I'm finished. Not bad for a week's work!"
Dan Kennedy says:
"For Serious Students & Practitioners Of Advertising & Direct-Response Copywriting, The
Original, Unabridged Edition Of The Original, Legendary ROBERT COLLIER LETTER BOOK Is Mandatory."
Ken McCarthy says:
"Collier's classic is THE guide to direct response copywriting. Right now as I write this, there's a used copy online for $1,009.95. One friend who's paid five figures to write sales letters says he wouldn't let his copy go for $10,000 if he couldn't get another. It's pretty remarkable that this book is back in print at such a reasonable price. If you intend to make
money from your advertising, this is a key book to read, study, and master."
Gary Halbert says:
"One of the very best marketing books of all that I recommended is 'The Robert Collier
Letter Book' written by Robert Collier many, many years ago. Some of the language and colloquialisms are a bit dated, but the marketing insights are as valuable now as the day they were written. I consider this book must reading. I have already read it several times and I intend to read it again and again."
Carl Galletti says:
"'The Robert Collier Letter Book' is the Best Book Ever Written About Sales Letters."
Joe Vitale says:
"'The Robert Collier Letter Book' changed my life."
Clayton Makepeace says:
"Robert Collier was one of the pioneers of the direct mail business. And this book is chock- full of his timeless advice for writing effective sales letters."
Yanik Silver says:
"Robert Collier is one of the absolute greatest copywriters of all time. This book is simply a tremendous bargain since it hasn't been re-published in many years. I have 2 copies of the original 5th edition on my bookshelf because I never wanted to lose one. If you study
Collier's work, you can crank out winning sales letters that bring in the cash any time you like.
I still personally use many of his sales letters ideas in my own Internet business day in and day out." (11)
Before we go any further, we want to make one thing absolutely clear. Even
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though the bells and whistles of the Internet, and now the new mobile
technology, have us waiting with bated breath for the next technical
innovation, the fundamental marketing skill has not changed at all.
This fundamental marketing skill is the ability to make words sell.
Copywriters call this "writing copy," but as Robert Collier demonstrated with his
accomplishments, it really is as simple as writing a letter. If the reader has
written an email, then he has written a letter. A letter is a letter whether it is
transmitted via the Internet or via the post office ("snail mail"). Not everybody
gets this fact. Especially vulnerable to the illusion that the Internet technology
will just print money with the push of a button while we sleep are those brand
new to Internet marketing.
True, this idea of fast, easy digital money is being pushed by many Internet
marketing gurus, but it is a half-truth at best. Business is business. The
Internet does make it easier and cheaper, but success is not automatic.
To bolster our claim that "copy is king," that the
Internet marketer's future revolves around his ability
to sell with words or to hire somebody who can sell
with words, we turn to a certain, very shy, humble,
and self-effacing Internet personality that the reader
may have heard of: Frank Kern.
Not long ago, Frank Kern interviewed veteran
copywriter and direct marketer Clayton Makepeace.
The interview is available for free at Makepeace's
website. The occasion, according to the interview,
was that Kern had discovered that Makepeace was
making more money on the Internet than he was!
(13)
Internet Millionaire Frank Kern on Facebook (12)
In this fascinating interview, Kern is very direct when
it comes to the importance of copy (words). In typical
Kern style, he goes straight for the jugular and takes
no prisoners — all in a fun, entertaining way, of
course!
I think copy is king. I don’t know who said that – maybe [John] Carlton. He said, “You can take everything away, but give me a crayon and a legal pad and I can scribble out some stuff and hand it out to people on the street and get my
fortune back because of the importance of copy.”
I think when it comes to copy and salesmanship and Clayton Makepeace,
persuasion, we’re still in the beginning of the game. Our Copywriting Superstar (14) little microcosmic world of the Internet marketing niche has seen lots and lots of the same promotions run over and over again with a different wrapper on it, so it makes sense to believe that, “Oh, people are
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starting to get jaded.”
I think that the Internet as a medium has not seen just outstanding, awesome copy in 99.99% repeating of its markets out there. I think anyone who comes in and can actually write and write really well and gives enough of a damn to not copy each other’s stuff (oftentimes haphazardly, not even knowing how the promotion of their copy did in the first place) can just take over.
Copy is the absolute fundamental piece, period. There’s nothing more important. (15)
We've established that Robert Collier has some great advice about writing copy
to give out. We've also established that according to Frank Kern, the millionaire
poster boy for Internet marketing, that "copy is king" and will be for a long,
long time.
Now that we've made those points, we have some very good news.
This year, we discovered a long lost manuscript of Robert Collier's that reveals
not one, not two, not five, not ten... but 15 of his best selling letters.
Apparently, each of these letters sold in excess of one million dollars in
products or services. Please keep in mind that this was back in the 1930s when
a million dollars was real money!
The story behind this amazing rediscovered manuscript by Robert Collier,
"Million Dollar Sales Letters for Your Own Use and Profit," goes like this.
In 1950, Collier was asked to pick his 15 most persuasive sales letters from
the thousands he had written. He died later that same year. (16)
We uncovered this rare Robert Collier sales letter writing course by accident.
We found out that this little-known work had fallen into public domain when we
visited the website maintained by Collier's descendants. (17) (18)
The Collier family sells the official best edition of the "Robert Collier Letter
Book." This is the same 1937 edition for sale on Amazon.com that we
recommended earlier. (19)
The Collier family is very protective of their intellectual property, so when they
announced that they had located a rare little-known work by Collier that
featured "the 15 best direct-mail sales letters Robert Collier wrote," we were
excited. But when we learned that this priceless work had fallen into the public
domain, we were ecstatic. We had to get our hands on it! (20)
Yet, when we visited the website referred to by the Collier family, we found
that the page was gone. It was no longer hosted. It was a dead link.
Someone less determined might have given up. We were ready to turn over
every possible stone. Next, we tried the wonderful Internet Wayback Machine.
There, we struck glorious copywriting pay dirt! (21) (22)
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Yes, we had located the exact Web page referred to by the Collier family. We
had to go back to a website page that was archived in 2006 — to January 3,
2006, to be exact — but we rescued the content. We are proud to share this
underground masterpiece now with you, our esteemed reader. (23)
When we hear the phrase "sales letter," it can be a little confusing. Today, the
long sales letter can be 40 or more pages long. Sales letter copy is also
delivered via audio and video formats.
As the reader will see, these 15 million dollar Robert Collier sales letters are
quite short. These 15 letters are great examples of super-concentrated sales
letter selling where every word makes a powerful impact.
But something else struck us about these 15 relatively short sales letters.
They reminded us of some of the VERY BEST emails we had personally
received and read. By "very best" emails, we mean the ones that made us sit
up straight, perk up our ears, and read every single word.
If these exceptionally written emails called for action, we took action.
We read the whole email, and then we clicked on the link. We're not even sure
why ourselves, but when it works, it works like magic.
We're not saying we bought all of their stuff. But we are saying that we read
the entire email, we clicked on the suggested link, and we took a serious look
at what they were recommending, whatever it was. It could be a new blog
post, a free video, or a sales page. It didn't matter.
The reader can be assured that we don't do that with all of our emails. Most
don't even get opened.
Certain email writers are consistently so interesting and compelling that we
look forward to reading their messages. This is true even for one writer,
copywriter Ben Settle, who sends us an email every single day.
Another one of our favorite email writers, John Rhodes, sends us a new
message every couple of days. It's slightly amazing to us, but we really don't
mind the frequency of contact.
Frankly, we get turned off by most marketers who inundate us daily or every
other day with their sales pitches. But Ben Settle, John Rhodes, and a handful
of other email letter writers have the same magic touch that Collier did.
Collier was adamant that his sales letter writing skill could be learned. These
hypnotic marketers are evidence that his claim is legitimate and true today.
Hopefully, the reader appreciates what a profound advantage this gives email
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writers like Settle and Rhodes. We've opened the door to them. They have
guaranteed front row access to our brain and private desires.
However, out of all of the marketing emails we receive, one writer really stands
out. In fact, in email after email, Glenn Osborn just plain blows our minds. This
may be because he is also a crazy ("as a fox") renegade NLP master, but even
so, we don't see why others can't wow us like he does.
No doubt that it takes work and time, but we're sure it's paying off for Osborn.
He works with and learns from billionaires, not just ordinary garden-variety
millionaires. He then passes on the golden thoughts he got from these financial
superstars about how to make more "munny" — and keep it fun.
