I Can’t Mail You a Baby, But I Can Send you This…

It’s almost summer. 

Time to pack up the kiddos and send them to grandma’s house…

…or camp…

…or some other far away place. 

In olden days, here in the good ol’ USA, you could dress the youngins in their Sunday finest, slap a few stamps on their coats, and drop ‘em at the post office. 

The local postmaster would assume responsibility for delivering “the package.” 

But on this day in 1920, some killjoy named John C. Coons put an end to that. 

Years earlier, the Post Office amended regulations to allow delivery of “harmless live animals.” 

Coons (the First Assistant Postmaster General) said children didn’t rate.

(Indeed! If they were so “harmless,” why would so many parents want to pack ‘em up and ship ‘em out every summer?) 

And so ended an unusual and fun era in the history of our Post Office. 

The fun began on January 1, 2013 when the Post Office first allowed delivery of parcels heavier than four pounds. 

Before this, parcel delivery was left to private contractors who were neither widespread, nor reliable. 

The new parcel post service vastly expanded the ability for families and businesses to deliver packages. 

Days after parcel delivery began, the Beagues family in Ohio bought 15 cents in stamps and $50 of insurance coverage (price unknown) to mail their infant son to his grandmother’s house a mile away.  

After that, there were at least six instances of people mailing children. 

In 1914, the Pierstorff family paid 53 cents for stamps, fastened them to six-year-old May’s coat, and sent her by Railway Mail train to her grandparent’s house 73 miles from her Idaho home.

In 1915, a woman shipped her six-year-old daughter from Florida to Virginia – a 720-mile trip that cost 15 cents in stamps. 

Later that year, Maud Smith’s grandparents shipped her 40 miles through Kentucky to visit her sick grandmother. This is the last documented case of “KidMail” in the USA. 

Coons officially ended the practice when he rejected applications from two families who claimed their offspring were mail-worthy-harmless-live-animals. No dice, Coons said. 

What does this have to do with business and marketing? 

While a few boundary-pushing Americans were shipping babies via parcel post, countless entrepreneurs began to deliver products through the mail. 

A massive mail-order industry was born. And direct response marketing and advertising evolved to support mail-order. 

We still study how those early direct marketing masters crafted their ads. 

Times have changed. Now you can deliver a book via the internet – instantly. 

But the direct response marketing principles that sold so many mail-order products still apply today.

To master marketing in 2023, you have to understand what the best marketers were doing in 1923. 

I elaborate and share some classic examples in Pointer #39 in The Story Power Profit Pack.  The Profit Pack contains 52 strategies, tips, and tactics  (a.k.a. Pointers) to transform your  content from ignored to adored.

In the olden days, if you wanted the Profit Pack, you would have mailed me a check. I would have popped the Profit Pack in the mail.

And MANY DAYS later, you would have received those strategies, tips, and tactics in your mailbox. 

Today…

No need to send me a check. No postage required. No waiting. 

Just click the big button below, enter your contact info and credit card in the form, and instantly download The Profit Pack for your pleasure and enlightenment.