This is just my personal opinion but I wouldn't mention that much about the media or the internet and social sites. People who care about those types of things probably already know about dr. paul, and complaining about the media attention comes off as well complaining. If someone reads the letter through they should want to 1) like what they read, 2) want to find out more.
Things that are important to have in the letter:
1. Ron Paul's name in some form or fashions as many times as possible (In my letter it says his name 8 different times in three paragraphs)
2. Talk about Dr. Paul. His voting record and his family/professional life.
3. The website/1-800# (remember not everyone has the internet)
4. Be sure to give info about the straw poll so they don't forget to go.
5. Close the deal. Ask them to vote for Dr. Paul in the straw poll. I even go further and give them my email and phone number and ask them to email/call for bumperstickers.
Also I see nothing wrong with the invite at the beginning, if you follow it up with a request for a vote at the end. Using the car example, I believe it would be prudent if you were going to send a letter for a car dealership to have in the opening paragraph an invitation to a sale, for example, "We would like to invite you to our dealership for our Easter sale to learn about all the great things that we have to offer blah blah blah blah the new Chevy has x y z and even a, blah blah blah So why don't you come test drive one at our Easter sale. Then after the test drive, the salesman will try to sell you. For us, offer the invite, tell about the features of Dr. Paul, ask for the RSVP and the vote. And then hopefully they will come test drive Dr. Paul at the poll, and he can seal the deal with the speech that he will give.
Here is my letter (It is not perfect and I'm sure it can be better):
I hope you are having a great day. My name is Dustan and I am an unpaid volunteer writing you in support of Congressman Ron Paul. He is a Republican running for President and we would like to invite you to the Iowa GOP Straw Poll on Sat. Aug. 11th from 10am to 6pm.
Ron Paul is in his 10th term in Congress. He is also an OB GYN, an Air Force veteran, a father, grandfather and has been married to his lovely wife Carol for 50 years. As a member of Congress, Rep. Paul has never voted to raise taxes, has never voted for an unbalanced budget, has fought against amnesty for illegal aliens and has never voted for a bill he considers unconstitutional, regardless of merit. I invite you to visit www.RonPaul2008.com or call 1-800-Ron-Paul to learn more about him and his positions.
If you truly believe in tax reform and protecting personal freedoms, then please support Dr. Paul by voting for him in the Ames Straw Poll on Aug. 11th. To RSVP or to get more information, go to www. RonPaul2008.com and click the Iowa icon in the upper right hand corner.
We hope to see you there and I appreciate your time.
Thank you very much,
Dustan Costine
P.S. If you would like free bumper stickers please email me at [email protected] or call my at (979) 492-3018 and I will get them out to you.

Thanks for the good points.
![]()
This is just my personal opinion but I wouldn't mention that much about the media or the internet and social sites. People who care about those types of things probably already know about dr. paul, and complaining about the media attention comes off as well complaining. If someone reads the letter through they should want to 1) like what they read, 2) want to find out more.
Things that are important to have in the letter:
1. Ron Paul's name in some form or fashions as many times as possible (In my letter it says his name 8 different times in three paragraphs)
2. Talk about Dr. Paul. His voting record and his family/professional life.
3. The website/1-800# (remember not everyone has the internet)
4. Be sure to give info about the straw poll so they don't forget to go.
5. Close the deal. Ask them to vote for Dr. Paul in the straw poll. I even go further and give them my email and phone number and ask them to email/call for bumperstickers.
Also I see nothing wrong with the invite at the beginning, if you follow it up with a request for a vote at the end. Using the car example, I believe it would be prudent if you were going to send a letter for a car dealership to have in the opening paragraph an invitation to a sale, for example, "We would like to invite you to our dealership for our Easter sale to learn about all the great things that we have to offer blah blah blah blah the new Chevy has x y z and even a, blah blah blah So why don't you come test drive one at our Easter sale. Then after the test drive, the salesman will try to sell you. For us, offer the invite, tell about the features of Dr. Paul, ask for the RSVP and the vote. And then hopefully they will come test drive Dr. Paul at the poll, and he can seal the deal with the speech that he will give.
Here is my letter (It is not perfect and I'm sure it can be better):
I hope you are having a great day. My name is Dustan and I am an unpaid volunteer writing you in support of Congressman Ron Paul. He is a Republican running for President and we would like to invite you to the Iowa GOP Straw Poll on Sat. Aug. 11th from 10am to 6pm.
Ron Paul is in his 10th term in Congress. He is also an OB GYN, an Air Force veteran, a father, grandfather and has been married to his lovely wife Carol for 50 years. As a member of Congress, Rep. Paul has never voted to raise taxes, has never voted for an unbalanced budget, has fought against amnesty for illegal aliens and has never voted for a bill he considers unconstitutional, regardless of merit. I invite you to visit www.RonPaul2008.com or call 1-800-Ron-Paul to learn more about him and his positions.
