#191 Andersen Windows

 

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2023/06/191-andersen-windows.html

Blog Post #191 - Wednesday, 28 June 2023

 

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

 

“UGLY WORKS!” —Bob Hacker

(“Neatness Rejects Involvement.” —Lew Smith)

 

 

From Last Week’s Blog Post: Jayme on
"The Willing Suspension of Disbelief.”

“Two basic tenets of selling are that (1) people buy from other people more happily than from faceless corporations, and that (2) in the marketplace as in theater, there is indeed a factor at work called ‘the willing suspension of disbelief.’

      “Who stands behind our pancakes?  Aunt Jemima. Our angel food cake? Betty Crocker. Our coffee? Juan Valdez.  Anyone over the age of three knows that it’s all myth. But — like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy — the myths are comforting.”
—Bill Jayme, Legendary Direct Mail Copywriter in a letter to DH.

 

This oversized (9-1/2” x 11”) flyer above was an insert included in my weekend Philadelphia Inquirer three months ago. It is the polar opposite of what American Express sent me when it launched the Platinum Card in 1984. 

 

That AmEx masterpiece was the subject of last week’s blog post. It so beautifully replicated an actual mailing from the executive suite of a major corporation from the head honcho that for all the world appeared individually typed by his secretary who took it into the boss’s office for his actual signature in blue ink, then folded and inserted it into the hand-typed envelope. Whereupon she licked the envelope, affixed the two 18¢ First Class stamps and put it into her out-box to be mailed.

 

The American Express Platinum Card Mailing was a textbook example of “my willing suspension of disbelief!”

 

Instead of an elegant, deeply personal American Express letter the above is urgent, ugly and printed on the cheap. This is one-sided. The back is basically blank with a few lines of mouse type disclaimers that nobody will bother to read. 

 

This tacky piece kept coming in my newspaper week-after-week. Obviously, it was bringing orders in for Andersen Windows. Where is the willing suspension of disbelief?

 

Lemme say at the outset, I’m not on a soapbox proclaiming an opinion. This piece was (and is) successful. How do I know that. I keep receiving it — and its step-children — in my Sunday Philly newspaper.

 

Dorothy Kerr’s Dictum on Direct Marketing,

Direct Mail and Print Advertising Success.

At a New York Direct Mail Writer’s Guild Luncheon in 1982 US News and World Report circ director was the speaker. She changed my life. “If you want to be successful in direct marketing, watch your mail. If you see a mailing coming in over and over again, it is ipso facto successful. Save it. Study it. Memorize it. And Steal Smart.

 

If this flier were not working like gangbusters, the circ team at Andersen would be damned fools to keep sending it.

 

• Obviously handwritten (scrawled hurriedly by a real person). This does not look like a computer- generated font.

• Note the little smiley face at #4. A bit of puckishness from a real person to me. Ya gotta love it!

 

• Okay, it’s not direct to me by name. But it talks directly to me as a homeowner.

 

•  This is clearly from folks working in my neighborhood.

 

• It’s easy to read. In the words of copywriter Andrew J. Byrne: “Short words! Short sentences! Short paragraphs!”

 

• The thirteen most powerful words in the English language are:

You - Save - Money - Guarantee - Love - Results-


Proven – Safety - Easy - New - Health - Discovery – Free

 

 • Five of those powerful words are used in the Andersen copy:

    You – Save – Easy – Free – Guarantee.

   (“Warranty” is the same thing as “Guarantee.”)

 

• Terrific offers:

—   In-home appointment.

—   Custom-built.

—   Installation always included.

—   3% discount on everything.

—   Save hundreds of dollars.

—   Don’t pay anything for a full year.

—   Andersen windows are well-known for quality.

—   To get in on this deal, call by March 31.

—   Someone is sitting by the telephone waiting 

        to hear from me.

 

Two Slim-Jim Follow-ups.

This Slim Jim #1 Received in  my Sunday Inquirer the following week:

•These efforts are not e not from an anonymous salesperson. This one is signed by Kristin Gardner, General Manager of Andersen Windows.

• What’s more, the handwriting in the letter matches Gardner’s signature which indicates it was personal message to me written and signed by a by Kristin herself.

• No “willing suspension of disbelief.” The message is believable.

