1. To get inquiries.
2. To sell goods; to complete the transaction and get the order just as a letter would.
3. To cooperate with the dealer in bringing trade to his store.
4. To cooperate with the salesman in his work on dealer or consumer.
Inquiries may be inspired in two ways—either by using a very brief double card or folder which tells just enough to prompt a desire for more information or by a post card "letter" series which works largely on the lines of letters enclosed in envelopes. In the first instance the card or folder resorts to direct pertinent queries or suggestions of help that impel the reader to seek more details.
An addressing machine manufacturer, for instance, sends his "prospects" a double folder with a return post card attached This message is little more than suggestive:
"Do you know that there is one girl in your addressing room who can do the work of ten if you will let her? All she needs is a Regal to help her. Give her that and you can cut nine names from your pay roll today. Does that sound like good business? Then let us tell you all about it. Just mail the card attached. It puts you under not the slightest obligation. It simply enables us to show you how to save some of your good dollars."
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Such a card is virtually an inquiry-seeking advertisement done into post card form to insure reaching the individual. And for this reason it may be well to carry a design or illustration just as an advertisement would. A life insurance company has made good use of a post card folder, building it up around its selling point of low cost. The outside bears a picture of a cigar and the striking attention-getter "At the cost of Your Daily Smoke—" the sentence is continued on the inside"—you can provide comfort for your family after you are gone, through a policy." Then follows enough sales talk to interest the prospect to the point of urging him to tear off and send the return card for full information.
Many propositions can be exploited in this way. In other instances a much more complete statement must be made to elicit a reply. Here the illustrated personal letter comes into use. And it is significant that in a number of specific cases these letters in post card form have been far more productive of inquiries than ordinary letters on the same proposition. Their unique form, the accompanying illustrations, by their very contrast in method of approach, prompt a reading that the letter does not get.