Here is a recent email we received from Glenn Osborn. The reader should
make an effort to understand just exactly what Osborn is doing in this email
letter. He is doing what Robert Collier did fast-forwarded to today.
Of course, there's more than one thing going on. In fact, there's a whole lot of
stuff going on! It's true of Collier's sales letters too.
As a hint to send the reader in the right direction, we suggest that he ask
himself this question as he reads Osborn's email: "Does this email feel like a
sales letter to me?"
We're betting that the reader will say “no.” Certainly, that is our experience.
That is just one of the reasons, completely apart from the shockingly valuable
content, that we enjoy Osborn's emails and look forward to them.
Please note that the spelling and punctuation "errors" are in the original. They
are intentional. Osborn is very loose with those kind of rules. He likes to say
that he is a proponent of "ugly" writing.
According to Osborn, the conscious mind gets stuck on these "ugly" errors.
They surprise and distract the conscious mind. This opens wide the door to the
reader's emotional subconscious. This is an important piece of Osborn's
strategy, so we did our best to reproduce the original as it is.
From : "Glenn Osborn"
Subject : How to RAISE Your Prices-CASE STUDY-Glenn
Big RED Nose Hypnosis Testing Club Ezine #2082
Dear Friend,
Thanks.
I just had a chat with a new customer who works with his cousin.
An Expert - 20 years of experience - Videographer.
All video guys who are good Suffer from the same Malady. LACK of Time. Clients want
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them and won't hire staffers. So they think they can ONLY Make as much Moolah as they
have personal time in the week.
This is not Totally True.
But it DOES Take some Preparation to Double or Triple your Rates. Here's ONE WAY to UP Your Rates.
======================= VIDEO-GRAPHER CASE STUDY #1 -
The client had won awards. His work undersea in the Galapagos Islands appeared on TV. But he was losing 9 of 10 jobs to cheaper competitors.
I - The phone rings II - A prospect asks, How much do you charge to do a seminar? 3 days - 8 hrs a day III - Bob gave a quote - NEVER HEARD from the prospect again. Except to fix BAD VIDEO shot by his competitors.
======================= ======================= HOW Did We More Than TRIPLE Bob's In-Come?
#1 - We Posed as a client - contacted Bob's competition.
#2 - Wrote a Special Report - Read This Before You Make COSTLY MISTAKES in Choosing Your Videographer
#3 - CHANGED Bob's Answer on the phone. NOW when a prospect calls. Bob says, While I prepare a Quote for your job I'd like to send you a Special Report. Just a couple pages about how Video Companies do their jobs. WHAT's Your Ph# and Fax or Email. I'll call you back.
#4 - NOW - Bob calls and Walks the prospect thru the Report. ASKS, Do you want 3 videocameras or 2? Do you want to shoot the backs of seminar goers heads or faces? Do you want smooth edits? Clear audio? New State of the art Equipment? Or decades old chip cameras? Do you want hung-over college students to run the video-cameras? Or do you want CBS and ABC video experts I hire on their off hours?
AND now Bob Closes 80% of his Phone Queries.
ASKS for and gets triple his competitors RAtes.
================== ================== ACTION SUMMARY -
A QUESTION for YOU to ask Yourself - "What do YOU say when a prospect calls you and asks, HOW MUCH?
You might think I'm an ODD Duckling.
Having a TEST to Qualify you before you Buy. NOT REALLY.
***Gary Halbert came into seminars with a Ball Cap and a T-shirt that said, ALL CLIENTS SUCK. (Clients Clustered around him - trying to give him munny.)
***Jay Abraham Trained his secretary to say, He's at the Health Club. Jay
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doesn't Fly. It takes a lot to get him to leave home.
***Dan Kennedy Learned from working for Gary Halbert. Dan WILL NOT Take Phone calls. Has no fax or email. One Staffer brings him all messages and mail. TODAY - Dan's Business has grown more than 20 TIMES. So his partners Entire Company SCREENS prospects for Dan.
Callers are told, Dan is out at the horse track getting ready to race one of his horses. It would have to be a DIRE EMERGENCY for me to disturb him. For an Emergency Consultation there is a 5000.00 non-fundable deposit - to make sure you are Serious.
DO YOU NOTICE ANYTHING - We all have in common?
Not so UNUSUAL after all - Is my Qualifying Test at www.nlpBrainBuzz.com
Thanks, Glenn
P.S. - The Best Referral Systems contain some element of Take-Away-Marketing. If The Referral System You Currently Use DOES NOT Allow You to RAISE YOUR P R I C E S.
You might want to take a peek at some of these Mega-Mil lion Referral Systems.
AND Please call on me.
It's Great fun to customize ideas especially for you and your business. (24)
For comparison, here is the third million-dollar letter from the Robert Collier's
"Million Dollar Sales Letters for Your Own Use and Profit" course. We repeat it
in Part Two of this report. It shows some dramatic similarities to Osborn's
boldly entertaining and hugely informative sales letter email.
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. (25)
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At the risk of being redundant, please remember that this is a MILLION
DOLLAR sales letter. It sold at least ONE MILLION DOLLARS worth of
"HydrAuger" boring machinery. It didn't have the advantage of audio, video, or
any other flashy modern technology. It was delivered in just a plain envelope
with a stamp on it. It was delivered as low-tech as it gets.
Okay, so what is going on in Osborn's email and Collier's letter that makes
them really, really good?
We don't have the space for an in-depth analysis, but here are some notes.
As simple as Collier's letters seem to be, they are massively effective. That is
why we set up this comparison to a good contemporary email that is utilizing
the same principles. These principles are as golden today as they were in
Collier's heyday.
22 NOTES COMPARING THE OSBORN EMAIL - COLLIER LETTER #3
(1) Don't be afraid to play with the look of the text.
Play with punctuation, spelling, quotes (the text being with or without),
dashes, and CAPITALIZATION.
(2) Tell a powerful story.
A good story has a distinct beginning, middle, and end. Make both the problem
in the beginning and the solution at the end dramatic.
(3) Tell the truth.
Be 100 percent honest. No hype. No hustle. Suggest by the tone that what is
being said is "Just the facts, and nothing but the facts."
(4) Make it sound like an event.
Tie the message to an actual news event or current "top-of-mind" topic, if
possible. Or connect the message to a consensus reality evidence that adds
"social proof." For example, Osborn states that, "The client had won awards.
His work undersea in the Galapagos Islands appeared on TV." (Note: The
words "undersea" and "TV" rhyme, which is hypnotic).
(5) Talk directly to the reader.
Address them as "you." Talk to the reader like he is a very good friend. Make it
sound urgent that the writer share this exciting news about a new "solution"
that could greatly benefit his friend.
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(6) Invoke curiosity with the subject line.
Provoke fascination, need to know, and a stated or implied benefit with the
subject line. The subject line functions as the headline for the letter.
Successful, short headlines from other sales letters can be used as templates.
Osborn's is hardly original, but it works (and he makes it unique with his
playful, yet powerful, punctuation games).
(7) Hook the reader.
Hook him with the first or first two sentences of the email or sales letter.
Osborn's first two sentences may seem weak, but they're not. When somebody
says, "Thanks" to us, we automatically respond by thinking (a) "For what,
exactly?" and (b) "You're welcome." Presto — instant mental dialogue! We
have entered into the conversation in their heads (our goal).
(8) Paint vivid word pictures. Create mind movies.
In the second sentence, if Osborn had said, "I just had a chat with a new
customer," it falls flat. When he adds "... who works with his cousin," a word
picture is created. Our curiosity is turned on. Collier's writing is so vivid that it
literally creates a movie in our minds! His headline with money "THROWN IN
THE GUTTER!" is an astonishing word picture. The capitalization is Collier's.
(9) Use staccato punctuation.
Staccato language expresses intensity, emotion, and urgency. Osborn writes
"An Expert - 20 years of experience - Videographer." This visual, verbal pacing
simulates a live speaker having to pause for his breath. For the text to sound
like a real live conversation, we need to use punctuation to imitate spoken
language patterns. Dashes are one good way to do this.
(10) Stimulate a powerful emotion.
For both letters, this emotion is "greed," but it is more specific. The reader is
learning how to avoid the painful loss of money and how to quickly, easily, and
effortlessly get more money, all at the same time — for free.
(11) Be entertaining!
