Thank you so much for a great, informative and spot on comment!

Ed set the standard high. It is a beacon lighting the way forward.

Over a century ago Sears succeeded incredibly with a catalog accurately depicting it’s products and was an early leader of bringing integrity to direct marketing. However around the same time there were also snake oil salesmen and outrageous claims by mail order marketers that all but destroyed the form of advertising for years into the future.

Around the time Ed McLean entered the field, direct marketing was considered a shady and laughable form of marketing by the mainstream of Madison Ave. Even the catalog wing of Sears had become all but irrelevant to their retail parent.

The level it has reach today has proven it’s legitimacy in the long run, and the increased integrity with which it has been practiced since those earlier days has enabled ever more daring and rewarding forms of it to be possible. How could Ebay, Amazon, or any number of present day marketers exist before consumers put real faith in direct marketing?

All made possible by ethics and higher standards among a new era of direct marketers 50 years ago.

So as not to stray too far from one of the original points made by your post, all of this adds up to sustain the most important customer: the one that happily returns again because of the sense of integrity within their marketing relationship with a person/entity they most likely have never met and never will.

Please do post some of Ed’s letters for everyone. As I read them over myself I find them completely relevant it today’s world and anything but archaic. His repeat business letters, especially his subscription renewal letters, are worthy lessons in just what you have written about in your post.

The practice of direct marketing in the future relies on the continuation of ‘truth well told’. As the internet veers toward unscrupulous standards and less accountability more and more, the lines between legit and bogus have become obscured and almost reeled back to the days of snake oil salesmen.

Let’s hope the higher standards of the past 50 years won’t be lost and require a future era of direct marketers the following 50 to regain the faith of the general public.

Thanks!

This was a very interesting article. It sets a good example of the useful content in a well written piece that we should all strive to achieve in our writing of articles or posts for our blogs. Good work and I am glad I started following you on Twitter.

Thank you.

Good luck to you and your endeavors,
Mac Bull

Thanks for the comments. Especially coming from someone of your experience. Much appreciated.

Robert

Voice is one of the hardest concepts to decode and teach another person. VERY difficult. I know that both from being taught and teaching other writers.

Thanks again for the article.

Ryan

Good suggestions for forcing the strength of the writing to come from the nouns, verbs, and intent rather than fluffy adjectives…

Thanks so much for the compliment. “Full Marks” – I didn’t get those in school, so I appreciate them here.

Reader’s with high standards like yours keep me working hard to keep the content standards high.

Thanks again for reading and especially your kind comments.

OK, I’m impressed.

I have read every “post” on this page, and while each has had value, THIS One is Exceptional.

Very well written; “Full Marks”, as they say ‘across the pond’, eh?

I am going to “copy & paste” what you have written to re-read as a principle upon which to base any & all writing I ever do; it resonates with me completely.

Best Regards,

Rick Louis