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?

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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!