Boron - Chapter 24

The best letter ever to use this technique was the
classic "dollar bill" letter featured in "The Robert Collier
Letter Book." (must reread)

This was a first class letter that was designed to raise
funds for a children's hospital. When the recipient opened
the envelope he discovered a personal typed letter with a
real honest-to-goodness dollar bill attached to it. The copy
explained that the writer wanted to donate a thousand
dollars to a certain children's hospital but that he
realized that a thousand dollars wouldn't go very far. So,
what he (the writer) had decided to do was divide his
$1,000.00 contribution into 1,000 - one dollar bills and
then mail these bills to 1,000 different people. Now, he
went on to say, what he hoped is that everybody who received
one of these dollar bills would decide not to keep it and,
instead, send it straight to the hospital with one or more
dollars of their own.

Did it work? Oh my! It was probably the most effective
direct mail promotion ever mailed. It got better than a 90%
response and the people to whom it was mailed eventually
contributed tens of millions of dollars!

That's Impact!

Today, in the mail, I received a copy of my Japanese "Penny"
promotion. This promotion, as you know, has a Japanese
"Penny" attached to the top of the letter and the copy says
that the writer is attaching the penny to the letter for two
important reasons.

The first reason is to get attention. And, secondly, because
what the letter has to talk about was discovered in Japan,
the writer felt that some sort of "Japanese" eyecatcher was
appropriate.

This letter is working like crazy. It has impact.

But, be careful. Whatever you attach to the top of your
letters should tie in with the rest of your letter and what
you are selling. It should make sense and fit into the
promotion in a natural way.

Here is an example of how not to use impact: Some companies
print up advertising that, at first glance, looks like a
traffic ticket. Then, they hire kids to put these traffic
ticket type ads on the windshields of parked cars.