History of Direct Response Advertising: From Mail-Order Catalogues to Modern Funnels

Why the History of Direct Response Matters

Most marketers treat each new platform as if it were invented from scratch. They approach Facebook ads, VSLs, and email funnels as though no one had ever solved the problem of turning strangers into buyers before the internet existed. This is a costly mistake.

The truth is that every direct response copywriting technique used today was discovered, tested, and refined long before the internet existed. The media change. The principles do not. Understanding this history does not make you a better historian — it makes you a better marketer. After 30+ years writing copy that has generated $523 million in tracked results for clients including Apple, IBM, Microsoft, and dozens of ClickBank and DTC brands, I can tell you that the marketers who know where these principles came from consistently outperform those who do not.

The Mail-Order Revolution: Where It All Began (1870s–1920s)

Direct response advertising did not begin with the internet or even with television. It began with the postal system and a simple, radical idea: you could sell things to people you had never met, using nothing but printed words on paper.

Montgomery Ward launched its first mail-order catalogue in 1872 — a single-page price list that grew into a massive catalogue selling thousands of products to rural Americans who had no access to city department stores. Sears, Roebuck & Co. followed in 1893 with a catalogue that eventually exceeded 500 pages and became known as the "Consumer's Bible."

These catalogues were the first direct response vehicles at scale. They contained product descriptions (copy), illustrations (creative), order forms (calls to action), and satisfaction guarantees (risk reversal). Every order was trackable. Every product's performance was measurable. The principles that power modern landing page copywriting and sales funnels were already present in these 19th-century catalogues.

During this same period, patent medicine advertisers were pioneering persuasion techniques that would become staples of the craft. Their products were often questionable, but their advertising innovations were real: testimonials, emotional storytelling, before-and-after narratives, urgency-driven language, and benefit-focused headlines. The ethics were lacking, but the mechanics of persuasion were being discovered in real time.

“The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact.”

Claude Hopkins and the Birth of Scientific Advertising (1900s–1930s)

If the mail-order catalogues planted the seed of direct response, Claude Hopkins made it a discipline. Working at the Lord & Thomas agency in the early 1900s, Hopkins brought something revolutionary to advertising: accountability.

Hopkins insisted that every ad should be measurable. He pioneered coupon-based tracking — including unique codes in ads so he could determine exactly which ad in which publication generated each response. He invented split testing before it had a name, running two versions of an ad simultaneously to see which performed better. He championed "reason-why" copy — giving prospects specific, logical reasons to buy rather than relying on clever slogans or empty claims.

His 1923 book Scientific Advertising remains one of the most important texts in the history of copywriting. In it, Hopkins laid down principles that every serious direct response practitioner still follows: test everything, measure results, write to one person, lead with benefits, and never assume you know what works until the data confirms it.

Hopkins also understood that advertising is salesmanship multiplied. A sales letter, he argued, is simply a salesperson who can visit thousands of prospects simultaneously. This insight — that copy is a salesman in print — is the philosophical foundation of everything from long-form sales letters to modern VSL scripts.

What made Hopkins different from his contemporaries was not creativity — it was discipline. While other advertisers debated opinions about what made good advertising, Hopkins let the data decide. He ran two ads against each other, measured which one pulled more responses, and scaled the winner. That process — hypothesis, test, measure, optimize — is the exact same process that modern direct response teams use when split testing landing pages, email subject lines, and VSL hooks. Hopkins did it with coupons and postal codes. We do it with pixels and analytics platforms. The logic is identical.

John Caples, working in the same era, brought similar rigor to headline testing. His famous "They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano" ad demonstrated that the right headline could multiply response rates by a factor of 10 or more. His book Tested Advertising Methods provided the systematic headline testing framework that direct response copywriters still use today.

The Golden Age of Direct Mail (1950s–1990s)

The decades following World War II produced what many consider the golden age of direct response advertising. The United States Postal Service was reliable and affordable. Consumer credit was expanding. And a generation of brilliant copywriters turned the sales letter into the most profitable persuasion tool in marketing history.

This was the era that produced the legends. Gary Halbert wrote sales letters that built entire businesses from scratch — his famous "Coat of Arms" letter alone generated over $40 million in revenue. Robert Collier taught copywriters to "enter the conversation already taking place in the customer's mind." Dan Kennedy built a direct response empire and mentored an entire generation of copywriters and entrepreneurs. Gary Bencivenga demonstrated that meticulous research and disciplined testing could produce unbeatable controls.

The direct mail format forced copywriters to master every element of persuasion. The envelope had to get opened (the equivalent of a headline or subject line). The opening had to hook the reader instantly. The body had to build a complete case — problem, agitation, solution, proof, offer, guarantee, call to action — in a single, self-contained piece. There was no "click here to learn more." The letter either converted or it did not.