It's fine to tell a story about somebody else. Make the story slightly unusual. A
blockbuster movie is an unusual story about somebody else. Just make it a
good story with a painful problem and a dramatic solution finish. Make the lead
character talented but ordinary, and the situation painfully familiar. Osborn's
videographer is gifted and deserving, yet he gets rejected on price alone. The
universal emotional subtext here is the harsh pain of rejection.
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(12) Solve a problem.
First, set up the problem. Describe it so that the reader can feel the problem.
Be specific. Use lots of details. Be concrete. Be factual. Talk about something
that really happened in life. Then solve the problem fast and decisively.
(13) Show, don't tell.
Make every single word count like a boxing punch. Do the "read it out loud"
test. Or have somebody else read it out loud. Listen like the words are new.
(14) End with strong "social proof."
At the very end of the text, insert a testimonial(s) or quote(s) to drive the
message in hard. Don't introduce it. Just dump it right in there. It will take the
reader by surprise. Inserted late in the copy, this "social proof" juice is intense.
Osborn doesn't provide quotes, but his three mini-stories about famous
marketers are loaded with the subtext of authority and social proof.
(15) Use short, simple, punchy words.
Use words that a sixth grader knows. Use mostly one- or two-syllable words.
(16) Enter into the reader's ongoing mental conversation.
There is a conversation that is already going on in the reader's mind. What is
going on in the entrepreneur's mind is, "How can I make more money?" and
"How can I lose less money?" and "How can I do all of this faster, easier,
cheaper, in less time, and with more fun?" Strange as it may seem, many
people are only dimly aware of this internal self-talk. Some have no clue.
(17) Imply that it is incredibly easy.
Imply that it is incredibly easy to save money and also to make more money at
the same time. Osborn says to just do this simple trick. Collier says to just buy
this unique, high-powered machine.
(18) Convey passion, excitement, and energy.
Write with extremely high energy — the soft, caring edge of crazy. Accelerate
into the finish. Think of an excited live talker. How they would look? Sound?
Behave? That's the desired pace and tone. Hey, this message is EXCITING!
(19) Above all else, do not be boring!
Be an interesting personality who comes bearing gifts. This professional
personal "image" or "avatar" expresses the writer's strengths to the readers. It
is his "showbiz" face. The reader enters into the writer's artificial world filled
14
with a positive archetypal energy of the writer's choice. Osborn comes across
as the Hero. Collier is a Sage. Be entertaining or be history.
(20) Don't always make sense. Put the cart before the horse sometimes.
It's okay to say things that don't make immediate sense to the reader. Create
a question in the reader's mind, then answer it later. Make a statement, then
go somewhere else in the copy. Return with a statement that explains the
earlier statement to suddenly bring the reader pleasurable closure. These
mental "gaps" in the flow of thought hook the reader.
(21) At the end, don't suddenly transition to a hard sell.
Maintain the friendly tone. Act like it's an invitation over to the house for
coffee. No big deal. The whole letter is one friendly "soft-sell" pitch. The close
should be consistent with that tone. Make it casual and nonchalant.
(22) Never ever appear needy.
People are able to "smell" desperate or needy in an email. Write like the king
of the world, but maintain total respect for the reader. Never write down to the
reader. If anything, write "up" to the reader. It's okay to play the fool a little
bit, but don't put the reader in that position. The implication is that the reader
needs the writer. For some readers, that will turn out to be true.
We could go on, but 22 is enough. We hope the reader gets the point.
In short, the reader is swept away without realizing it. He gets caught up in
the energy and emotion normally associated with the sudden media thunder
and revved-up priority data flash of a major critical news event.
Since the message is told in story form as a friend talking to a friend, the stink
of "being sold" is not there. It turns out that the communicator does have
something to offer, but there are no strings at all. Whether the reader acts on
it or not, it doesn't matter. Everybody stays as friends and has a good time.
The writer acknowledges that the reader's time is extremely valuable to him.
So he gets right to it and shares tons of value all the way through. Osborn's
email letter is a complete case study that a savvy, motivated business owner
could implement today to save money and make more profits.
His message is an entire, valuable "free report" in one "throwaway" email. The
implication is that if Osborn just tosses this stuff out like its confetti, then what
kind of amazing content does he offer when he actually gets paid?
Collier provides valuable, colorful insights into the problems that face people
doing that kind of trench work. It may not interest us, but it is probably "War
15
and Peace" for people in that business. Collier shows with all of the specific,
concrete details in the midst of the dramatic news event style of storytelling
that he knows this business and he knows his stuff.
Okay, that's it for this analysis. Please move on to Part Two where no less than
15 million dollar sales letters by the great Robert Collier are waiting.
16
PART TWO: 15 MILLION DOLLAR SALES LETTERS
[This is the starting point for the long lost sales letter copywriting masterpiece,
"Million Dollar Sales Letters for Your Own Use and Profit" by Robert Collier].
(26) (27) (28)
Million Dollar Sales Letters For Your Own Use and Profit
Robert Collier (1885-1950)
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 that you use in presenting your offering to
your prospects; it depends on the kind of a letter that 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.
17
If you would choose the one man in the United States who could
write for you a sales letter that would produce the results that
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 letters. 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 what he considered to be 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 that are considered to be
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, and they have actually sold
over one million dollars of services and merchandise.
These letters will sell for you. Choose those that 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.
18
$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?
19
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 especially 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
20
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 not 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 was 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
21
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:
22
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 your business to 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 the
letter.
23
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 Our 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
24
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
25
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.
26
A client wanted to sell a new, small-size travelling 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 Travelling 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
27
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
Travelling 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 "RedypaktBag," 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.
28
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 your
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,
29
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 that 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 Robe 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
30
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 -
31
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
to make a personal call.
Here is a type of letter that 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
32
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
33
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 our 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 clearly
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
high quantities. Its basic idea is just as applicable to dozens of
other products that appeal to all sportsmen.
{letter}
34
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
35
TRIAL!
SEND NO MONEY! Just your name and address on the enclosed card
will bring a pair of these extra-powerful, 8-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 having his interest. After
that, the bringing back of the actual order is mere detail.
This letter is high-pressure... too 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
36
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!
37
LETTER # 15
USING THE "YOU" ELEMENT
There is a concern in one of the Eastern states that 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 businessman 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
38
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 at 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?
[This is the conclusion of the long lost sales and copywriting masterpiece
"Million Dollar Sales Letters for Your Own Use and Profit" by Robert Collier].
39
PART THREE: FOUR LONG LOST MARKETING SECRETS
Here are four insights from direct marketing and mail order that tend to be
misunderstood or neglected by Internet marketers. There is much more that
can be learned from direct marketing masters like Clayton Makepeace and Dan
"No Bull" Kennedy, but these remarks are a good beginning. (29) (30)
Recently on FrankKern.com, Kern actually said that
modern direct marketing legend Dan Kennedy is his
teacher. We know for sure they both have something
unusual in common — really big horns!
See, with “educated effort,” you can do anything you want. Add in a little “determination,” and you’re damn near unstoppable. Then throw in a little bump of what my teacher Dan Kennedy calls “stick- to-it-iveness,” and you WILL get to where you want to go. (32)
In the next four sections, we learn about the fine art of
the free opt-in offer, the tested wisdom of a mail order
master, the sneaky ethical way to convert our customer
to a second sale and the ultimate secret of the kings of
Dan "No Bull" Kennedy (31) copy.
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #1: Avoid the "Dead-End" Free Offer
We're told by the Internet marketing gurus that "the money is in the list."
We're told to put up a squeeze page. We're told to offer a valuable free gift,
and visitors will opt in with their names and email addresses.
But is that really all there is to it?
Internet marketing and direct mail expert Ted Nicholas explains that the free
gift or lead generation "bribe" must carry the prospect forward in the sales
pipeline. By delivering on exactly what we promise on the squeeze page, we
can actually do ourselves more harm than good.
Paradoxically, a free offer may be too effective, cutting prospects off... Prospects may be disappointed in a sense to find that the... offer turns out to be exactly what the ad [squeeze page] said it would be - a self-contained solution to a modest problem. (33)
Ideally, the free gift "hooks" the prospect, psychologically pulling them into the
marketer's next step. Otherwise, the marketer will have to start cold with the
prospect all over again later on. The percentage of visitors who opt-in can be
tracked. Then we can test and tweak the squeeze page. (34)
The marketer can follow up with emails and so forth, but he has lost a golden
40
opportunity to convert his prospect from a "freebie grabber" into a paying
customer on the spot. It is a truism of sales that after a purchase, the buyer is
"hot," and the marketer should strike then with another offer.
