In around 1998 or so, I was working for a Commodity Pool Operator -- it's basically the commodities/futures equivalent of a mutual fund.
I helped pick and manage our traders, and I also sold.
The main selling point was the non-correlation to stocks, and as diversification to them. (Unfortunately, the stock market was having a great run at the time, and not too many people were looking for diversification.)
So, on volatile days, I would send out a blast email talking about the bad day the market had and encouraging people to consider managed futures.
This was the days of Internet 1.0, and schools were just publishing alumni email lists on their websites.
I would copy and past a list, run a couple of macros, and have a good list of prospects. I would know how old someone was (based on year of graduation), and could assume some level of success based on where they went to school.
I put together one list of Jesuit high school graduates from schools around the country.
Since getting someone to open and then read an email is half the battle, I simply put JUG in the subject line, knowing it would be irresistible to a Jesuit grad.
My pitch was something like, "In high school, if we weren't careful, we'd end up in JUG. The stakes are even higher with your investment portfolio." Or something stupid like that.
I got so many ****ing responses to that email. Some people were just laughing at being reminded of high school. Some were not amused to be reminded. And some opened accounts.
Best sales email I ever sent.