These constraints produced copywriting frameworks of extraordinary power. The AIDA formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action), the PAS framework (Problem, Agitation, Solution), and dozens of headline formulas were all refined during this period. The discipline of direct mail copywriting created the persuasion architecture that every modern format depends on.

I started my career in this era, and the lessons I learned writing and testing direct mail are the same lessons that drive results in digital campaigns today. When I write a VSL script or a sales page for a DTC brand in 2026, I am applying the same frameworks that Halbert and Kennedy refined through millions of dollars in postage and printing costs. The format changes. The psychology does not.

The Infomercial Explosion (1980s–2000s)

In 1984, the Federal Communications Commission deregulated program-length television commercials, and the infomercial was born. For the first time, direct response advertisers had a medium that combined the persuasive power of long-form copy with visual demonstration and the reach of television.

The infomercial format was essentially a televised sales letter. It followed the same persuasion architecture: hook the viewer, identify the problem, agitate it, introduce the solution, demonstrate proof, stack the offer, add bonuses, reverse the risk with a guarantee, and close with urgency. The only difference was the medium — instead of reading a letter, the prospect was watching a presentation.

Companies like Guthy-Renker, QVC, and HSN built billion-dollar businesses on infomercials. Products like Proactiv, the George Foreman Grill, and OxiClean became household names through direct response television. The infomercial proved something that every experienced copywriter already knew: the principles of direct response are medium-agnostic. If the persuasion architecture is sound, it works whether delivered on paper, on screen, or in person.

The infomercial also trained an entire generation of consumers to respond to direct offers through television — conditioning the buying behavior that would later transfer seamlessly to online video. When VSLs emerged a decade later, the audience was already primed for the format. They had spent years watching 30-minute sales presentations and calling 1-800 numbers. The VSL simply moved that experience to a web browser.

“If you and I both owned hamburger stands and were in a contest to see who could sell the most hamburgers, the one thing I would want above all else is a starving crowd.”

The infomercial era also introduced the concept of the upsell sequence to a mass audience. After the initial purchase, customers would receive follow-up offers by phone and mail — the predecessor of the digital upsell and downsell pages that are standard in modern sales funnels.

The Digital Revolution: Email, Sales Pages, and VSLs (2000s–2010s)

The internet did not change the principles of direct response advertising. It changed the economics.

When email became mainstream in the late 1990s and early 2000s, direct response copywriters immediately recognized its potential. Here was a medium that delivered a sales letter to the prospect's inbox at near-zero marginal cost, with instant delivery and real-time tracking. Email copywriting became the digital heir of direct mail — following the same persuasion sequences but at dramatically lower cost and faster speed.

The early internet also gave birth to the long-form sales page — a web page that replicated the structure of a direct mail sales letter in digital format. These pages used the same elements: a headline, a lead, a story, proof elements, an offer stack, a guarantee, and a call to action. The only difference was that the "order form" was now a checkout button. Today, how to write a sales letter and how to write a sales page are essentially the same discipline applied to different delivery mechanisms.

Then, in the late 2000s, the Video Sales Letter emerged. The VSL combined the persuasion structure of a sales letter with the engagement of video — creating a format that could hold attention for 20, 30, or even 60 minutes while building an airtight case for the sale. My Belron/Safelite VSL campaign demonstrated the power of this format, generating $523 million in revenue over 9 years from a single direct response concept.

The VSL was not a new invention. It was the infomercial's offspring, adapted for online delivery — which was itself the sales letter's offspring, adapted for television. The lineage is direct and unbroken. If you read a Hopkins-era print ad, a Halbert-era sales letter, an infomercial script, and a modern VSL script side by side, you will see the same persuasion architecture in every single one — adapted for its medium but structurally identical.

The Funnel Era and Modern Direct Response (2010s–Present)

The 2010s brought the rise of the sales funnel — a multi-step digital sequence that guides a prospect from initial awareness through purchase and post-purchase offers. Platforms like ClickFunnels, launched in 2014, democratized funnel building and made sophisticated multi-step sequences accessible to businesses of all sizes.

But the sales funnel was not new either. Direct mail copywriters had been building multi-step sequences for decades — a lead generation piece followed by a series of follow-up letters, each building on the last, culminating in a hard close. The digital funnel simply automated this process and made it faster. What used to require weeks of mail delivery and manual fulfillment now happens in minutes through automated sequences and instant page loads.

Modern conversion copywriting combines every lesson learned across 150 years of direct response history. A typical high-performing funnel today includes a paid ad (the descendant of the classified ad), a landing page (the descendant of the lead generation letter), an email sequence (the descendant of the follow-up mail series), a VSL or sales page (the descendant of the long-form sales letter), and upsell pages (the descendant of the infomercial upsell).

The channels that deliver the message have changed radically. The principles that make the message work have not changed at all. Headline-driven attention capture, benefit-focused copy, proof and social validation, urgency and scarcity, risk reversal, and clear calls to action — these elements drove response in 1890s catalogues and they drive response in 2026 funnels.

