Secrets of the Mail-Order Trade
A manual of about 180 pages for people starting a business that advertises and sells goods by mail.
What it is
A manual of about 180 pages for people starting a business that advertises and sells goods by mail. Sawyer claims the trade has room for 25,000 more dealers and that rivals in the same papers grow the market rather than split it. Short chapters cover buying stock, handling complaints with a printed letter that offers exchange or refund, an "old horse" drawer for unsigned orders, which lists of names are worth mailing, genuine testimonials, the best months to advertise (October to May, with December, February and March strongest), not advertising goods you do not have, keying ads by department letter or street number, postal fraud law, mail-order journals, and selling medicines by free sample and follow-up letter. The goodwill chapter shows a $1 introductory set sold at a loss to win catalogue orders. The last 20 pages give formulas for teas, tablets and cures to sell by mail.
Why read it now
Several of Sawyer's rules match what direct marketers later proved with data. His ranking of lists, your own responders first, then people who answered similar offers, with bought lists and directories last, is still the order of value for email and retargeting audiences. Keying each ad to learn which paper pays is the ancestor of the tracking link. The $1 set sold at a loss to win catalogue buyers is the first-order loss and repeat-purchase model most online stores run on. His two sun-dial sellers, one letting buyers think it was a watch and one describing it plainly, make a clean case for accurate copy: the honest one built a lasting business, the other could not trade again. But the book also teaches the opposite: the stogie chapter shows how to mislead without a provable lie, and the medical chapter and formulas, including a liquor-habit cure of iron and nutmeg, sell remedies no health regulator would now allow. Read it as a record of both. Use: before any campaign, sort your customer lists by source and spend first on people who have already replied to you.
Passages worth keeping
The public on the whole appreciates and remembers good value, as easily as it becomes disgusted at being taken in.
الناس يتذكرون القيمة الجيدة بقدر ما يتذكرون الخداع، فالسمعة تُبنى أو تُهدم من كل صفقة.
To avoid "kicks" about your goods not being as represented, the best plan is to describe them so clearly that people will not expect more than they are to receive.
أفضل وقاية من الشكاوى أن تصف المنتج بدقة، فلا يتوقع المشتري أكثر مما سيصله.
The most valuable addresses are those of people who have replied to your advertisement and next in value are the names of people who have answered advertisements similar to yours.
أثمن قائمة هي قائمة من رد عليك، ثم قائمة من رد على عروض تشبه عرضك، أما الأسماء العشوائية فقليلة القيمة.
A genuine letter of recommendation is better than forty that are false.
شهادة عميل حقيقية واحدة أنفع من شهادات كثيرة مختلقة، لأن المختلقة تنكشف وتضر صاحبها.
The first statement may bring you to jail, the second never can.
يفرق سوير بين الكذب الصريح الذي يعاقب عليه القانون والتلميح المضلل الذي ينجو منه، وهو تفريق لا تقبله قوانين حماية المستهلك اليوم.
What it teaches best
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