Steal These Ideas!: Marketing Secrets That Will Make You a Star, 2nd Edition

One for the Gipper

In 1983, the Republican Senatorial Committee wanted to end the year with a big fund-raising push to their top 200,000 contributors. At the time, they regularly spent 50 cents apiece on highly personalized computer letters to their donor base.

Given their desire to top previous fund-raising efforts, I convinced them to try something totally different for the year-end appeal: a single but very special letter that would cost roughly $7 in the mail. They agreed, and the end result was a one-letter appeal that raised more net dollars (over $2 million) than their archrival, the Democratic Senatorial Committee, raised in an entire year.

Here's what went into that $7 letter:

• A mailing envelope made to look like a FedEx overnight package ...