The comparison between direct mail and digital marketing is not a story of replacement. It is a story of expansion. The toolbox got larger. The physics of persuasion stayed the same.

The Constant Principles Behind the Changing Media

After working across every major direct response format for over three decades — from print direct mail to digital sales pages, from email sequences to VSLs, from Fortune 500 campaigns for Apple and IBM to ClickBank funnels for DTC health brands — I can tell you that the principles that work have been remarkably stable.

The headline carries the sale. This was true when Hopkins was writing ads in 1910, when Halbert was mailing sales letters in 1980, and when I am writing VSL hooks today. Roughly 80% of the persuasive work happens in the first few seconds of engagement. Master headline writing and you master the most important skill in direct response.

Proof beats promises. Consumers in every era are skeptical. The patent medicine advertisers learned this the hard way when regulation caught up with unsubstantiated claims. The copywriters who thrived — Hopkins, Ogilvy, Bencivenga — were the ones who built their cases on evidence: testimonials, case studies, demonstrations, specific numbers, and third-party validation.

Long-form outperforms short-form for complex sales. This was proven in direct mail, confirmed in infomercials, and validated again in digital. When the prospect needs education, objection handling, and proof before committing, long-form copy gives you the space to build the complete case. Short copy works for simple, low-risk offers. Complex or high-ticket sales require the persuasion depth that only long-form provides.

Sequenced follow-up multiplies response. The direct mailers knew this — a single letter converts a fraction of what a well-designed sequence converts. Email marketers know this. Funnel builders know this. The principle is universal: most prospects need multiple touches before they act.

Measure everything. This is Hopkins's founding principle, and it has only become more powerful as technology has made measurement more granular. Every click, every open, every view, every conversion — the data tells you what works and what does not. Opinions are worthless. Results are everything.

The offer is king. No amount of brilliant copy can save a weak offer. This was true in the catalogue era, the direct mail era, the infomercial era, and the digital era. The famous copywriters who consistently won were the ones who spent as much time engineering the offer — the price, the bonuses, the guarantee, the payment terms — as they spent crafting the words around it.

Lessons for Today's Direct Response Copywriter

If you are writing copy in 2026, you are not operating in a vacuum. You are standing on 150 years of accumulated knowledge about what makes people act. The copywriting psychology that drives conversions today was documented by Hopkins, refined by Schwartz, and battle-tested by Halbert, Kennedy, and Bencivenga.

Here is what the history teaches us.

Study the masters. Read Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. Read Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. Read The Gary Halbert Letter. Read the best copywriting books across every era. The principles in these works are not outdated — they are foundational.

Build a swipe file across eras. Do not limit your swipe file to modern digital campaigns. Collect winning direct mail pieces, classic print ads, infomercial scripts, and sales letter examples from every decade. The patterns you will see repeated across eras are the patterns that reflect permanent human psychology.

Test relentlessly. Hopkins started split testing with coupons in 1910. Today you have tools that make testing faster, cheaper, and more precise than Hopkins could have imagined. Use them. Let the data — not your preferences, not your client's opinions, not the latest trend — dictate what stays and what gets rewritten.

Respect the fundamentals. Every new platform will be sold as revolutionary. Every new format will be pitched as unlike anything that came before. But when you look past the technology, you will find the same persuasion principles at work. The copywriter who recognizes this has a permanent strategic advantage over the copywriter who chases novelty.

Think in principles, not platforms. A great headline is a great headline whether it appears on a direct mail envelope, in an email subject line, at the top of a sales page, or in the first three seconds of a VSL. A compelling offer is a compelling offer whether it is printed on an order card or displayed on a checkout page. Train yourself to see the underlying structure and you will never be disrupted by a platform change — because you will know how to apply timeless principles to any new medium the moment it appears.

Getting Started

The history of direct response advertising is not a museum exhibit. It is a working playbook. The principles that built fortunes through mail-order catalogues, direct mail campaigns, infomercials, and early internet marketing are the same principles that drive results in modern VSLs, email sequences, landing pages, and sales funnels.

The medium will keep changing. AI will accelerate testing and personalization. New platforms will emerge. But human psychology — the engine that makes all direct response work — does not change on technology's timeline. The copywriters who understand this history will always have an edge.

Whether you are building your first sales funnel, writing a VSL for cold traffic, launching an email sequence for a product launch, or optimizing a landing page for higher conversions — the answers to your hardest problems have already been discovered. They are sitting in the swipe files, the textbooks, and the tested results of 150 years of direct response practitioners who came before you.

Your job is not to reinvent the wheel. Your job is to apply what works — in whatever medium your market inhabits today.

If you want a copywriter who has lived this history — from the direct mail era through the digital revolution, applying battle-tested principles across 30+ years and $523M+ in tracked results for brands from Apple to ClickBank — book a free strategy call to discuss your project. No pressure, no obligation — just a conversation about how to apply 150 years of proven principles to your next campaign.