Читать книгу The Letter Book - Robert Collier - Страница 6

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What the world wants, and has wanted since the beginning, is news— something to flag its jaded interest, something to stir its emotions.

Tell a man something new and you have his attention. Give it a personal twist or show its relation to his business and you have his interest.

Do you know how Wells’ "Outline of History" was first put across? On its news value! "The Oldest Man in the World," "Was This the Flood of the Biblical Story" "The Finding of Moses," and so on. Newspaper headlines, all of them. News interest in every one of them. Rich man, poor man, beggar man, thief—all stop to read if you can put news interest into your letters.

"When the Rattlesnake Struck!" Can’t you see yourself reading on to see what happened? Well, that is what thousands of others did every time that headline was used. It sold hundreds of thousands of O. Henry books.

"Will a Yellow King Rule the World ?" Which one of us would not be startled enough by such a headline to read on and see if there was any reason to fear that such a thing might ever really happen?

"What is the Unpardonable Sin in all Nature?" Can you imagine any reader so biased as not to go on at least a few lines further to find the answer to that question? And if you can lead him on those few lines, it is your own fault if you can not make your story so interesting that it will carry him right down to the last line and the order blank or card that follows it.

A business man is no different from any other kind. Watch him on his way to the office. Compare the time he gives the financial and business news with the way he eagerly devours the details of the latest murder or scandal, or the attention he gives the "sports" page. He wants news interest. He will get it in his business as far as he can, but if it is not there, he will look outside his business for it.

So if you want his attention, go after it as the newspaper paragrapher does. He knows he has to compete with a thousand other distractions, so he studies his reader and then presents first that side of his story most likely to attract the reader’s interest.

You have to compete in the same way for your reader’s attention. He is not looking for your letter. He has a thousand and one other things more important to him to occupy his mind. Why should he divert his attention from them to plow through pages of type about you or your projects?

You have, we shall assume, decided upon the emotion your letter must arouse in your reader to get him to do as you want. You know that every man is constantly holding a mental conversation with himself, the burden of which is his own interests—his business, his loved ones, his advancement. And you have tried to chime in on that conversation with something that fits in with his thoughts. But some propositions do not lend themselves readily to this. What are you to do then? Look for news value! Look for something in or about your proposition of such news interest that it will divert the reader’s mind temporarily from his own affairs, then bring it back by showing how your proposition fits in with those affairs or is necessary to their successful accomplishment. How are you to do it?

Perhaps the best way to explain that is to show a few examples of the way it has been successfully done. Here are some typical openings which get the reader’s attention and lead logically on to a description of your proposition:

Do you know what was Socrates’ chief characteristic? It was his pertinacious curiosity, his desire to know the why and the wherefore of everything, his questing for fundamental reasons.

It was this curiosity that helped make him represent the highest achievement of Greek civilization. It is that same questing for fundamentals that makes the Bland Advertising Agency so invaluable when a new product is to be introduced, a new field opened, and a new method tried.

* * * * *

In the city of Baghdad lived Hakeem, the Wise One, and many there were who came to him for counsel, which he gave freely to all, asking nothing in return. One day there came to him a young man, who had spent much but got little, and asked: "Tell me, Wise One, what shall I do to receive the most for that which I spend?"

Hakeem answered: "A thing that is bought or sold has no value unless it contains that which cannot be bought or sold. Look for the Priceless Ingredient."

"But what is this Priceless Ingredient?" persisted the young man. Spoke then the Wise One. "My son, the Priceless Ingredient of every product in the market place is the honor and integrity of him who made it. Consider his name before you buy."

For 25 years, Squibbs has been making, etc.

* * * * *

What is the eternal question which stands up and looks you and every sincere man squarely in the eye every morning?

"How can I better my condition?

That is the real life question which confronts you, and will haunt you every day till you solve it. Read carefully the enclosed booklet, and see if you don’t find in it the answer to this important life question which you and every man must solve if he expects ever to have more each Monday morning after pay day than he had the week before.

* * * * *

Your grandfather in his buggy traveled no faster than Caesar; in individual transportation he was almost as limited as a citizen of Rome.