• Great offer: Buy 1 and get 40% off on a second window or door.   

                                                                                                   • It’s all free for an entire year.

     Slim Jim #2 (Received in            my newspaper the                      following Sunday):

   • If this collection of Sunday newspaper inserts     were combined into a single traditional  direct mail/direct marketing package, the top half of this Slim Jim would be the “lift” piece —  a quick “yes/no” survey involvement device designed to “lift” response. It directs your        attention to the condition of your current windows and doors and how they affect your lifestyle and household finances.

           • The bottom half would be the equivalent of a hand-written scrawled P.S. on the   letter hyping benefits!                                                            

 

    

 

     NOTE: One of the most-read elements of a direct mail letter is the P.S. All direct mail copywriters know to include a P.S. at the end of every letter — no exceptions. Sometimes even a P.P.S.

• Easy and affordable.

• Buy one and get 40% off on the second.

• Pay nothing for the entire year!

• Free diagnosis in your home by an Andersen rep.

• Call this number. The area code 267 is familiar to

    all us Philly folks.

• Note the website: YourPhillyWindows.com. This is indeed a hometown Philly branch of Anderson where corporate HQ is Bayport, Minnesota. You are spending money on your in your hometown.

• Implied: If you have problems, you can talk to a neighbor.

 

Takeaways to Consider

• Direct marketing is the aristocrat of all advertising. Success or failure is precisely measurable.

 

• If you pay to get an offer in the hands of a prospective buyer it is successful only if it brings in responses at an allowable cost-per-order.

 

• If a mailing, off-the-page print advertisement or TV infomercial appears over and over and over again, it is obviously profitable.

 

• Always remember Dorothy Kerr’s dictum: “See what keeps coming over and over and over and STEAL SMART!"

 

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Word Count: 931

 

#190 Disbelief

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2023/06/198-disbelief.html

 

 

#190 BLOG POST  - Thursday 22 June 2023

 

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

 

Part I:

The Secret of Successful Direct Marketing:

Create a “Willing Suspension of Disbelief.”

 

The Introduction of the Up-up-up Market
American Express Platinum Card.

 

Above is a tacky, crappy reproduction of the most exciting, exquisite mailing I ever received in studying more than 100,000 pieces of junk mail over the 30-year life span of my cranky newsletter, WHO’S MAILING WHAT! It was the staggeringly beautiful launch package of the revolutionary American Express Platinum Card in 1984.

 

Our estimated cost to produce this mailing — paper, printing, inserting and postage was roughly $1.00 each in the mail. (A mind-blowing $2.93 in today’s dollars!)

 

Shortly I will share with you the amazing specs of this extraordinary marketing effort — a personal “me-to-you” First Class Postage offer signed in blue ink with the actual signature of AmEx’s top panjandrum, Consumer Card Group President Edwin Cooperman.

 

 

About the “Willing Suspension of Disbelief.”

“Two basic tenets of selling are that (1) people buy from other people more happily than from faceless corporations, and that (2) in the marketplace as in theater, there is indeed a factor at work called “the willing suspension of disbelief.”

      “Who stands behind our pancakes?  Aunt Jemima. Our angel food cake? Betty Crocker. Our coffee? Juan Valdez.  Anyone over the age of three knows that it’s all myth. But — like Santa Claus and the tooth fairy — the myths are comforting.”

—Bill Jayme, Legendary Direct Mail Copywriter in a letter to DH.

 

“Direct response marketing is not advertising in an envelope.”

— Bob Hacker, Founder & CEO of The Hacker Group.

 

OSE — Outside Envelope — for the Platinum Card mailing. Highest quality paper, printing, personalization, simplicity and elegance. Embossed silver faux platinum card at upper left. Two actual U.S.P.S. 18¢ postage stamps affixed at right. No crass teaser copy. It has the look and feel of an actual letter.

Simple Order Card. Dark band across the order card top was a raised strip of silver metallic faux platinum (also atop each of the three pages of the letter).  No pain-in-the-neck B.S. of interrupting the ordering process by requiring the applicant to hunt up a credit card account number. The mailing was sent to AmEx cardmembers only, and obviously Ed Cooperman's computers knew them by name and address.

