Business Correspondence Part 35

One of the best schemes for easy ordering invited the reader to fold a dollar bill in the letter "right now" and mail the letter at the risk of the firm. That effective closing removed the tendency to delay until a check or a money order could be secured. It took away the fear of loss in the mails. It largely increased the returns of the letter.

It is sometimes an excellent plan to suggest that the reader sign and mail at once a postal card that is enclosed. If there is an inch or two of s.p.a.ce at the bottom of the letter, a blank order or request may be written there that needs only a signature to make it complete. In the closing paragraph, direct the reader to sign and return the slip.

An addressed envelope should always be enclosed. It will not always be used, but it will be used by most people, and it a.s.sures the correct address and facilitates the handling of incoming mail.

How To Write Letters That _Appeal_ To WOMEN

PART VI--THE APPEAL TO DIFFERENT CLa.s.sES--CHAPTER 22

_The two-page letter which a man would toss into the waste basket unread may be read by a woman with increasing interest at each paragraph. The average woman does not have a large correspondence; her mail is not so heavy but what she_ FINDS TIME TO READ EVERY LETTER THAT APPEALS TO HER EVEN SLIGHTLY. _The printed heading may show a letter to be from a cloak company. She doesn't really need a new coat--and anyhow she could hardly afford it this fall--but she would just like to see what the styles are going to be like--and it doesn't cost anything to send for samples. Yet if the writer of the letter is skilled and understands the subtle workings of a woman's mind_, THE CLOAK IS HALF SOLD BY THE TIME SHE FILLS OUT THE POSTAL CARD. _This chapter tells why_

The more personal a letter is made the more successful it will prove. Several large mail-order houses, handling thousands of letters every day, are gradually abandoning the use of form letters, making every communication personal. The additional expense is of course great but the increased business apparently justifies the new policy.

The carelessness that sends out to women form letters beginning "Dear Sir" has squandered many an advertising appropriation. A man might not notice such a mistake or he might charitably blame it onto a stupid mailing clerk, but a woman--never.

The mail-order houses with progressive methods not only guard against inexcusable blunders and tactless letters but they are studying the cla.s.ses and the individuals with whom they are dealing.

A mail may bring in two letters--one, from a farmer, laboriously scrawled on a bit of wrapping paper; the other, from a lady in town, written on the finest stationery. Both may request catalogues and the same printed matter will be sent to each, but only the amateur correspondent would use the same form letter in reply.

The book agent who rattles off to every prospect the set speech which the house furnished him with his prospectus either throws up the work as a "poor proposition" or changes his tactics, and the form letter that tries to wing all cla.s.ses of individuals is most likely to miss all.

In making an appeal to women, the first thing to be considered is the stationery. Good quality of paper is a sound investment. Saving money by use of cheap stationery is not economy for it prejudices the individual against the sender before the letter is ever opened.

Firms that cater to women of the better cla.s.s follow out the current styles in writing paper. The "proper" size and shape of sheet and envelope immediately make a favorable impression. Various tints may be used to good effect and, instead of a flaring lithographed letterhead, the firm's monogram may be stamped in the upper left-hand corner. The return card on the envelope should not be printed on the face but on the reverse flap. Such a letter is suggestive of social atmosphere; it is complimentary to the lady.

In beginning the letter it should strike at some vulnerable spot in feminine nature--but it must be so skillfully expressed that the motive is not apparent. If the line is anything that can be shown by sample, manage to work into the very beginning of the letter the fact that samples will be mailed free upon request. Women never tire of looking at samples; they pull thousands of orders that could never have been landed with printed descriptions or ill.u.s.trations. A most successful house selling suits and cloaks has proved conclusively that nothing will catch the attention of a woman so quickly as an offer of free samples or some reference to style and economy in woman's dress. It urges upon its correspondents the desirability of getting in this appeal in the very first sentence.

Letters from this house begin with some pointed reference: "Becoming styles, we know, are what you want, together with quality and the greatest economy." Or, "You know we guarantee you a perfect-fitting suit, of the prettiest materials in the market--whatever you may select."

This letter has the personal signature of the sales manager:

Dear Madam:

I have been intending to write you ever since you sent for your REPUBLIC Style Book, but I have been so busy in connection with our new building as to hardly find time.

