The Strange Story of the "Crackpot" Mail-Order Prophet
(or)
Five Things You Can Learn about Advertising from
Dr. Frank B. Robinson
by Joe Vitale
Are you having trouble selling your product or service?
Are you feeling like the chaotic state of the world
prevents you from succeeding? Are you wondering how you
can increase your sales in the most cost effective ways?
Are you feeling like your competition is breathing down
your neck?
Many of my clients feel the same way. They want to succeed,
to make a nice living in their business, but they feel
overwhelmed, uncertain, and even despondent. They feel they
have too much competition. They feel marketing doesn't work,
or takes too much work. They feel people don't have enough
money today to spend on what they are selling.
And that's why I think it's time to reveal the strange story
of the long forgotten "crackpot" mail-order prophet.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s the average person
didn't have enough money to feed themselves or their family,
let alone enough extra cash to order books through the mail.
Yet during those lean years one man made a fortune selling
books and courses entirely by mail. His name was
Frank B. Robinson. He founded "Psychiana," the world's
eighth largest religion and the world's largest mail-order
religion.
You may never have heard of him or his movement before today.
But during the 1930s and 40s, Robinson's name traveled around
the world. Millions of people read his books, studied his
lessons, and practiced his methods. The press called his
positive thinking, new thought religion a "media business"
because Robinson advertised so heavily.
In 1928 Robinson wrote an ad for his new philosophy that began
with the headline, "I TALKED WITH GOD." An advertising agency
in Spokane, Washington said the ad would never work. But Frank
believed in his message and trusted his hunches. He borrowed
$2,500 from people he barely knew, spent most of it on
printing his lessons, and invested $400 to place his ad in
"Psychology Magazine."
That ad pulled 5,300 responses. Robinson ran it in numerous
magazines and it always pulled a 3% to 21% response. Within a
year he had a full-time job fulfilling requests for his books
and lessons, soon shipping a million pieces of mail a year
out of his office in Moscow, Idaho. The post office in that
little town had to move into a bigger building to handle all
the mail.
Robinson's ads appeared in 140 newspapers, 180 magazines,
and on 60 radio stations, all at the same time. His postal
bill in 1938 amounted to $16,000 and his printing bill hit
$40,000. He received 60,000 pieces of mail a day, reached
more than two million people, and sent his message to 67
countries---all within one year of running his first ad.
"Advertising is educating the public to who you are, where
you are, and what service you have to offer," Robinson wrote.
"The only man or organization who should not advertise is
the one who has nothing to offer."
What can we learn from Frank B. Robinson?
1. He believed in his product. When you don't believe in what
you are trying to sell, it shows. It'll show in your lack of
commitment to your marketing, in poor advertising, in poor
service, or in other ways. As I mention in my book, The Seven
Lost Secrets of Success, sincerity is one of the "lost
secrets" to success. Robinson had sincerity. While his
movement made tons of money, Robinson accepted only $9,000
a year as his salary. Whether you call him a crackpot or
a savior, he believed in his product. He knew he had something
people wanted. In fact, Robinson sold his religious lessons
with a money-back guarantee.
2. He advertised relentlessly. If you don't tell people that
you exist, they won't know it. The reason you aren't aware of
Robinson or his movement today is because he's dead. (He died
in 1948). No one is advertising his message. Without consistent
and persistent advertising to educate the public, the world
won't know of your business.
3. He tracked his results. Robinson believed in the spiritual
world, but he also knew he lived on the earth plane where
numbers matter. He tracked responses from his ads to know what
worked and what didn't. For example, astrology magazines brought
him an 18% response to his ads while national weekly papers
brought 3%. Knowing that, Robinson could invest more money in
larger ads in the better pulling magazines. Find out where your
business comes from and focus more advertising in that area.
4. He continued to create products. Robinson knew once people
tasted his goods, they would want more. He wrote 28 books during
his short lifetime. These, along with his correspondence courses,
gave him a deep product line. Your current satisfied customers
will always be your goldmine. Create more for them to buy.
5. He remained optimistic. Despite the harsh reality of the Great
Depression years, and despite competition from religious
institutions that had been around for centuries, Robinson
flourished. He didn't believe anyone or anything could stop him.
When you have that strong of an inner conviction, nothing CAN
stop you. If you think you have competition with a similar
business in the same town, consider what it must have been like
for Robinson to have such empires as the Catholic Church, the
US government, and famous ministers and politicians trying to
close him down!
Whatever you may think of Robinson or "Psychiana," you have to
admit he knew how to advertise his business.
"After all, it's the results in human lives that count," he
wrote in his 1941 book, The Strange Autobiography of
Frank B. Robinson. "Talk is cheap."
What are you going to do now to increase your business?
Remember, talk is cheap!
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Joe Vitale is widely recognized by many as the greatest
copywriter in America. Can you beat him? Try out the
"World's Shortest Advertising IQ Test" and see how you
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