aakh improve response

So what happens next? I'm glad you asked. What
happens next is that at least of your 66,000 pieces of mail
that did manage to get
delivered gets immediately
thrown away.

Here is something I want to burn into your
mind. I want you to remember it and remember it well. I also
want you to remember that it was me, Sir Gary of Halbert, who
first told you that...

Most Of The People

In America Sort

Through Their Mail

While Standing Over

A Waste Basket!

But, of course, as one of my subscribers, you
already knew that, didn't you? Whatever. O.K. now, we've got
33,000 letters (out of 100,000) that have actually been
delivered to the post
office, delivered by the post office and opened by our
prospects.

Hooray. Hooray.

But wait. We started cheering too soon.

Why? Because now, perhaps another 20% of our
remaining mail gets thrown away as soon as it was opened. Darn
it anyway. Here we get 33,000 people to open our mail and
6,000 or 7,000 of those folks said "Oh yuck!" when
they saw that bewildering collection of brochures, order
cards, yes-no stamps and so forth.

But hey, we have
gotten about 26,000 folks to at least read
our letters. And that's not bad, right?

Actually, it's not. What the hell, if every
one of those 26,000 people order, we'll be figuring on getting
a 26% response and gosh, that's not bad at all.

But, of course, all 26,000 of those who do read our mail do not order.
Some of them who read our letters don't order because they
don't believe what they
are reading. But don't worry, we can fix that. At least, on a
percentage basis, we can fix a lot of it!