Jasons' "Ashes" grabber - would go brilliantly with the Jim Rutz Headline -

"Read This Or Die"


Steve

One of the best grabbers we've ever used was a J. Squirrel letter with a bag of airline peanuts and the headline "Are Ya Nuts!" This was the 3rd step of our sequence to people who did not respond to the first two.

Nothing kills a good idea like a terrorist act.

Yes, Indeed, you may be heading down the Highway to Hell - but you might just be detained in purgatory for a while.

I firmly believe that for every good idea, there is an equal and opposite bad idea. That's why I love brain storming sessions... especially where you say "There are no bad ideas..." -

BS - the ashes are a HORRIBLE Idea..... BUT DAMN FUNNY!!: I do like the way you think.

Ok, for grabbers:

I've used real $2 bills - they're unusual, and stick out in the prospects mind... and are 100% more generous than a $1 bill. You don't get labeled as a cheapskate.

I've also used "message in a bottle" - i got the plastic bottles from "orientaltrading" dot com.. That one did really well, but was sort of expensive to mail. It would be more now, as I did that before last year's rate increase.

I even tried easter eggs for an easter mailing... that didn't go over too well - One sore guy faxed me: "My egg was broken. Stop mailing me this $h!T!!!"
That's ok, I still got orders faxed to me.

Perhaps my favorite, and it was pretty successful (about 5%) was a prescription bottle mailer.

"Here's your prescription for higher profits..." theme.

I got the pill bottles from Ebay, they were about 28 cents each, and with the sales letter crammed into them, were 63 cents to mail.

I think the response rate would have been higher on the prescription mailer if I had sent it in a large envelope, and not crammed a 4 page sales letter and fax sheet into it. They were a pain to get into the bottles, and I'm sure they were a pain to fish out. THen the letter would look like crap b/c it was all wrinkled and creased.

So there are some ideas...

Oh yeah, have you ever got a $1 grabber that says:
"as you can see, I have attached a crisp clean brand new $1 bill to this letter...."?

When in reality, the $1 looks like it's been crammed in some guys wallet for a few weeks, wadded up and thrown on the counter... maybe washed, then crammed back in the wallet...

"As you can see, I've attached an Old Ratty, nearly worthless $1 bill to this letter. You can now ALMOST go out and buy 1 quart of fuel for your automobile, or you can continue reading this letter...."