The letter was a masterpiece of copy and design. "A letter should look and feel like a letter," said guru Dick Benson.

The signature on page 3 was in blue ink. "Always use the writer's actual signature, and not a neat-'n'-tidy phony computer font," said the great copywriter Malcolm Decker. "The signature is your salesman's handshake."

 

From the moment it was retrieved from your mailbox, and you started reading the three-page personalized, hand-typed letter with faux platinum top edges on the gorgeous heavy stationary and reply card, there was no question in your mind that you were being individually contacted and treated as true worthy by a high panjandrum at American Express. Sure, it was all done by machinery, but it had the look and feel of a personal invitation sent direct to you from his office. It was flattering as hell!

 

My great friend Bill Farley, VP of a leading bank in Minneapolis, sent me his mailing as a sample with this gleeful note: “I was accepted for membership!”

 

 

My 1986 Write-up in WHO’S MAILING WHAT!

Technical Talk

If we had to pick the splashiest solo mailing to go out in six-figure numbers over the past two years, the American Express Platinum Card effort would win hands down (540AMEXC01186NYDX). It travels in a closed-face 7-3/4" x 4-5/8" envelope of exquisite Artimus Text paper with platinum embossing and 1/8" platinum edge on the envelope flap. Inside is a 3-page personalized letter on matching paper with a tiny reproduction of the card embossed in metallic faux platinum on the letterhead and a metallic platinum edge at the top of page 1. The second and third sheets have the platinum edge only. There is a matching BRE (Postage-paid business reply envelope). The Acceptance Form is on slightly heavier stock. A beautiful 4” x 7¾" 16-page 4-color brochure spel1s out benefits. Interestingly, the only place the price of the card is mentioned is page 3 of the letter.

 

Why is this mailing so splashy? Quite simply because it is a rare example of direct mail technical perfection -- from a mailer willing to pay for that perfection.

 

The Diablo Printer: Automatic Typewriter with a Daisy Wheel

It is produced by ABS in Wichita, KS, an organization that has 155 Xerox Corp. Diablo printers and over 200 people who match and insert all the components by hand. Most clients send "tape, text and art" and ABS takes the job through completion -- always guaranteeing to meet the deadlines that have been contracted for. For virtually all clients ABS chooses paper and envelopes and produces mailings in which the outer envelope, order form and page 1 of the letter are personalized. Additional pages of the letter are offset and collated along with any brochures and the BRE.

 

For the Platinum Card effort here is the drill: American Express ships into ABS a load of single sheets of Artimus Text paper. Consumer Card Group President Edwin Cooperman's signature is pre-printed in blue on those sheets to be used for page 3. 

 

“Always use the writer's real signature on the letter,” said copy wizard Malcolm Decker. “It's your salesman’s handshake.”

 

Outside carrier envelopes and order forms are on matching paper and in matching type. Each element is completely typed on the same Diablo printer so there is an exact match -- outer envelope, page 1 of the letter and the order form. Because American Express is insistent on the illusion (a.k.a. creating a willing suspension of disbelief) that the entire letter be an exact match, pages 2 and 3 of the letter are also typed on that same Diablo printer, even though there is no personalization! The mailing goes out Presorted First Class with two live 18-cent U.S. postage stamps affixed to the outer envelope. (Did Cooperman’s secretary actually lick the stamps???)

 

Only American Express knows the actual cost because they are supplying paper and brochures. But an educated guess would be somewhere between $1,000.00 - $1,010.00/M. That’s with no outside list rental, because the mailing goes only to Amex cardmembers.

 

Is the mailing successful? It's been mailed for over two years. There are currently a quarter-million Platinum Card members paying $250 a year ($732 in 2023 dollars). The product being sold is a little plastic card, so cost of goods sold is peanuts. That’s virtually pure profit of for a cool $62.5 million a year ($183 million in today’s dollars) in dues alone. To get these kinds of numbers response would have to be well into two figures.

 

Most of the ABS clients (Sotheby's, Porsche. Learning International, Value Line) have units of sale in excess of $75. The National Trust for Historic Preservation is using a personalized effort whose average unit of sale is a paltry $17; according to Dolores McDonagh at the National Trust, the ABS package pulls up to 20% better, with the increased response making up for higher costs.