The same wisdom applies to the free offer. The prospect has voted for the
marketer and made a minor commitment. On the Internet, that amounts to a
real live "handshake." Now, not later, is the right time to convert him.
A good free offer gives some valuable information and shows that the consultant
[marketer] is competent or even creative. However, it only gives hints or an outline of parts of the solution. To get the whole story, the prospect has to make contact with the consultant [marketer]. (35)
Frankly, too little thought is being put into these omnipresent free gifts
nowadays. All too often, it is a mediocre generic PLR (Private Label Rights)
product where the cover is the best part of the package. The marketer obtains
the opt-in, but the relationship then runs into a dead end.
There is talk in Internet marketing circles about how the gift really does need
to be valuable. Some gurus even recommend that the gift be a chunk of the
best content that the marketer has to offer.
Literally giving away one's best content, though, is a tricky proposition! So
there's more to the story, but these same gurus are not telling it — except for
a hefty price.
Is there a cheaper, proven approach that we can implement ourselves?
This new strategic free gift is a report, audio, or video that delivers on the
content promise of the squeeze page and up-sells the prospect at the same
time. Since the new offer is bundled with the useful content, the prospect
doesn't perceive it as a naked up-sell. It is viewed as part of the free value.
We fulfill the promise of the squeeze page and deliver the value. This warms
up the prospect further. He is excited about what may lie ahead for him.
Here's how to do it. After delivering the promised content, the marketer says
something like, "If you liked this secret, you'll be happy to know I've got seven
more just as good or even better waiting in the wings."
The marketer then describes these other secrets. They are not free.
Capitalizing on the popularity of video, the marketer can deliver the promised
content on the thank you page and then transition into the related offer within
the very same video. If the video is kept short (a few minutes), the prospect is
likely to watch the whole thing then and there. After all, he wants his valuable
free content. He "paid" for it with his email opt-in.
When the gurus do video, they often pull a fast one where they say, "I'm going
41
to give you the great free stuff, but first let me tell you about X." That may
work when the guru is a recognized authority, but we don't want to take that
risk. So we keep the video short and deliver the goods fast.
The first step of our solution, inspired by the great classic direct marketers, is
to embed the up-sell from the free offer in the free product itself. The second
step is to attach our solution to a trial membership offer.
Yes, we could offer an OTO (One-Time Offer) or straightforward product sales
page, but our prospect is not yet a buying customer. They are warm, but they
are not hot. Keeping with our "soft-sell" style, we offer a trial membership. Not
only that, we can still do the OTO as an up-sell later.
There are three schools of thought on the price point of the membership offer.
Some say to keep the participation price very low, maybe just one dollar, and
use PayPal® as the subscription payment processor. (36) (37)
!"#$
Many Internet marketers who are product creators (vendors) like to use
ClickBank® (after gaining its approval of their product). Some recommend a
front-end commitment for the trial from about $5.00 and up. (39)
(40)
The third school of thought says that we go ahead and match the monthly
membership charge. So if it's $17.00, then the free 30-day trial is $17.00.
The prospect gets to try out the delivered content for an entire month. If
they're happy, they get billed automatically the $17.00. If they don't like what
they get, then they cancel during the trial period and pay nothing.
The advantage of PayPal® is that consumers are comfortable with it. They
trust PayPal®. However, PayPal® makes it ridiculously easy to cancel a
membership via the customer's personal account management console.
Some marketers don't like this, but the fact that PayPal® offers this
convenience functions psychologically as a kind of guarantee, increasing the
number of buyers in the first place. Also, PayPal® does an excellent job of
describing in detail exactly the duration and cost of the trial membership.
The advantage of ClickBank® is also that it is highly trusted. The marketer can
use it to fully deploy and manage his affiliate program. However, the trust
earned by ClickBank® on the Internet is based on its generous 60-day iron
42
clad money back guarantee.
The result is that the money is not really ready to be counted until all 60 days
are up. This can complicate affiliate payments due to cancellations late in the
trial period. However, marketers who like working with ClickBank® take this
delay in stride.
The third option, converting the prospect into the membership straightaway,
has the disadvantage of being more of a "hard" sell. Money can be asked for
upfront, a hard sell, or "softly" after a free trial (a week to a month).
The advantage is that if the buyer is happy with the membership, he will be
seeing the same amount again and again. He will think of it as just another bill
like the telephone or cable TV. He may even forget about it. This approach has
much in common with a conventional magazine subscription.
However, we recommend that when the prospect signs up for the trial
membership that he does pay something, whether it's $1.00 or $100.00. We
want to psychologically condition our new business friend in the habit of giving
us money for our value from day one of our contact with him.
By committing his money, he has become a buyer. Today, it may just be a
$1.00 trial via PayPal®. Tomorrow, six months, or two years from now, it could
be our $1,000 per month coaching program. We don't know, so what we do is
give the new customer several "voting booths" along the sales path where he
can vote with his money and say, "Yes, I want this."
If the prospect enters into a totally free trial, he is still in "freebie" mode.
When he finds that he has been charged the full membership amount after the
free trial is over, since his commitment is so slight, he could react as if it is
unfair to him. From our end, we still have no clue as to his interest level.
43
An Up-sell Is Like a Bet in Poker. Will He Commit His Money? (41) (42) (43)
The instant simple up-sell is like a bet in poker. We are probing our customer in
the most direct way possible by asking him for money. If he sees the perceived
value, and our message is aligned with his market, he lets us know by putting
more of his money into the pot. That way, we know that he is serious.
The spirit of the low cost trial membership offer is that we want to gently
convert our new prospect into a buyer as quickly and easily as we can. We
want a financial commitment, but we also want to keep it very comfortable for
him. We want to avoid giving him the shock of feeling, "Hey, I'm being sold."
Instead, we are a new friend who is offering real value.
Of course, all of this is subject to testing. Since the cost of doing business on
the Internet can be so small compared to brick and mortar businesses, the
tendency for Internet marketers is to charge too little. On the plus side, the
low cost technology makes testing easy even for non-technical types.
So the argument can be made for providing superb quality and charging the
maximum that the market can handle right out of the gate (the third plan with
the full membership trial). Any of these models can be successful. The bottom
line is that the marketer's approach matches his market, that he feels good
about his approach, and that he keeps testing and tweaking.
44
NAPKIN MODEL #1: TIER ONE MEMBERSHIP
SQUEEZE ==> LOW COST TRIAL ==> MEMBERSHIP CUSTOMER
This is a simple diagram of the three-step process. We are converting a new
prospect into a buyer on the spot. If he refuses a low cost membership trial
offer, then he goes on our "freebie grabber" list. If he chooses the trial offer, he
goes on our "buyer" list for that membership. Either way, he still gets the free
information product/up-sell gift delivered on the thank you page.
If the customer buys the membership, we can then present him with a related
OTO (One-Time Offer). It could be an "inner circle" membership at an
advanced level. It is a significant money jump. If the low-end membership was
$19 per month, the OTO is, say, $47 or $97 per month.
NAPKIN MODEL #2: TIER ONE WITH OTO
SQUEEZE ==> TRIAL ==> MEMBERSHIP ==> OTO ==> DOWN-SELL
If the new customer says “no” to the OTO, we can offer him a down-sell of the
OTO. Since we want to give our new customer a chance to maximize his
participation, we can make the high-end offer the OTO. We are giving the
customer a price ladder to climb up and a price ladder to climb down.
Then, if the customer declines the OTO, we can offer him a slimmed-down
version for a lesser cost in our closely related down-sell version. This downsell
is the same basic information but without all of the bells and whistles. Instead
of the OTO Gold Membership, he signs up for the Silver Membership.
It is just the bare bones information of the advanced program, nothing fancy.
So it's cheaper than the OTO, and this makes sense. But it's still more than the
low cost Bronze Membership and a step-up in perceived value.
We believe in "napkin models." This means that were we to meet in a
restaurant, we could easily describe our entire model on the side of one
napkin. Napkin models are not a myth. They really do work!
A napkin model keeps everything simple. While the day-to-day execution of
the napkin model can get quite complicated, it is important that the marketing
model itself be elegant and simple. Like a map that is easy to read, the napkin
model helps the marketer stay on track as he navigates the various obstacles
that he is bound to encounter in his journey to greater profits.