Suddenly—the automobile—and our generation is unshackled! With a car, miles shrivel up into minutes, and the humblest family leaves its doorstep to own the continent.

* * * * *

All day long, from the minute your mind takes the trail early in the morning, until you quit the game late at night—you are figuring on ways to sell more goods, to win more trade, to possess more executive ability, to be a bigger business builder.

This is the one great heart and soul aim of which you are ever conscious— the mastery of your business, the rising to supremacy in your line, the steady year in and year out increase of financial income. You’d willingly spend a few minutes to learn new ways of directing and developing your mental energies so as to cut out waste motion and make every move count for 100% progress.

Did you ever stop to think that the average man’s brain wastes more energy than the worst old rattle-box that ever squandered good steam? It’s the knowing how to apply your brain-power—how to think, how to reason, how to conserve mental energy, how to concentrate, that alone can make you a leader in your profession.

And it was to teach you how to think, how to concentrate, how to apply the basic fundamentals of all science to your own daily problems that the Blank Course was written. It shows you, etc.

* * * * *

It was payday in Connellsville, Pa., and I was sitting in a local store, talking with the owner—When a laborer came in. He said he wanted so-and-so, that he, etc.

So I thought this: You want more business—want your store recognized as the, etc.

* * * * *

If you are tired of a salaried job, if you want to get into a big-paying, independent business of your own, I have a proposition that will interest you.

* * * * *

Here’s a little "inside information" that we’re passing on to you, because you are a home-maker, and as such it concerns you.

We got a little low on summer stock the other day, so our buyer, Mr. Smith (he’s full of ideas and enthusiasm) went to the source of supplies, and we just got a letter from him, thus: (Then give the news of some special buy that enables you to offer a wonderful bargain.)

* * * * *

What is it worth to keep baby’s milk sweet? By making your refrigerator measure up to that all-important job, you make it measure up to all other jobs.

* * * * *

Some time today or tomorrow or next month, in practically every commercial office in the U.S., an important executive will sit back in his chair and study a list of names on a sheet of white paper before him.

Your name may be on it. A position of responsibility is open, and he is face to face with the old, old problem—"Where can I find the man?"

The faces, the words, the deeds, the possibilities of various employees pass through his mind in quick review, and he realizes once again how little an employer really knows about their hopes, their ambitions, their particular ability to handle more important work. That is where the Blank School can help him—and you.

* * * * *

What has given the high values to Iowa farm land? Corn. What has given the rapid advance in farm values to all the central western states? Corn. What is the biggest factor in making the farm lands of lower Louisiana advance? Corn. Why? "Because they are in the corn belt."

* * * * *

If your expenses were doubled tomorrow, could you meet them—without running heavily into debt? If you had to have more money on which to live—to support those dependent upon you—could you make it?

You could if you had the training afforded by our Course. It has doubled other men’s salaries. It can do the same for you.

* * * * *

For 20 years I was an exile, shunned by people on every hand, unwanted in the business world, impossible socially, a mental and physical wreck, a failure at everything. I was despondent, almost devoid of hope. Life to me was a burden.

And then I learned to talk! (And so on with description of a course to cure stammering.)

* * * * *

Right around New Year’s, most of us are somehow thinking about what we’ll accomplish within the next twelve months. Often we get to figuring and planning and laying it all out beforehand.

So maybe it will mean a lot of inspiration to you, as it did to me, to read.

* * * * *

I have come to look upon it as a pity that circumstances should ever combine to place men of much ability in a position where they are not obliged to begin with a struggle for existence. For most individuals are so constituted that they are obliged to do so. The saving event in many a man’s life is the blow that takes away the props that have supported him, and leaves him to look out for himself.

Many persons have told me that this is true of their own lives, and we know it is true of ours. So instead of railing against the fate that makes it necessary for you to dig in and make something of yourself, thank God for it, and start now getting ready. The Blank Course will fit you, etc.

The old gentleman who resigned from the Patent Office in 1886 because, as he said, everything had been invented, had nothing on the most of us. There are times when we all begin to feel that mechanical equipment is about as perfect as man can make it.

* * * * *

Take lubrication for instance. In spite of the thousands of dollars wasted in furnishing six ounces of oil to a bearing that needs only one, production men are satisfied until, of course, someone comes along and shows them where 500% can be saved.

