https://completemarkets.com/company/CompleteMarkets/Articles/content-package/IMMS-Library/TabCategory/article-post/1867/100-EASY-WAYS-TO-BEGIN-A-SALES-LETTER-PART-TWO/
... puzzled to see fund-raisers using I've enclosed. I'm guessing this opening, from a major nonprofit organization, was supposed to have an emotional wallop: Dear Friend, I've enclosed a Life or Death Seed Catalog for you. I call this the Life or Death Seed Catalog because what you do after looking through the catalog could help save the life of a small child..a child like Youssouf. Youssouf is a little boy who... Let's ignore that unfortunate appellation, Life or Death Seed Catalog, ' which before we even get into the letter makes us uncomfortable (not guilty) with an unpleasant challenge-Dracula Plants sprouting and blooming only at the stroke of midnight. We're discussing letter openings, not product psychology. An if.. opening would be completely safe as a substitute: If you'll buy a few packets of seeds, ... a business-to-business or executive level, don't you dare let the look of a mass mailing peek through. To these targets, We've missed you' has to be one-on-one, with a hand-finished look. If you can't do this, don't waste the postage. Oh, a second qualifier: If you can't tie We've missed you' to a special resuscitation offer, don't waste the postage. A Video Club uses--quite properly--the mass' approach, complete with Johnson Box. (I've come to regard Johnson Boxes as de-personalizers.) A truly personal We've missed you' to somebody who dropped a negative option video deal would seem gushy and phony. Under the Johnson Box is another bulk' line, printed in Goudy hand-tooled: Take Any 6 Movies FOR 39c EACH. Okay, we now know this isn't ...