45
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #2: Mail-Order Mind Control
Though the delivery technology is different, selling on the Internet and selling
via mail order have much in common. Responding to an offer that is presented
in words and pictures, a prospect chooses to participate.
The insights below come from Dick Benson. Highly respected in the direct
marketing community, Benson's insights into subscription sales models deserve
our attention. His accomplishments are too extensive and varied to cover
completely here, but we will quote Benson with regard to his ability to
generate and maintain newsletter subscriptions. Most of us would be very
happy with the number of subscriptions he has had stuffed into his pocket.
I have been a specialist in the marketing of magazine subscriptions, but my experience also includes the sale of books, one-shot merchandise and insurance, as well as catalogs and fund raising...
I have also been a publisher. Contest News-Letter, which I sold to McCall's in 1986, was the largest paid-subscription newsletter in the United States with a circulation of 750,000. The University of California, Berkeley, Wellness Letter, first published in 1984, has a current subscription base of 500,000 and is the second largest newsletter. (44)
We see a lot of knowledge transfer from mail order to Internet marketing,
especially in the area of information and entertainment marketing. The main
thing to "get" from the successful mail order businesses is that they operated
(and still operate) on a "second sale" model.
Elaborate descriptions of high-tech sales funnels accompanied by fancy
graphics can distract from the main point that the real value of the first sale is
not the sale per se or the net profit (if any). The real value of the first sale is
the acquisition of a fresh new customer.
Once we have that customer, we can promote to him again and again in a wide
variety of free and paid ways. The first sale opens the door. Our goal is to
move into his home where we can live on the front burner of his mind.
This is the great mail order maxim, and it applies equally to the Internet: It's
nice when you can make money on the front-end, but the real money is made
on the back-end by marketing to our existing buyers ("house list").
Here are some excerpts from what Benson calls "Benson's Rules of Thumb."
There are 31 insights in the original list. (45)
1. A two-time buyer is twice as likely to buy as a one-time buyer. Most of the
experts I know who issue catalogs, handle circulation for publications, or raise
funds by mail know this to be true. (46)
This is pure gold! Here is the real reason why we want a list of buyers. From
our list of one-time buyers will emerge a shorter list of prime buyers who buy
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from us over and over again. As our offers ascend up a tiered pricing ladder,
some of them will follow us all the way up to our most expensive offering. The
value of just one such customer can easily be in the many thousands.
3. Sweepstakes will improve results by 50% or more. (47)
Do not underestimate the astonishing power of games, prizes, and contests.
They should definitely be incorporated into our Internet marketing plan. (48)
6. Memberships renew better than plain subscriptions by 10% or more. (49)
A membership and a subscription are two different things. A membership
involves more participation by the buyer, so the sticking factor is greater. The
more we can involve our customer, the more likely he is to stay.
8. You can never sell two things at once. (50)
This statement by Benson is like a Zen wisdom saying. Our prospect is
distracted. His mind is splintered by a multitude of devices. More than even in
Benson's time, we need to focus on capturing our prospect's attention.
If we try to sell him on more than one thing, the already overwhelmed
prospect will just react from his overloaded state and move on. Our
opportunity to convert a visitor into a golden lifetime customer is lost.
His first contact is likely to be via our squeeze page. Check out the squeeze
pages of the top marketers. They follow this "sell only one thing" rule.
10. The more believable a special offer, the more likely its success. (51)
If we offer a new luxury car for a dollar, nobody will believe us. We need to
justify our special offer by proving our credibility and showing the "reasons
why" this is a legitimate and valuable offer that the prospect can trust.
While the attention spans on the Internet continue to shrink, the skepticism
continues to grow. We need to consciously counteract this accelerating trend of
consumer skepticism, especially if our offer sounds "too good to be true."
11. The addition of installment payments for an item over $15 will increase
results by 15%. (52)
Offer an installment payment option for our high-ticket items, and we will sell
more of them. The $15 price point doesn't apply anymore, but there are price
points that do apply to our markets. For example, a product that sells for $197
or more is likely to benefit from an installment option. In a tight economy, for
$500 and up, an installment plan is just common sense.
The other obvious option is to break up existing content for a membership
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format. Then the course content is delivered in installments. Payments are
then received in installments via monthly (or weekly) automatic billing.
The first choice among top Internet marketers nowadays seems to be the fixed
term membership model. Content is delivered for, say, 16 weeks.
Four months definitely strikes a good balance. The customer is not faced with
endless membership payments. It is like buying a product over time in
installments, exactly the practical plan that Benson is talking about here.
12. Dollar for dollar, premiums are better incentives than cash discounts. (53)
17. Two premiums are frequently better than one. (54)
It is tempting to discount an offer to move units, and this makes sense when
all of the other appeals to a segmented list have failed. We can select from our
list those who stonewalled all our other pitches and try to hook them with a
rock bottom price. But the best way is to build up the value of the offer.
Not only that, we don't really want to attract only customers who buy based on
price alone. Our ideal customer buys on quality out of passion and has the
deep pockets to back up his high standards and good taste. The classic
example of this kind of market is the golf niche, but there are many others.
Also interesting is that Benson says "two premiums." Having heard that
offering bonuses (premiums) helps sell products, many Internet marketers pile
them up as if more is always better. This is not as smart as it sounds.
Our research indicates that offering a few excellent premium bonuses can get
prospects buying the offer just so they can get a hold of a bonus and
experience its benefits. This will not happen if the marketer is deluded into
thinking that quantity, rather than quality, is the key with premiums.
21. Direct mail should be scrupulously honest. (55)
This goes double today. Customer trust is the one ingredient that we
absolutely must have to succeed on the Internet. There are quickie systems
that make money for the short term, but the market leaders on the Internet
have established themselves by being honest, reliable, and trustworthy.
26. An exclusive reduced price to a house list will more than pay its way. (56)
In Rule 12, Benson asserted that adding premiums to an offer pays off better
than applying naked discounts. Here, he modifies that advice if the offer is
made to the marketer's list of buyers (his "house list").
Specifically, Benson is recommending a special offer that combines a price
discount with a "snob" or "insider" exclusivity appeal. Slashing the price by
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itself is not strong. But if we add exclusivity, there will be enough juice.
Typically, such an offer will be made for a limited time only. The number of
available units at this special price may also be limited, perhaps severely. Once
they're gone, they're gone, at least at this price.
If the marketer sells physical products, he can use the "distress" tactic. This
old tried and true direct marketing trick works because it offers a sensible
explanation. The temporary drastic drop in price feels justified.
Out goes an email that declares, "My assistant spilled coffee on the covers of
these products (books, CDs, DVDs). So rather than throw them away, I will let
you have them at half price this weekend only. There's just 100. Please act
quickly if you want one. The product is fine and we guarantee it. It's just the
cover that got messed up. So unless you buy our stuff in order to stare at the
covers for hours on end, this strikes us as a really good deal for you."
Digital goods don't get damaged, but we can offer the same product in a
different format. An ebook can be repurposed as an audio or video product.
The soundtrack of an existing video product can be stripped and presented on
MP3s. For the existing customer who likes to listen to audio trainings or ebooks
in his car, the new audio offer could be just what he needs.
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #3: The Secret of the Second Sale
We want to consult with master direct mail marketer Dick Benson one more
time. Entrepreneurs of every age and technology seem to have a real difficulty
into getting the true value of the "second sale" into their heads. The reason
may be that for most of us, it's just not part of our education. We are trained
by society to be repeat buyers, not serial sellers. Whatever the reason, it's a
top moneymaking idea that deserves our full mental investment.
The second sale for a publication is the conversion or renewal order. The importance of
selling the subscriber a second time is that after this renewal, he's twice as likely to resubscribe as he would be if he'd bought only once. (57)
What Benson is talking about is the customer's journey from prospect to buyer
to devoted customer. The customer's attitude changes early on. It doesn't take
ten sales. The customer crosses a kind of threshold after he buys from us a
few times and experiences satisfaction with his purchases.
However, we still haven't explained the psychology of the second sale. That's
the key to the whole thing. Get this, and the residual cash flow will follow.
49
In the Next Tent, the Girls Dance Without Any Clothes On! (58)
Benson greatly admired a copywriter named Jim Parton. Parton had a unique
way of illustrating the psychology of the second sale. Since we can't do him
one better, we will just go ahead and quote him instead.