 

 

                              A Quick Aside on “Memberships”
Legendary magazine marketing guru Dick Benson extolled the benefits of having members rather than ordinary subscribers. He said, “Magazines linked to membership affiliations — like the National Geographic and the Smithsonian — renew better than plain subscriptions by 10% or more.”

 

The Platinum Card & Why I Acquired One.

For starters, I had close family ties to American Express. In 1950 my father, Alden Hatch, was hired to write the official history of the company, American Express: A Century of Service. Our house on Long Island bordered the second fairway of the Rockaway Hunt club (founded 1878). In my boyhood AmEx president Ralph T. Reed, his wife Edna and daughter Phyllis vacationed in a suite overlooking the Hunt Club golf course. They were constant visitors at the house. In 1956 I got a summer job in the mail room of American Express. And very early in my career when I was book traveler (salesman) flying around the country I acquired an American Express Green Card and, shortly thereafter, a gold card.

 

Artwork on my current Gold Card
showing my membership since 1964.

 

Why Would I — A Pipsqueak Newsletter Publisher

With a So-so Middle Income — Spring for Platinum?

Yes, $250 a year annual dues, ($732.50 in 2023 dollars) were exorbitant. However, in those days Peggy and I flew a lot. The Platinum Card guaranteed access to several of the deluxe airline lounges. More important, we did some serious traveling (Egypt, Africa, Belize) and Platinum membership included comprehensive Travel Insurance guaranteeing private evacuation out of the jungle to the nearest top hospital and flights back to Stamford, CT if the worst befell us.

 

Takeaways to Consider

• Everything about this extraordinary mailing screams top-of-the-line service and customer delight. (NOT the usual plain old lawyer-written “Customer Satisfaction Guaranteed” line.)

 

• The mailing package was highest quality and promised highest quality.

 

• With email marketing an ordinary little 52-character subject line looks like every other 52-character subject line amid the dreary dozens of subject lines in your computer inbox.

 

• In short, the Platinum Card mailing was tactile and immediately stood out among the bills and junk mail as something extra special and certainly worth pursuing.

 

• It immediately overcame disbelief.

 

• God how I miss the fun of direct mail marketing—the writing, designing and producing direct mail packages (including renewals and billing efforts) — and above all going into the mail room for the tactile thrill of finding huge Post Office canvas bags stuffed with orders!

 

•  A couple of decades ago, I interviewed Joan Manley, Time-Life Books CEO who turned the publishing company into a behemoth. She confessed to me that several times a year she simply had to get onto a plane and fly to Chicago to get in physical touch with her customers. That meant visiting the huge mail facility where orders were received and processed. Unlike the retail business — where sellers are always face-to-face with customers — Manley felt a deep personal need to see… and touch... and open… and read original incoming mail orders. “This is as physically close to my customers as is possible in the mail order business, and I need to do it!”

 

• Today, the overwhelming percentage of orders are electronic blips untouched by human hands. The result: direct marketers don’t have any sense of actual human contact.

 

• Alas…

 

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Word Count: 1689

#189 Times Lttrs

http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2023/06/189-times-lttrs.html

 

#189 Blog Post - Tuesday, 13 June 2023

Posted by Denny Hatch

 

The N.Y. Times Sent Me 10 Emails in Drag One
Afternoon — Clickbaits and Dazzling Follow-ons.

I subscribe to the digital edition of The New York Times. Times’ management doesn’t know squat about me — age, career, interests, hobbies, finances, travel, family, education or income. All the Times knows about me is I am a paid-up subscriber for the digital edition.

 

How Profitable is the Digital New York Times? Very!
Cost-of-goods-sold is zip, zero, nada, niente. It’s digital. No paper, no ink, no printing, no delivery costs, no returns. Almost pure profit. With 7.1 million paid subscribers that’s a juicy $700+ million a year in revenue at virtually zero cost. Add to that $523 million advertising income and we’re talking $1.2+ billion dollars a year — serious money.

 

Let’s call this Times’ Direct Marketing Scheme: "Clickbaits and Follow-ons."
None of these 10 emails contained any breaking news, hard news or interesting news à la, say, Politico, Punch Bowl News or Vox. All were bantam-weight, so-so stories, features or columns — basically, boring stuff for this news junkie. The 10 subject lines of the emails:

   • What to watch this weekend.