Making production men dissatisfied with their lubrication equipment is our business. Here is a new kind of Bolshevism that pays all around.

* * * * *

You’ve got to have more money. Your salary, without income, is not enough. The man who depends upon salary alone to make him rich, well-to-do or even comfortable, is making the mistake of his life. For the minute you stop working, the money stops coming in. Lose a day and you lose a day’s pay—while expenses go right on.

Don’t you think it’s time you got Nature to work for you? A dollar put into a peach orchard will work for you days, nights and Sundays. It never stops to sleep or eat, but keeps on growing, growing—from the very minute you put your money in.

* * * * *

A small moss lamp is sufficient to heat an Eskimo’s igloo—because its walls are insulated. Minute particles of "dead air," held captive in the snow blocks, provide natural insulation—the most efficient known to science.

But present-day homes of ordinary construction waste two-thirds of the heat that comes from the furnaces.

One-third of this heat naturally escapes through windows and doors. The other third is unnecessarily wasted. It escapes easily through uninsulated walls and roofs.

Ordinary building materials cannot hold heat in. Celotex stops heat waste.

* * * * *

There’s a bank here in Chicago—not much larger than yours—that secured over 280 new savings depositors last month! And secured them, mind you, on the sole strength of business-getting circular letters, without the aid of a single solicitor! That’s why this letter is as vital to you as though it were a certified check. For it tells how, etc.

* * * * *

Suppose a good job were open where you work. Could you fill it? Could you jump right in and make good, or would the boss have to pass you up because you lacked training?

The man who is offered the big job is the man who has trained himself to hold it before it is offered to him.

Don’t take chances on being promoted. Don’t gamble on making good when your opportunity comes. If you want a big job that carries responsibility and pays good money, get ready for it! Pick out the job you want in the work you like best. Then start right now to get, through the Blank Correspondence School, the training that will prepare you to hold it.

If you do as Arnold Bader did—he lives five miles north-east of Monticello—you will have very little trouble with your clover, and you can start a patch of alfalfa that will grow.

* * * * *

When a man, 42 years of age, who has been working for others all his life, decides to go into business for himself—and when, in a few short months, he so solidly establishes his business as to outdistance competitors who had the advantage of years of experience—there must be something about his method of doing business that other men would like to know about at once.

In the January magazine, you will find the story of how John Jones succeeded, what he did, etc.

* * * * *

Pay-day—what does it mean to you? Does your money go ’round? Or does it fail to stop all the gaps made by last week’s or month’s bills?

Last week according to actual, certified reports on file in our office—300 men got their salary raised as a direct result of becoming more proficient from studying ABC courses. Don’t you think it’s time that salary raise was coming your way?

* * * * *

The old saying: "There is strength in numbers," certainly does not apply to the wearing apparel of the woman of today.

Could anything be more disappointing to a well dressed woman than to pass an exact counterpart of the coat which she is wearing, on some other woman?

Exclusiveness is the keynote of our women’s coats; therefore we cannot permit any duplicates. That’s the reason our Women’s Coat Salon, etc.

* * * * *

"How’s the garden?—is the morning greeting at the suburban station. Many estate owners are planting potatoes on all their available ground. Others, not so ambitious, are growing only enough for a table garden.

Under these conditions, House and Garden magazine assumes a new importance. It has already established a reputation for clear, usable garden information. Now, it is a guide book for the subject uppermost in everyone’s mind.

* * * * *

You get more pay for each working hour now than you did the first day you worked. Why? Because you put more value into each hour of your time. You have developed your efficiency.

Your business efficiency grows out of your business ideas, and these come from your business knowledge. If you enrich your knowledge with the tested and proven experience of other men, you save yourself valuable time and the needless labor of studying out that which is already known. You add other men’s business knowledge to your own efficiency. You get the material out of which to make new and original ideas.

It is these new ideas that make and break records. They mark the difference between the man who gets paid much and the one who receives little. And it is the material for these new ideas that you find in System, the Journal of Modern Business Management.

* * * * *

25 or 30 years ago, back in the days when we traveled by the Dobbin and Dashboard route, men used to say—"Well, I reckon life insurance is a good thing, but you have to die to win.