The second sale [is similar] to a carnival. After you've entered the tent and seen the girls
dance, the pitchman tells you: "You ain't seen nothin' yet. For just one more quarter, you can go into the next tent, where the girls dance without any clothes on." (59)
The astute reader may pick up that this is precisely the advice we gave earlier
in the lesson on how to steer clear of "dead-end" free opt-in gifts. We said that
the gift should provide the promised value and swiftly transition into tantalizing
the prospect: "Hey, if you liked this secret, you're going to love the seven
secrets just as powerful and wonderful waiting for you."
As we magnetically pull the customer through our sales process into a new
offer, it is a new "second sale." It is another opportunity to pre-sell the
customer on what's ahead for him. Our goal is to get another commitment.
Whether it's money or just a good feeling, he's taking a step in our direction.
In a fixed term membership where the product, say a video, is delivered
weekly, each of these deliveries is, in psychological terms, a "second sale." We
have an opportunity to sell our customer on (a) next week's video, (b) the
gourmet feast of sizzling value we have set up for him in the weeks to come,
and (c) staying with our membership to the very end.
In order to enhance the sticking power of the membership, some marketers
50
talk from the start about a valuable gift that is available only to those who
complete the full membership course without asking for a refund. Not only is
this a premium bonus per se, there is a potent contest-prize psychology at
work.
In our free gift strategy, the free gift is, of course, the girls in the first tent
dancing with their clothes on. They're fantastic, and it almost seems like
enough. The prospect is very pleased with his minor investment (the opt-in).
Then we start talking about the girls in the second tent, where it's gonzo, and
the prospect's crazy private dreams get totally fulfilled. If we can fire up the
prospect's imagination in the way that Jim Parton's carnival pitchman can, we
will bank a winner. Getting one secret from us for free was great, so getting
more secrets from us will be better, even if there is a small price to pay.
"So what if it costs money," says the prospect to himself. "It's a dream come
true." For him, it's a dream realized. For us, it's another satisfying sale.
Long Lost Marketing Lesson #4: The Magic Key to Killer Copy
As marketers, we are serious about wanting to know why people buy.
We are told that we should be passionate, persistent, and patient. We are told
that business is like a war. We are told to act swiftly and decisively.
But none of these important truths get to the core of what will make us
successful as marketers. They will help, they are part of the total package, but
they are not "IT."
Our success as marketers is guaranteed when we understand the real reason
why people buy. This is not a mystery. There is no debate. It is known!
There are expensive books, software, online courses, seminars, trainings, and
coaching programs that claim to teach us this answer. In fact, the answer is
right in front us each and every day.
It's on television. It's in the news. It's in the headlines. It's the real star of
motion pictures. It's the timeless universal beat of music.
Without exaggeration, we can say that it is the power that moves the world.
The reason that people buy is very simple. We are revealing it right here.
That power is EMOTION.
This is the consensus of the great marketing and psychological minds.
51
Lead by arousing a strong emotion. Justify the emotion with reasons why and
benefits. Add social proof. Close with a call to action.
Below is a sales letter written by Robert Collier for his own book, "The Robert
Collier Letter Book." It was mailed as a two-page sales letter. Notice how low
key, even humble, it is. It does not call attention to itself. (60)
In the body of the copy, Collier does not shout, "This is the best book about
direct mail in the world!" Instead, he appeals to an emotion in the reader.
He leads with an eyeball-grabbing claim — "The Greatest of All Direct Mail
Books" — that is beyond bold. Then he backs off. For the moment, this
towering claim captures the reader's attention. Now he must justify it.
He immediately enters into the conversation that is already going on inside the
reader's mind. He leads with emotion. He justifies with logic, evidence, and
benefits. He finishes with a strong, yet believable, testimonial (social proof).
He closes by appealing to the same emotion. He asks for the sale.
The language is a bit outdated, but the principles behind the copy are sound.
Note the strong 10-day risk-free money-back guarantee.
Can the reader identify the powerful emotion that Collier is deliberately and
very skillfully appealing to in this short but effective sales letter?
The Robert Collier Letter Book
The Greatest of All Direct Mail Books
Dear Sir:
When a man can turn an $80,000 loss as of June 1st into a $121,000 Net Profit as of December 31st, entirely with letters -
When he can sell by mail $3,000,000 worth of traveling bags – take 400,000 pairs or returned silk stockings at the regular dealer’s price and dispose of them by mail, at a profit
-
When he can increase gross sales in three years’ time from $2,000,000 a year to $6,000,000 a year for one concern, and then go and do just as big a job for two other companies in completely different lines of business –
all through the use of clever, well-written letters -
Then there has to be something so fundamentally sound about his way of writing and using letters that it would pay you as a man interested in making more money to try the same methods in your business.
Of course, we are referring to the world famous Robert Collier techniques of selling by mail – now available -
THE ROBERT COLLIER LETTER BOOK
52
For more than 20 years, Robert Collier successfully sold anything and everything by mail.
During that time, he was in charge of direct mail selling for Colliers, Review of Reviews, New Process Company, and many others. He sold considerably more than $20,000,000 worth of goods by mail, including $2,000,000 worth of O. Henry stories, over $3,000,000 worth of Well’s Outline Of History, and millions of dollars worth of all manners of products, from coal and coke to ladies’ dresses and men’s socks.
In THE ROBERT COLLIER LETTER BOOK, you get every one of the hundreds of sound, tested plans that worked so profitably for Mr. Collier and many famous firms… countless specimens of actual letters and circulars, including a short, clear discussion by the author of what exactly made them work – what made them pull in orders. Here, for you, are moneymaking plans that you can put to work for greater returns in your direct mail campaign. Plans like these -
The direct mail strategy that sold one million copies of the Book of Etiquette after it had gathered dust for fifteen years in Doubleday’s stock room.
The letter that actually sold 50,000 traveling bags, reviving the New Process Company at a time when it was in the red for $80,000.
The direct mail ideas that induced nearly half of the nation’s top executives to subscribe to newly published Business Week magazine.
These and hundreds of other sales-boosting methods in THE ROBERT COLLIER LETTER
BOOK are yours to be used by you, no matter what your objective may be.
Suppose you’re in business for yourself, but don’t have the money you’d like to spend on advertising. Chapter 22 shows you how one lady’s ready-to-wear dress dealer achieved
outstanding profits from a $50-a-week investment in direct mail. Or suppose you’ve always wanted to build up a bigger and better mailing list of your own – of proven buyers. Chapter 11 shows you step-by-step how such firms as William H. Wise and Company and the New Process Company go about getting just such results.
Say you have a new product to introduce to the public, but can’t afford to take a chance and gamble. Chapter 20 shows you how to safely forecast its selling possibilities – the same system Robert Collier used on one product to pull in one million dollars’ worth of orders during the first six months of business.
The same thing goes for any question or problem that comes up in your direct mail work. You can use this book and its techniques as a jumping-off place – find out for yourself what others have accomplished when faced with problems so similar to the ones you have. Regardless of what your sales objective is, simply turn to THE ROBERT COLLIER LETTER BOOK and find actual, tested profit plans that accomplished such a varied amount of objectives for Robert Collier and others.
Mr. W.F. Rehbock of the Foley Manufacturing Company, Minneapolis, after reading and using THE ROBERT COLLIER LETTER BOOK in its previous edition wrote:
"We made a test mailing of 3,000 letters along the lines suggested by Mr. Collier, and 3,000 of our regular letters which had been getting good results for several years, and we were amazed to find that we increased the pull 50%."
Why not see the book for yourself – Examine it and use it for 10 days at our risk!
Naturally, we think the book is absolutely tops – and we’re pretty well qualified to judge its merits because of our own direct mail experience – therefore, we must recommend it to every advertising man, every manufacturer, every individual interested in making money selling by direct mail. But it’s only after you see and use this great book yourself that you
53
can determine how valuable it can be to you.
Mail the enclosed card and get your copy on this 10-day free trial offer. Then, see for yourself what a help it can be whenever you’re stuck for a new idea and fresh approach. When you’re thoroughly convinced, send us your check for $10 plus a few cents to cover postage and shipping. However, if for some reason you’re not entirely satisfied, return the book to us and you’ll be under no further obligation. Fair enough? (61)
Did the reader identify the dominant emotion (or emotions) working a
seductive mind massage deep behind Collier's words?
Well, here's our opinion.
The emotion that Collier is skillfully appealing to is... drum roll, please...
GREED.