   • Book Review: New Biography of Martin Luther King.

   • The Great Read: A Novel About Video Games... 

   • It Happened Online: Bama Rush is back…

   • NYT Cooking: Pasta salad with crispy cheese…

      • Movies Update: Cannes Controversies…

   • Paul Krugman: The Inflation Debate…

    • The Interpreter: The Snob Summer continu….

      • The Amplifier: Tina Turner Queen…

   • Take Our Weekly News Quiz…

 

Why Did The Times Bother Me with This Fatuous Selection? Ads! Especially the Eye-popping Follow-ons!
Every article, news story, opinion piece, editorial and sports column in the digital New York Times arrives with several small mini-ads sprinkled here-‘n’-there in the text.

Example: Below is a mini ad from one of The New York Times' ten emails — an upmarket pitch for condos in the luxurious 200 Amsterdam building in New York City’s tony Lincoln Center area. 

 

If this mini ad surrounded by text were to spark your interest, you could click on it in the Times email story. Suddenly your entire computer screen is magically transformed into a dazzling world of billionaires and spectacular photographs — sublime architecture, stunning interiors, and condos that will take your breath away. Guaranteed!

 

Quite simply these little ads are far more exciting and compelling than the dreary contents of the Times' stories.

 

Here’s the Link to the 200 Amsterdam's Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad.
https://200amsterdam.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyO2sjLip_wIVfwuICR0eNAhHEAEYASAAEgL1G_D_BwE

NOTE: Be sure to go to the bottom of this screen and click on:
NEIGHBORHOOD  RESIDENCES  PENTHOUSES  AMENITIES  ETC. 

 

What I seem to have stumbled on is an exquisite marketing concept whereby an advertiser can pay the Times to send an article containing a mini ad for his product or service. It came to me under the Times’ aegis. Many of these little ads end with actionable words to click on, such as:

         LEARN MORE >
     OPEN >
     DISCOVER >
     GET 60% OFF NOW! >
     SUBSCRIBE >
     SHOP NOW >
     FREE GIFT >
     READ MORE >
     SIGN UP NOW >

Or you can simply click on the ad, and you’ll be instantly transported to a humongous landing page that magically pulls you into an exciting new world that offers you irresistible sights, sounds, products and/or services.

 

 The 39 Words That Changed My Life
Longtime readers of this cranky marketing blog know how I launched the iconic newsletter and archive service in 1984 for direct marketers. WHO’S MAILING WHAT! was triggered at a New York City copywriter's club luncheon speech by US News and World Report circulation director Dorothy Kerr. Her exact words:

 

“If you want to be successful in direct mail, watch your mailbox, see who's mailing what and save those mailings that keep coming in over and over again (which means they are successful and hugely profitable). Then STEAL SMART!”

 

Over its 20-year lifespan WHO’S MAILNG WHAT! built up an archive (a.k.a. Swipe File) of 1671 direct mail “Grand Controls,” These were mailed over three or more (often many more!) consecutive years — an invaluable source of proven successful creative copy and design ideas.

 

The quintessential discovery: a two-page letter (775 words) that was mailed for 18 consecutive years and brought in over $2 billion in subscription revenue for the Wall Street Journal. It was (and still is!) the most successful advertisement in the history of the world.

(Blog Post) http://dennyhatch.blogspot.com/2019/01/37-most-successful-advertisement-in.html

  

Below Is the Start of Your Personal Swipe File
Of Dazzling Follow-ons to Little Clickbait Ads.

(With Thanks to The New York Times for sending me 10 emails in a single afternoon in May with all these nifty mini ads.)