If you truly believe in tax reform and protecting personal freedoms, then please support Dr. Paul by voting for him in the Ames Straw Poll on Aug. 11th. To RSVP or to get more information, go to www. RonPaul2008.com and click the Iowa icon in the upper right hand corner.
We hope to see you there and I appreciate your time.
Thank you very much,
Dustan Costine
P.S. If you would like free bumper stickers please email me at [email protected] or call my at (979) 492-3018 and I will get them out to you.
Here is my letter (It is not perfect and I'm sure it can be better):
I hope you are having a great day. My name is Dustan and I am an unpaid volunteer writing you in support of Congressman Ron Paul. He is a Republican running for President and we would like to invite you to the Iowa GOP Straw Poll on Sat. Aug. 11th from 10am to 6pm.
Ron Paul is in his 10th term in Congress. He is also an OB GYN, an Air Force veteran, a father, grandfather and has been married to his lovely wife Carol for 50 years. As a member of Congress, Rep. Paul has never voted to raise taxes, has never voted for an unbalanced budget, has fought against amnesty for illegal aliens and has never voted for a bill he considers unconstitutional, regardless of merit. I invite you to visit www.RonPaul2008.com or call 1-800-Ron-Paul to learn more about him and his positions.
If you truly believe in tax reform and protecting personal freedoms, then please support Dr. Paul by voting for him in the Ames Straw Poll on Aug. 11th. To RSVP or to get more information, go to www. RonPaul2008.com and click the Iowa icon in the upper right hand corner.
We hope to see you there and I appreciate your time.
Thank you very much,
Dustan Costine
P.S. If you would like free bumper stickers please email me at [email protected] or call my at (979) 492-3018 and I will get them out to you.
Also I see nothing wrong with the invite at the beginning, if you follow it up with a request for a vote at the end. Using the car example, I believe it would be prudent if you were going to send a letter for a car dealership to have in the opening paragraph an invitation to a sale, for example, "We would like to invite you to our dealership for our Easter sale to learn about all the great things that we have to offer blah blah blah blah the new Chevy has x y z and even a, blah blah blah So why don't you come test drive one at our Easter sale. Then after the test drive, the salesman will try to sell you. For us, offer the invite, tell about the features of Dr. Paul, ask for the RSVP and the vote. And then hopefully they will come test drive Dr. Paul at the poll, and he can seal the deal with the speech that he will give.
Here is my letter (It is not perfect and I'm sure it can be better):
I hope you are having a great day. My name is Dustan and I am an unpaid volunteer writing you in support of Congressman Ron Paul. He is a Republican running for President and we would like to invite you to the Iowa GOP Straw Poll on Sat. Aug. 11th from 10am to 6pm.
Ron Paul is in his 10th term in Congress. He is also an OB GYN, an Air Force veteran, a father, grandfather and has been married to his lovely wife Carol for 50 years. As a member of Congress, Rep. Paul has never voted to raise taxes, has never voted for an unbalanced budget, has fought against amnesty for illegal aliens and has never voted for a bill he considers unconstitutional, regardless of merit. I invite you to visit www.RonPaul2008.com or call 1-800-Ron-Paul to learn more about him and his positions.
If you truly believe in tax reform and protecting personal freedoms, then please support Dr. Paul by voting for him in the Ames Straw Poll on Aug. 11th. To RSVP or to get more information, go to www. RonPaul2008.com and click the Iowa icon in the upper right hand corner.
We hope to see you there and I appreciate your time.
Thank you very much,
Dustan Costine
P.S. If you would like free bumper stickers please email me at [email protected] or call my at (979) 492-3018 and I will get them out to you.
No reread the letter. It says in the beginning we "invite you to join us at the Ames Straw Poll on Sat. Aug. 11th from 10am to 6pm"
It says nothing about asking them to vote for Ron Paul, just asking them to come out to the straw poll.
It does not ask them to vote for Ron Paul until the end of the letter.
I also do sales for a living, and have a degree in pyschology. I am not saying I am an expert at this or that my letter is the best. Just that the invite is prudent and gets to the point. If a letter is to wishy washy they either aren't going to read it or are not going to know what they are supposed to do with the info. Remember repetition is crucial.
Also I have had success with this approach calling the Iowans. Many times the person on the list will not be the one to answer the phone, when their spouse ask why I want to speak to the other person, I tell them flatly "I want to talk to them about the Ames Straw Poll", I've gotten the other person on the line every time.
Edit: I have found in sales that if you have a good product (like Ron Paul) you don't have to give incentives, only when your product is lacking are incentives needed. Now getting name recognition is different, and we have to do that through the letter, calls and getting people in front of that fabulous speech we know Dr. Paul is going to give.
Just my two cents, all the letters are great and better than no letter at all, just laying out my opinion.
--Dustan