Yes, it's the same "greed" from the two examples in Part One. Greed is much
more universal and potent than we realize. For example, when Joe Karbo wrote
the classic ad, "The Lazy's Man's Way to Riches," he was appealing to greed.
He was getting the reader's "greed glands" pumping overtime. (62)
What entrepreneur or business reader would not want to learn how to perform
the kind of money magic that Collier has mastered?
Implied is not just profit, but the ease of doing it… not only the ease, but the
speed... not just the speed, but the virtual certainty of positive results.
So, here we are again listening to a very modern tune.
Make easy money fast. Get rich quick. Learn the lazy man's way to get rich.
This is the hot, throbbing song of unbridled greed glands, pure and simple.
Collier knows this, but he doesn't point to it. He slowly and surely massages,
arouses, inspires, inflames, and explodes a hot massive emotional tidal wave
of greed in the reader. Greed, craving, even lust for this magical power to
manifest millions with mere words grows until it consumes the reader.
The letter climaxes with the unassuming quote from a nondescript
manufacturer. Why so low-key? Why mention a mere 50 percent increase?
The implication of the quote is, "If this Mr. Rebhock of Minneapolis can do it,
then so can I!" This quote is social proof that every man can do it.
It counters the doubt that some readers will have about themselves: "Mr.
Collier can perform this word magic because he's a fantastic writer. But not
me. I'm just a regular Joe. I'm just an ordinary businessman."
54
This letter may not strike the reader as being a great sales letter. Maybe it
isn't. It probably isn't one of Collier's top-best. But it's still good, and it still
works. It sells, and it manages to do this without seeming to sell at all.
One of its specific strengths, found throughout Collier's letters, is that it
casually and continuously provides concrete, detailed facts and figures in an
accelerating parade of proof. It is overwhelmingly saturated with evidence.
This is on the surface, and this flow of captivating details successfully captures
the reader's conscious mind. It frees up the subconscious mind to salivate and,
without restraint, feed the expanding inner volcano of greed.
The tone of Collier's writing is very interesting. For example, it assumes the
sale. Not only that, but the impression we are getting is that Collier literally
does not "need" our sale. He does not need us to buy his book.
Why would he? He knows how to make millions with a single letter!
Without ever shouting his greatness from the rooftops, Collier convinces us
that he is the real deal. He is an authentic expert who we can trust. He is a
towering authority in his field.
Finally, in Collier's tone, there is a tremendous respect for the reader. Not once
is the reader put down. Nowhere is it hinted that he is less than.
A lesser copywriter might have hammered away at how the reader is a
desperate failure, a broke and broken loser. This will certainly generate
emotion. But it is not elegant, and we run the risk of alienating the reader if
we don't do it just right.
Greed is the ideal core-motivating emotion. It can be combined with fear,
anger, betrayal, shame, disgust, embarrassment, and a whole suite of negative
emotions. Truth be told, it permeates everything human.
People are only dimly aware of their greed and how it motivates them. Not
only that, but greed is the great mover and shaker of the other emotions.
A man can be frozen with fear. He can be apoplectic with anger. He can be
incensed by betrayal.
But he is moved into swift action by the glittering promise of greed.
The specific formula is that we hammer away at the negative so that we bring
the painful negative feelings forward into the reader's now awareness.
Then we present a positive solution, the reader's knight in shining armor, here
to rescue him from his pain. But this "white knight" is not exactly what he
appears to be.
55
This "white knight" is the symbolic embodiment of the reader's greed for a
fast, easy, painless, effortless solution. All he has to do is fork over a few
bucks, and this "white knight" answer will be instantly delivered to him.
So the greed is staged as a massive release of the negative emotional tension.
In Collier's letter, he doesn't beat up on the negative counter emotion. He just
makes a potent seductive appeal to greed.
However, he couples this seduction with an emphasis on avoiding painful loss.
Go back to Collier's very first sentence. That is exactly what he did there.
With all due respect to Mr. Collier, the image that arrives in our mind is one of
a seductive masseuse who knows exactly how to get to our deepest, darkest
emotions. We are putty in his hands. We are grateful that this master of words
has been gentle with us!
It is the vast and universal mistake of the common man to underestimate and
misunderstand the power of words. Words make the world turn.
They are able to accomplish this because they stimulate our emotions.
According to Robert Collier, they do that best when they subtly, slyly, and
unobtrusively enter into the constant conversation that is always already
taking place in the reader's mind.
When we know the conversation that is going on in the minds of the people in
our market, then we can talk to them without looking or sounding like we are
trying to "sell" them. We are one of "them." They are us.
We are a good friend who has made a valuable discovery. We want to share
this discovery with them because it is really going to help them out. So we
have a conversation. They decide that it's a good idea and take action.
That's selling without selling. That's the conversational selling model of Robert
Collier. It's totally relevant today. It will be totally relevant 100 years from
now. It is based on trust, honesty, and good will.
The best people to learn from are masters, if we can find them. Robert Collier
was such a master, a fact widely recognized by word masters of our day like
Jay Abraham, Clayton Makepeace, Joe Vitale, and many more.
56
==========================================================
ROBERT COLLIER'S MILLION DOLLAR LETTERS STUDY NOTES ==========================================================
PART ONE: ROBERT COLLIER — SALES LETTER GURU
(1) Robert Collier (1885-1950), One of America's Original Success Authors, http:// robertcollier.wwwhubs.com/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(2) Robert Collier (1885-1950), One of America's Original Success Authors, para 1 - 9, http://
robertcollier.wwwhubs.com/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(3) Own The World's Greatest "Swipe File" Collection Ever Assembled!, para 5, 19, http:// masterkeymarketingwarriors.com/products/copywriting/collier/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(4) Own The World's Greatest "Swipe File" Collection Ever Assembled!, para 2, 10, http:// masterkeymarketingwarriors.com/products/copywriting/collier/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(5) Collier, Robert, The Robert Collier Letter Book, Robert Collier Publications, 1989, http:// www.amazon.com/Robert-Collier-Letter-Book/dp/0912576200/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(6) Own The World's Greatest "Swipe File" Collection Ever Assembled!, para 36 - 38, http:// masterkeymarketingwarriors.com/products/copywriting/collier/, accessed December 5, 2010.
Collier, Clay, An Open Letter To The Copywriter Who Wants Instant Access To The World's Greatest "Swipe File", para 35 - 37, http://www.trafficconversioninstitute.com/collier/, accessed December 5, 2010.
Note: This sales letter may be the original sales letter for reference (6). Whether it is or not, this letter is of interest because it is written from the perspective of the Collier family. They provide insights that are not found elsewhere.
(7) Galletti, Carl, "The Robert Collier Letter Book is the Best Book Ever Written About Sales Letters", para 21 - 32, http://www.robertcollierletterbooks.com/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(8) jchengery, The Robert Collier Letter Book & Marketing Course - should I get it & in what edition & form?, para 2 - 4, 10 - 11, 23 - 25, http://www.warriorforum.com/copywriting- forum/61596-robert-collier-letter-book-marketing-course-should-i-get-what-edition- form.html#JcEVSkVzOq03GfGe, accessed December 5, 2010.
(9) Collier, Robert, The Robert Collier Letter Book, Robert Collier Publications, 1989, http:// www.amazon.com/Robert-Collier-Letter-Book/dp/0912576200/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(10) Customer image from John S. Gamble, The Robert Collier Letter Book [Paperback], http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-media/product-gallery/0912576200/ ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_0?ie=UTF8&index=0, accessed December 5, 2010.
(11) Robert Collier - The Robert Collier Letter Book OCR, para 4 - 19, http:// www.shareseeking.com/Robert-Collier-The-Robert-Collier-Letter-Book-OCR_488875.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
(12) Frank Kern, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Frank-Kern/375649126849, accessed
December 5, 2010.
(13) Makepeace, Clayton, You: An e-mail marketing gazillionaire!, http:// www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/clayton-makepeace/you-an-e-mail-marketing- gazillionaire.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
(14) Clayton Makepeace, http://www.hs.facebook.com/people/Clayton-Makepeace/
57
1251221836, accessed December 5, 2010.
Makepeace, Clayton, Meet The Total Package Editors, Publisher & Executive Editor, http:// www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/about/meet-the-editors/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(15) Clayton-Frank Kern Interview.pdf, pages 18, 22 - 23, 2009, http:// www.makepeacetotalpackage.com/clayton-makepeace/you-an-e-mail-marketing- gazillionaire.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
(16) Woodhead, Peter, A Good Letter Can Make You a Fortune in Direct Mail, para 40, http:// ezinearticles.com/?A-Good-Letter-Can-Make-You-a-Fortune-in-Direct-Mail&id=1313287, accessed December 5, 2010.