But you are no doubt now wondering just why, out of the many, many thousand requests for the REPUBLIC Style Book, I should be so particularly interested in yours. And so I am going to tell you frankly my reason.

It is this: In your community there is only a very small number of all the ladies who wear REPUBLIC Suits, and they ALL should wear them--and WOULD wear them if they could but be made to know the real beauty of our suits. I want to show them just how beautiful a REPUBLIC Suit can be.

So I ask you, would you like to have made for you this season, the most beautiful suit you ever had?

Would you like now, a suit more stylish, better fitting, more becoming, better made--MORE PERFECT--than any other suit you have had?

If this interests you at all, then I am ready personally to see to it for you.

A suit that is different from the ones worn by your acquaintances is what I am now speaking of; not different because made of some unusual material, or in some over-stylish design, but different because BETTER. It is the difference of QUALITY, of genius in its cutting, that I want your friends and neighbors to see and admire in your suit.

Now I am going to say to you very frankly that I have a reason for wanting to make your suit attract the admiration of your friends. I wish your suit to convince THEM that they, too, should have their suits made by the REPUBLIC.

Would you care to have me tell you just how I propose to put this unusual grace and style into your suit? First, everything depends upon the LINES of a suit--if its lines are beautiful, the suit is beautiful. Now we have at the REPUBLIC a chief designer, who is a genius in putting the greatest beauty and grace into the lines of his models.

We say he is a genius, because a man can be a genius in designing just as a musician or any exceptionally skillful man may be said to be a genius. And when a highly trained cutter and an expert tailor make up one of this man's designs, the result is a suit that stands apart from all others, by reason of the attractiveness there always is in grace and style and beauty.

Such is the suit I offer to have made for you.

But there is to be no increased cost to you for this special service. The price of every REPUBLIC Made-to-Measure Suit is plainly stated under its description in our Style Book. That is all you'll have to pay.

If you wish you can have a dressmaker take your measurements and we will pay her for her trouble, as explained on the enclosed Dressmaker's Certificate. Please read this certificate.

"Now, what am I to do?" you ask. Simply send your order to me personally. Just say, "Make my suit as you agree in your letter."

Now if you wish other samples or information, write to me personally and I will take care of it for you. But, the sooner you get your order to me the better.

Please consider that we, at the REPUBLIC, will always be glad to be of service to you. I, especially, will be pleased to have the opportunity of making you a suit of which you can be proud and of which we will be glad to have you say, "This is a REPUBLIC Suit."

Shall I hear from you soon?

Yours very respectfully, [Signature: G. L. Lawrence]

This letter was sent out on very tasty tinted stationery. It was written by someone who understood the subtle processes of the feminine mind. In the first place the lady is flattered because the sales manager himself writes to her and offers to give her order his personal attention. Surely an opportunity to secure the very best suit the house can turn out!

"It is the difference of _QUALITY_, of genius in its cutting, that I want your friends and neighbors to see and admire in your suit." No fulsome flattery here; it is so delicately introduced that it appears entirely incidental, but the shaft strikes home. There is just enough left unsaid to stir the imagination. The logic and the matter-of-fact argument that would appeal to the man gives way to suggestion and persuasion and the necessity for prompt action is tactfully inserted at the proper place.

In another letter from the same house the prospect was impressed by the great care used in making up garments:

"In order that your measurements may be taken exactly right, we send you with this letter a 'Republic' Tape Measure. This is the same kind that our cutters use and it is entirely accurate.

"We send this tape measure to you because we want to avoid the least possibility of variation in your measurements. We want to make your suit perfect, and we will personally see to every detail of its making."

No battery of arguments and proofs could make the same appeal to the woman as the tape line sent in this way. The suggestion is more powerful with a woman when skillfully handled than statements, a.s.sertions and arguments. Compare the subtle appeal in the above to the paragraphs taken from a letter sent out by a house that was trying to enter the mail-order field:

"We want you to read our booklet carefully for it explains our methods of doing business fully. We are very particular about filling orders and know you will be pleased with any suit you may buy from us.

"Our financial standing should convince you that if anything is not right we will make it so. We guarantee satisfaction and solicit a trial order."