The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier
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If you have any questions please contact us at http://www.profittips.com/contact.html abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.:,;- _!"'#+~*@§$%&/\´`^°|µ()=?[]123467890 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ.:,;- _!"'#+~*@§$%&/\´`^°|µ()=?[]123467890 1 Copyright © 2010 ProfitTips.com All Rights Reserved. Table of Contents: About the Author .......................................….............................………........ 3 Preface ......................................................................................………….... 4 Foreword ....................................................................................…………... 5 Chapter 1.: What Is It That Makes Some Letters Pay? ..……………….…... 7 Chapter 2.: How to Arouse That Acquisitive Feeling .........……………..….. 12 Chapter 3.: Getting News Interest into Your Letter ….....………………..….. 19 Chapter 4.: Word Pictures That Make People Want Your Product ………... 28 Chapter 5.: Motives That Make People Buy ...............……..........………….. 39 Chapter 6.: The Proof of the Pudding .………………..……………………..... 45 Chapter 7.: Supplying That Impulse ..............……………..…………..….….. 47 Chapter 8.: How to Put a Hook into Your Letters .......……………………….. 53 Chapter 9.: The Six Essentials ......…………………...........…………….….... 56 Chapter 10.: How It All Began .....................………………………….…….... 62 Chapter 11.: The First Olive ......................………………………………..….. 75 Chapter 12.: Selling $2,000,000 Worth of O. Henry Stories ..........….......... 91 Chapter 13.: A War History That Sold .……………………………………..... 105 Chapter 14.: Books That Many People Know ..........……………..........…... 122 Chapter 15.: How Wells' "Outline" Was Sold ........................………...……. 155 Chapter 16.: How the Bookbuyers Saved a Campaign .........……………... 172 Chapter 17.: A Giant of the Mails ....……………………………..………....... 187 Chapter 18.: The Third Fifty Thousand ......…........……...........……………. 212 Chapter 19.: Why You Accept This Little Gift ....................……..………….. 230 Chapter 20.: One Million Dollars' Worth of Orders in the First Six Months . 238 Chapter 21.: Taking the Guess Out of Advertising …………………….….... 266 Chapter 22.: We Help to Start a Store ..…………………………………….... 292 Chapter 23.: How to Reach the Leaders ........................…………………… 315 Chapter 24.: Collecting with a Smile .........………………………….……….. 332 Chapter 25.: The Ideal Sales Letter ....……………………………………..... 343 Chapter 26.: How To Raise Money By Mail ..........…….......……………….. 347 2 Copyright © 2010 ProfitTips.com All Rights Reserved. About the Author Robert Collier was born April 19, 1885, in St. Louis. His father, John Collier traveled all over the World as a foreign correspondent for Collier's Weekly a famous progressive magazine founded and published by his uncle, Peter F. (P.F.) Collier. Robert was educated in a church school and he was expected to become a priest, but before taking his vows, he decided he did not want to live the life of a clergyman. So, Robert headed to West Virginia to continue his education and seek his fortune. After eight years in West Virginia where he worked as a mining engineer and studied business and advertising, he moved to New York City and worked in the advertising department of his uncle's publishing company. With some help and guidance from professional copywriters, he developed his own ideas for writing sales copy and tested them in circulars he wrote. The results were fantastic, his circulars brought in million dollars for orders of thousands of books. After overcoming a seemingly undiagnosable illness that was finally cured through Christian Science. Robert became interested in the power of the mind. He was fascinated by how the mind could quickly and completely cure his health problems that doctors had been working on for months, which gave him the idea that the power of the mind might also be able to bring happiness, fame, and fortune. So, to test his new idea he studied hundreds of books and courses on everything relating to New Thought metaphysics, occult, and success. He delved into the deepest mysteries of the Masters and began to find practical elements that were really effective in everyday life. During his career Robert wrote books on a variety of subjects that included self-help, New Thought, the psychology of abundance, desire, faith, visualization, becoming your best, and copywriting. He is best known for his book "The Secret of the Ages" and his book on copywriting titled "The Robert Collier Letter Book". Robert Collier passed away in 1950, but his inspirational books endure and they have changed the lives of thousands. He was a prolific writer and progressive publisher who strongly believed that health, happiness and abundance were within easy reach. 3 Copyright © 2010 ProfitTips.com All Rights Reserved. PREFACE This is not a textbook, calculated to show the beginner how to take his pen or typewriter in hand and indite a masterly epistle to some fancied customer. It is for the business man who already knows the theory of letter writing but is looking for more effective ways of putting it into practice. It covers all the necessary rules, of course, but it does this informally. Primarily, it is the log book of a long and varied experience. It shows successful ways of selling all manner of products, from coal and coke right on down to socks and dresses. But through all the differences in products and appeals, runs this one connecting thread —that while products and reasons for buying may vary, human nature remains much the same; that familiarity with the thing you are selling is an advantage, but the one essential without which success is impossible in selling, by mail or selling in person, is a thorough understanding of human reactions. Study your reader first—your product second. If you understand his reactions, and present those phases of your product that relate to his needs, then you cannot help but write a good letter. It may be said of this book that it does not give enough examples of unsuccessful letters. But most of us can find plenty of these in our own files. And isn't it true that we are far less concerned with why a letter failed than in finding out what it is that makes a letter successful? The first book on business letter writing I ever read was the "Business Correspondence Library" published by System a good many years ago. To it, and to "Applied Business Correspondence" and other books by Herbert Watson, I owe most of my theoretical knowledge of letter writing. Those familiar with Watson's writings will recognize many of his theories in the early chapters of this book. I gladly give acknowledgment to him as the one on whose writings the groundwork of my own education in direct mail was laid. To John Blair, President of the New Process Company of Warren, Pennsylvania, I am indebted for numberless opportunities to test my pet ideas in the only crucible that gives dependable results—actual letters sent to prospective buyers—and for the perfect records that enabled me to see which theories were workable, which better forgotten. For many of the short paragraphs used as examples of good starters, graphic descriptions, or proper closers, I am indebted to writers like Ad—Man Davison and Ben Sweetland and to such magazines as Printers' Ink and System. To all of these I give acknowledgment and express sincere appreciation. THE AUTHOR NEW YORK, N. Y. 4 v Copyright © 2010 ProfitTips.com All Rights Reserved. FOREWORD When I agreed to write a foreword to this practical book about selling, which does much to de— bunk the subject, I did not know that the author had used me so frequently as Exhibit A. Naturally I feel somewhat embarrassed at endorsing his studies, since we traveled the road of mail order experience so much of the way as "buddies." I can't help but think it would have been a better book if he had called me Mr. Sears Roebuck, or Mr. Montgomery Ward, or some other well—known name that stands for big profits and big success. However, if he wishes to take the chance of marring an otherwise useful book, that is his affair. To anyone immersed in the great game of business, there never ceases to be a thrill in landing an order. Multiply that thrill 100 or 1,000 times, and you have a picture of what a big day means to one who depends upon the incoming mail for success in business. I suppose there must be plenty of excitement in turning over to the "big boss" an order for $50,000 worth of something from one customer, but I doubt whether it can be compared with the feeling that you have influenced through your own eloquence a thousand minds to do something you wanted them to do, so that they all responded with signatures, in one day, backed by healthy pocketbooks. Of all the forms of selling, direct mail is the most intriguing. Certainly it appeals strongly to the student mind. I have known men to be devoted to it, and very successful at it, who probably would have starved if they had been forced to take a sample case and show their wares to their customers face to face. Of all forms of selling, it gets the quickest results because the mails travel faster than salesmen, the mails don't get sick or temperamental, nor do they have to wait for an interview.