(17) Robert Collier Publications, para 14 - 15, http://www.robertcollierpublications.com/ elsewhere.cgi, accessed December 5, 2010.
"'Million Dollar Sales Letters for Your Own Use and Profit' by Robert Collier. This page has the original, and now public domain, article [sic] reviewing the 15 best direct-mail sales letters Robert Collier wrote."
(18) Million Dollar Sales Letters [Kindle Edition], Product Description, para 1, http:// www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Sales-Letters-ebook/dp/B001LF3BL8, accessed December 5, 2010.
"An incredible collection of master-marketer Robert Collier's million-dollar, high producing, high
result sales letters. Since his letters are in the public domain, you can use them word-for-word and achieve amazing results. The letters can also be used in your sales copy for better results."
(19) Robert Collier's Books to Change Lives, The Robert Collier Letter Book, http://
www.robertcollierpublications.com/rcbooks.cgi#letterbook, accessed December 5, 2010.
(20) Robert Collier Publications, para 14 - 15, http://www.robertcollierpublications.com/ elsewhere.cgi, accessed December 5, 2010.
(21) The Wayback Machine, http://www.archive.org/web/web.php, accessed December 5, 2010.
(22) On-Line Marketing Group, Million Dollar Sales Letters For Your Own Use and Profit...,
http://web.archive.org/web/20060103174821/http://www.e-comprofits.com/collier.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
(23) On-Line Marketing Group, Million Dollar Sales Letters For Your Own Use and Profit..., http://web.archive.org/web/20060103174821/http://www.e-comprofits.com/collier.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
(24) Osborn, Glenn, Personal email communication received November 29, 2010, accessed December 5, 2010.
(25) On-Line Marketing Group, Million Dollar Sales Letters For Your Own Use and Profit..., para 47 - 54, http://web.archive.org/web/20060103174821/http://www.e-comprofits.com/ collier.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
PART TWO: 15 MILLION DOLLAR SALES LETTERS
(26) Million Dollar Sales Letters [Kindle Edition], http://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Sales- Letters-ebook/dp/B001LF3BL8, accessed December 5, 2010.
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(27) Million Dollar Sales Letters, Product Image, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/
B001LF3BL8/ref=dp_image_0?ie=UTF8&n=133140011&s=digital-text, accessed December 5, 2010.
(28) On-Line Marketing Group, Million Dollar Sales Letters For Your Own Use and Profit..., http://web.archive.org/web/20060103174821/http://www.e-comprofits.com/collier.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
Note: The public domain status of this content has been established by the family of Robert Collier per note (17) above. Since they are the owners and active defenders of the late Robert Collier's existing copyrights, their assertion that this document is in public domain carries some
authority.
PART THREE: FOUR LONG LOST MARKETING SECRETS
(29) Dan Kennedy and Bill Glazer, http://dankennedy.com/, accessed December 5, 2010.
"'The Millionaire Maker,' Dan Kennedy. Dan Kennedy is internationally recognized as the 'Millionaire Maker,' helping people in just about every category of business turn their ideas into fortunes. Dan's 'No B.S.' approach is refreshing amidst a world of small business marketing hype and enriches those who act on his advice."
(30) Clayton Makepeace presents The Total Package, http://
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(31) Kennedy, Dan, Now Is The Time To Do It Differently, "No Bull" Chicagoland Marketing Advice, http://stevesipress.com/dan-kennedy-march-2010/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(32) Kern, Frank, You: The Best Guru EVER, para 32 - 34, http://frankkern.com/you-the-best- guru-ever/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(33) Shenson, Howard and Ted Nicholas. The Complete Guide to Consulting Success, Upstart Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1997, page 141.
(34) Sole, Mike, 3 Tips for Doubling Your Conversions, http://www.clickbank.com/blog/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(35) Shenson, Howard and Ted Nicholas. The Complete Guide to Consulting Success, Upstart Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois, 1997, page 141.
(36) PayPal, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal, accessed December 5, 2010.
PayPal® is a registered trademark licensed to eBay Inc.
(37) Ebay Tries to Bully the Domain from Us, para 6, http://www.paypalwarning.com/ ebay_tries_to_bully_the_domain_from_us, accessed December 5, 2010.
"November 4, 2002:
Today, we received the following Email from Ebay's legal department:
'We are writing concerning your registration and use of the above-referenced domain name, which contains the PayPal trademark.
As you know, PayPal is the leading provider of online payment services. PayPal adopted the name and trademark "PayPal" in October 1999, and since that time, PayPal has actively used the PayPal name and trademark in connection with its online payment and related services, including maintaining the website www.PayPal.com. PayPal has devoted substantial resources
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to promote its services under the PayPal mark and logo, and those trademarks embody the
substantial goodwill that PayPal has earned as a result of providing high quality services. In addition to its own promotional efforts, PayPal has been the subject of numerous unsolicited articles in the media, including national and international print, radio, and television media, highlighting PayPal's pioneering and successful efforts in online payments. As a result of PayPal's promotional efforts and the high quality services that PayPal provides, the PayPal trademark is famous, well known, and viewed favorably by the general public. eBay Inc.
recently acquired PayPal, Inc. Accordingly, eBay owns exclusive trademark rights to the PayPal name and trademark in the United States and internationally, including related common law rights.'"
(38) Online Logo Center - Solution Graphics, https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr? cmd=xpt/Marketing/general/SolutionGraphics-outside, accessed December 5, 2010.
(39) ClickBank Legal Notice, http://www.clickbank.com/legal_notice.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
ClickBank® is a registered trademark licensed to Keynetics™ Inc., a Delaware corporation.
ClickBank is a service of Click Sales Inc., a Delaware corporation with headquarters in Boise, Idaho. Click Sales Inc. is a subsidiary of Keynetics™ Inc.
(40) ClickBank®, http://www.clickbank.com/index.html, accessed December 5, 2010.
(41) Fullsize, http://www.pdclipart.org/displayimage.php?pid=16718&fullsize=1, accessed
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(42) Preview, Cards Poker Game Clip Art, http://www.pdclipart.org/displayimage.php? album=120&pos=66, accessed December 5, 2010.
(43) Terms of Use, Copyright and Public Domain, http://www.pdclipart.org/faq.php, accessed December 5, 2010.
"Copyright and Public Domain: PDClipart.org owners and volunteers have made a good faith effort to include only images which appear to be in the public domain. Images are collected from sources, which either place their images in the public domain, abandon their copyright, or have expired copyright. Public Domain images are considered to be freely available for any use by the public."
(44) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, pages xix - xx.
(45) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, pages 1 - 3.
(46) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 1.
(47) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 1.
(48) Zichermann, Gabe and Joselin Linder. Game-based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges, and Contests, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey, 2010.
(49) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 1.
(50) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 2.
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(51) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois,
1989, page 2.
(52) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 2.
(53) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 2.
(54) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 2.
(55) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 2.
(56) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois, 1989, page 2.
(57) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois,
1989, page 11.
(58) Jean-Léon Gérôme 011.jpg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-L%C3%A9on_G %C3%A9r%C3%B4me_011.jpg, accessed December 5, 2010.
"Author: Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824–1904), French painter and sculptor.
Public Domain: This is a faithful photographic reproduction of an original two-dimensional work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason: This image (or other media file) is in the public domain because its copyright has expired. This applies to the
United States, Australia, the European Union, and those countries with a copyright term of life of the author plus 70 years."
(59) Benson, Richard. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail, NTC Business Books, Chicago, Illinois,
1989, page 11.
(60) Bernstein, Lawrence, Rare Direct Mail Ad for The Robert Collier Letter Book, http:// www.infomarketingblog.com/rare-direct-mail-ad-for-the-robert-collier-letter-book/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(61) Bernstein, Lawrence, Rare Direct Mail Ad for The Robert Collier Letter Book, para 3 - 24, http://www.infomarketingblog.com/rare-direct-mail-ad-for-the-robert-collier-letter-book/, accessed December 5, 2010.
(62) Phillips, Dean, The Lazy Man's Way To Riches, http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Lazy-Mans- Way-To-Riches&id=21016, accessed December 5, 2010.
-- THE END --
To Your Massive Success!
Matt Bacak & Brother Mesmer
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