Times have changed. And so have life insurance policies. Today there are at least 17 ways you can put life insurance to work for you, right now, in your own lifetime, and reap rich rewards without sacrificing the protection value of the policy.

No matter what business or personal undertaking you have in mind, there is probably a policy that will help you carry out the program easily, quickly, economically—and at the same time protect those dependent upon you. Frankly, I’d like to discuss the matter with you, etc.

* * * * *

There is one type of letter that is always interesting news, provided the product you are offering has an established market. That type is the price-reduction, money-saving offer. Here are a few such letters that have proved particularly effective:

Monday, March 6th—mark the date on your calendar now! It is the date of a sale you will not want to miss. A sale of women’s white Spring frocks at $12.50. It is such an interesting event that we want to tell you a few things about it. Most of the dresses are, etc.

At the close of a busy season, we find ourselves with 137 sets of the beautiful Gold Star edition of Oliver Cromwell’s works slightly damaged from stock-room handling—so slightly you would have to make a close inspection to discern the damage, but still—you know how it is—they cannot be sold as perfect books.

So rather than send them back to the bindery and give the binders the profit of re-binding, we have decided to let the advantage go to a few booklovers—people like you who love good books for the books’ sake and not for trifling details about them—and to offer these 137 sets at just what they would be worth with the covers ripped off!

* * * * *

At certain periods of the year, we have special events in this store which we do not advertise. In order that we may personally advise you of such sales, we would like to have your name and address. Won’t you please therefore give us this information at the bottom of this card, and either send or bring it to the store at the first convenient opportunity?

* * * * *

On the 1st of October, the rate of the Business Week will go up $1 a line. If you place your order before the 30th of this month, you can buy space to be used any time before January 1st at $—a line. After the 30th, positively no orders will be accepted at less than the new figure. As a matter of fact, our circulation entitles us to the higher rate now.

* * * * *

That one extra dress you so badly wanted, but thoughtfully and economically decided not to buy—that smart afternoon frock, or the pretty street dress, that you longed for, but resisted because to buy it then would have been extravagant—is now, you will be happy to learn, turned into a matter of plain, common sense economy!

For to make space for spring stock that is coming earlier than we were prepared for, we must cut the prices on our complete and beautiful line of winter styles to the point that will make it almost an extravagance not to take advantage of the wonderful values.

* * * * *

We are enclosing in this envelope our check for $6.20 payable to Smith Bros. Readers. This means that if you endorse the check and return it to us before Dec. 10th, we will send you $6.20 worth of these readers, whichever ones you may choose!

On the back of the check, you will find complete list of all our Readers, Grades 1A to 6B. If you wish to order additional quantities at this time, you can apply the enclosed check against our bill as part payment.

* * * * *

You will probably be able to buy an Ever-ready Bag next year—10 years from now—But, you can never buy it again at its present price of $14.85. That price is about to go up to $20. The special low payment, free-on-approval club is about to close for good.

This is your chance.

The card herewith brings the newest bag, etc.

* * * * *

Of course, there are ways of flagging the reader’s interest even before he gets to the first line of your letter. Putting a catch-phrase on the outside of the envelope is one. The Literary Digest employs this method on most of its mailings, so you can be sure they have found it effective, for no experienced user of the mails keeps up any practice that does not justify itself in increased orders on the record sheet.

As a rule, such catch-phrases on the outside of envelopes are effective only on third-class mail, to catch the reader’s eye and arouse enough interest to get him to open your letter. The Review of Reviews has used them numbers of times to great advantage. In the O. Henry sale, they used such catch-lines as: "When the Rattlesnake Struck " "The Fateful Kiss," "If This Happened on Your Wedding Night." In selling Simonds’ "History of the World War," they had several that worked well, such as "And they said we wouldn’t fight!" and "Retreat, H--l! We just got here!" Another, for a health course, was " ’If the damned fools only knew!’ said Roosevelt."

All these helped to get the reader inside the envelope. Their purpose was the same as the newspaper headline—to arouse the reader’s curiosity and make him go further into the story. So they have to be judged like any other headline, by the one standard—how successful are they in doing their job? And the only way to find that out is to test them against other headlines, or against plain corner cards.

