The Greatest Direct Mail Sales Letters of All Time

WHY THEY SUCCEED
How THEY’RE CREATED
How You CAN CREATE GREAT SALES LETTERS, Too!

Copyblogger had this to say about collections of winning ads (Swipe files):

Directory of Sales Letters included:

SECTION II Classic direct mail letters

1. Newsweek “If the list upon which…name”
2. Psychology Today Bathroom Door
3. Reader’s Digest “Two Pennies”
4. Admiral Richard E. Byrd Polar Center…Expedition
5. Kiplinger Washington “Boom & Inflation”
6. Barron’s “Widows & Orphans”
7. Highlights for Children “Happy Faces”
8. Mercedes Benz of NA – “Americans Won’t Buy it.”
9. Old American Insurance Co. “Empty Shoes”
10. Games Magazine “Connect The Dots”
11. Nature Conservancy “Devil”
12. Ambassador Letter-Brochure Combination
13. First Baptist Church “Organ”
14. Franklin Mint “100 Greatest Books”
15. Breck’s Personalized Catalog Wraps
16. Thompson Cigar Company “15 Rivers to Cross”
17. American Bible Society “Your Faith Can Move Mountains”
18. Hewlett-Packard Pocket Calculator
19. Hewlett-Packard Pocket Computer
20. Wall Street Journal “Two Young Men”
21. American Express “Quite Frankly”
22. Greystone Press “Frankly I’m Puzzled”
23. DMEF – Personalized Letter from Bob Stone
24. DMEF – Bob Dale Letter by John Yeck
25. Tom Collins’ George McGovern
26. Nat. Rep. Sen. Com – Repub Pres. Task Force
27. Humor In Direct Mail: Haband Letters
28. John Yeck’s Let’s Have Better Mottoes Assoc.

SECTION III Consumer mail order letters

29. Franklin Mint Norman Rockwell Plate
30. Franklin Mint Gallery of American/Western Art
31. Natl. Wholesale Co. “Sarah Smith”
32. Banker’s Life “One Woman to Another”
33. Personal Improvement Corp “Lover of Life”
34. Calhoun’s Collectors Society “My Stock Broker Husband”
35. National Liberty Cancer Insurance
36. Omaha Steaks Prospecting
37. Frankl Lewis Miracle Grapefruit

SECTION IV Circulation and book promotion

38. Organic Gardening “Five Mistakes”
39. Business Week Invitation Letter I
40. Business Week Invitation Letter II
41. Business Week Invitation Letter III
42. Bon Appetit “Sangria”
43. Quest/78 Charter Subscription
44. Psychology Today “Hitler”
45. Prevention Magazine “Memories of Grandmother”
46. Publishers Clearing House “Transparent”
47. Publishers Clearing House “Advance Notice”
48. Fly Fisherman Magazine “Trout Spoken Here”
49. Popular Mechanics Encyclopedia Dirty Hands
50. Time Life Books “Cowboy”
51. Good Housekeeping “33 Ways”

SECTION V Fund-raising

52. YMCA “Ernie Banks”
53. New York Zoological Society “Zoofer”
54. Champaign County Council on Alcoholism “Lonely Man”
55. Harry S. Truman Library Institute Fund Raising
56. United Republican Fund of Illinois “Demonstration”
57. Miami University Fund Eddie Rickenbaker
58. National Federation of the Blind Penny
59. Southern Poverty Law Center Klanwatch Project
60. Christina L. Woods Memorial Fund
61. Nat. Trust for Historic Prevention “Drayton Hall”
62. Covenant House Letters

SECTION VI Business to business

63. IBM Direct Response
64. Xerox Used Copiers
65. McNeil Consumer Products Tylenol Crises
66. Day-Times, Inc. Free Trial Offer
67. Ingram Hall, Ltd. Lawyer
68. Nestle Company Key
69. Trans-Lux “9 Reasons”
70. Ace Pecan Company “Dad’s Advice”
71. Yeck Brothers Co. Grandfather’s Watch

SECTION VII Inquiry and lead-getting

72. AT&T Information Systems Merlin
73. RR Donnelley & Sons Co. Four-Step
74. Westinghouse Security Stems Consumer
75. Troy-Bilt Inquiry Answering
76. General Telephone Co. of Illinois
77. Champion “Here It is A Second Time”

SECTION VIII Rental and service

78. Community Federal Savings “Wham”
79. Alley Deli “Free Lunch”
80. Dick’s Supermarkets “Congratulations”
81. USMC “Yes-No”
82. Aircraft Owners & Pilots Assoc. “Flying Start”
83. Robert Bartlett Realty Co. “Just Suppose”
84. Fairview Medical Research Survey On A Check
85. Smithy Companies “Backwards”
86. Presidential Card “Did I Lose A Letter From You”
87. Bache Financial Planning “Rating A General”

SECTION IX Personalized letters

88. Reader’s Digest
89. Time-Life Books Non-Computer
90. Helene Curtis Beauty Salon
91. Official Meeting Facilities Guide
92. Xerox Preferred Account
93. Canadian Office of Tourism

And MORE…Much, Much MORE!

This is not just a collection of the best and hardest to find sales letters but also the best advice on how to write them.

Here’s just a sample of what else you get:

• • • Copywriting Formulas (12 Of Them)
    • The Copywriter’s Packet – What It Is, What It Contains, And Why It Is So Important To Have One
    • How To Use This Book
    • Creating Direct Mail Letters
    • Guidelines For Good Letters
    • How Long Should a Letter Be?
    • 100 Motivations For People To Buy
    • Before The Writing Starts
    • The Starting Point
    • The Opening Paragraphs
    • The Cross-Out/Write-In Technique For Testing The Effectiveness Of Your Copy
    • How To Make Your Copy Clear And Easy To Understand
    • The Five “Musts”
    • The Opening Paragraphs
    • The Hat Trick Technique For Testing Your Copy
    • The Johnson Box
    • The Order Form
    • The Postscript
    • Editing Copy

PLUS

You now get the choice of including Word DOC file TRANSCRIPTIONS of all the Sales Letters.

Why would you want these?

Actually, there are a couple of good reasons:

1 — You could just take the transcription directly into your word processor and begin changing it to suit the product/service you’re working on, using the sales letter as a MODEL. Nothing like having a good sales letter to model.

2 — It’s easier to do a “copy a great sales letter” technique. You just put it into your word processor and copy a paragraph at a time. This method was popularized by Gary Halbert but he got it from Thomas Hall who got it from a sailor who used it to copy a novel and become a successful novelist. Works great for learning to write sales letters.

Look what USED hard copies of this book are selling for on…

AMAZON:

ABEBOOKS:

“Ads which ran 30-50 years ago, even a hundred years ago, are often better than those you see today. You’ll get great ideas to use in your marketing, too – human emotions never change.”

You’ll Be SHOCKED at the LOW, LOW Investment