 

 

Link to hear.com's Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad.

https://www.hear.com/d/best_hearing_aids_dis02/?act=ACT0000053149ACT&utm_source=liveintent&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=us_en_al_hea_display_liveintent_hea-before-after-double_acq_all_broad_supression_ban312_ACT0000053149ACT&utm_content=1189010&utm_publisher_id=130&li_did=6d522aa2-e34a-3ee3-80b0-eb1fb58ea969 

 

 

Link to AmEx's Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/blueprint/business-line-of-credit/?utm_source=DV360&utm_campaign=P2-BLOC-DV360-April-2023&utm_medium=cpm&refid=amex_p2_LOC_p2-bloc-dv360-april-2023_1200x627_DV360

 

Link to Ooni Pizza Ovens' Dazzling 

Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://ooni.com/?utm_gcmpgn_typ=us-display&utm_content=general&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI85TnqLWq_wIVxw-ICR3M9wt3EAEYASAAEgJabPD_BwE

 

Link to Leak Dynamics' Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.americanleakdetection.com/savannah/

 

Link to Specialty Metals' Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.flightmetals.com/products/titanium/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIldim2byp_wIVkpuzCh2ejQNEEAEYASAAEgIC8fD_BwE

 

Link to Epson Pigments' Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://ecorushink.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxdf5_b6p_wIVXAaICR3JrQB6EAEYASAAEgLMmPD_BwE

 

Link to Charleston New Homes' Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.newhomesguidecharleston.com/Homes/Charleston-Area-Open-Houses?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzNrhrLmp_wIVCZGzCh1h-QKYEAEYASAAEgKXkPD_BwE

 

Link to Quality Health Care's Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://fastpacehealth.com/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=BP%20%7C%20Display%20%7C%20Prospecting%20%7C%20TN&utm_content=124276227299&utm_term&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlrS85rep_wIVLhSICR3LpwDsEAEYASAAEgJ2KPD_BwE

 

Link to Lemur Vanilla Products' Dazzling Follow-on  to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.knowde.com/stores/lemur-international?utm_source=google&utm_medium=display_cpc&utm_campaign=gdn_store_lemur&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI-abx5b2p_wIV1fOzCh3QYQxNEAEYASAAEgKCrPD_BwE

 

Link to Ultra Fab & Machine's Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.ufmachine.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlLW-qrSp_wIV4Q2ICR2DugfXEAEYASAAEgKju_D_BwE

 

Link to Custom, Handmade Rugs' Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.perennialsfabrics.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuqOumb2p_wIVD_KzCh3CkAZnEAEYASAAEgI9V_D_BwE

 

Link to Saks Fifth Avenue's Dazzling Follow-on to This Little Clickbait Ad:

https://www.saksfifthavenue.com/c/custom/editorial-events/seasonal-fashion-trends/summer-fashion/men-s-summer-fashion?PA=TRUE&site_refer=DFA_BEH_S5_360I_NYT+SP23+Q2+MENS+BRANDING+DESKTOP+MESSAGING+HHI+150+BOREDOM_364815533_190410730

Takeaways to Consider

 • I confess this little swipe file of follow-ons is a helluva lot more fun and action-packed than my 14 clunky WHO'S MAILING WHAT! file cabinets stuffed with many hundreds of junk mail samples.

 • This Dazzling Follow-on technique is non-traditional direct marketing. For example...

 

• In the good ole days (sigh) of direct marketing, the linchpin was direct mail. Direct mail is personal — always, always, containing an attention-grabbing outer envelope (OSE).

 

• Also always included was a personal letter ("you copy") describing the benefits, benefits, benefits to you of the product or service being offered.

 

• Plus a brochure or circular ("it" copy all about "it") — the product or service.

 

• Often a short, pithy little lift note designed to "lift" response. (Example: "Frankly, I'm puzzled..." first used by Paul Michael of Greystone Press).

 

• Then you invite the customer to have his or her say with an order device using "me" copy. ("Yes, please send me the such-and-such. Enclosed is my check, money order or credit card number, blah, blah, blah.) 

 

• The final element was the BRE — prepaid business reply envelope — that brings the order home.

 

• All these impedimenta were always written in a folksy, down-to-earth style. “One writer whispering directly into the ear of one reader,” is how copywriter Harry Walsh phrased it. 

 

• Dazzling follow-ons are totally non-personal. They are more like interactive infomercials or videos. 

 

• The extraordinary advantage of e-commerce v. direct mail is the providing the ease and convenience of consummating the sale right then and there: 1) placing the order, 2) arranging for payment and 3) delivering the order to the vendor by simply clicking SEND.

P.S.  I just started receiving emails from a new website built on the "Clickbates and Follow-on's" model.
https://www.interestingfacts.com

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Word count: 1189