Even on third-class mail, we often find the plain corner cards better, and on first-class, it is almost invariably so. You see, the only object of a 2 cent stamp is to make the letter seem like a personal message, and to put a catch-phrase on the outside of the envelope defeats that object at once.

So a pretty safe rule to follow is—if you want to use an attention-getter on the outside of the envelope, save half your postage by sending your message third class.

One of the most effective stunts we have seen used to get a man to look inside the envelope was the idea of a young friend of ours. He watched trade papers, house organs and the like for pictures of men connected with different organizations. Then, instead of addressing the man by name, he pasted the man’s picture on the front of the envelope and under it wrote: "Care of Such and Such a Company," and the address. It was subtly flattering and it won attention—favorable attention, too.

Folders often lend themselves to such attention-getting stunts even better than envelopes, for their size gives more room for illustration. In effect, they are advertisements sent through the mails, and they have to compete for their readers’ interest in the same way as advertisements in a magazine. And their success or failure depends upon the same factors of attention-winning illustration and headline, interest-arousing start, clear description, logical argument and clincher, with coupon or card that makes ordering easy.

These are the more obvious ways of getting attention. Often they are so exaggerated that they defeat their own purpose. Quieter and usually more effective ways may be found in the letter itself, in the circular enclosure, or in the post card or order form.

Some offers lend themselves to a pictorial, colored letterhead. When Nelson Doubleday first offered his Little Nature Library, he used a plain letterhead. By litho-graphing a nature scene of birds and woods and flowers across the top and down one side of his letterhead, he actually doubled the number of orders received from his letter! And the Little Leather Library increased their proportion of orders by almost as much.

On the other hand, we have seen numbers of offers which have pulled better results on a plain letterhead than on a colored, pictorial one. To be effective, pictures must not merely be attractively done—they must add essential background that would not be possible without them.

As an instance, at one time we offered a set of large gravure prints of famous pictures. By tipping in the upper left-hand comer of the letterhead a small reproduction of one of these prints, we added nearly 50 percent to the pulling power of the letter, and sold the prints (which had been gathering dust for years) at a goodly profit.

The same thing held true in selling calendars—a small reproduction in full colors of the picture we were using on the calendar, greatly increased the returns.

Where a business is built around some one personality, as in the case of Elbert Hubbard, his picture on the letterhead often adds 10, 15 or 20 percent to the pulling power of his letters. We found that to be so in testing different offers for John Blair, head of the New Process Company of Warren, Pa. And the same thing has been true of a number of people we have worked with. Another effective attention-getter was to tip on the letterhead a sample of the product we were offering. When it was traveling bags, we gave a sample of the leather, to show how tough and long-wearing it was. When it was a topcoat or overcoat, we attached a sample of the cloth, so you could prove for yourself its wool content, see its attractive color and design, get the feel of it.

Then there is the fill-in, and the way the letter is folded, and the circulars and order card inserted. We frequently found that even so unimportant a thing as the fold made a difference in the orders. Folding the letterhead out, using the military fold so that only the salutation and first line of the letter showed when the reader picked it up, has increased orders for us at times by as much as 10 percent.

Indenting the main paragraph helps, too. We have found it a more effective way of calling attention to a special point of interest than either underlining or capitals.

Even the postage stamp has an effect upon the attention accorded a letter. Two red 2 cent stamps pull more replies than one 4 cent stamp. One red 2 cent stamp pulls better than two green 1 cent stamps. A brown 1 1/2 cent stamp looks much like a 4 cent stamp, so it pulls better than a green 1 cent stamp, but no better than two 1/2 cent stamps! As for the metered mail and postage indicia, experience varies, but in our own case, we have found postage stamps more effective than either. To show what a difference color makes even here, we know at least one post office that permits the use of black ribbons in running 1 cent metered mail, and this 1 cent metered postage has frequently outpulled 2 cent stamp or meter!

These are minor details, of course, and not to be considered in the same breath with the start of the letter, the description, the argument or the close. But when you have written a successful letter, when you have your appeal fight and are looking only for ways to get more orders, then you will be surprised at how these little minor details can make that order record mount!