A Johnson Box is commonly found at the top of

direct mail Advertising mail, also known as direct mail (by its senders), junk mail (by its recipients), mailshot or admail (North America), letterbox drop or letterboxing (Australia) is the delivery of advertising material to recipients of postal mail. The d ...

letters, containing the key message of the letter. Its purpose is to draw the reader's attention to this key message first, and hopefully grab their attention, enticing them to read the rest of the letter. A Johnson Box is very effective, but it lends a "salesy" air to a letter, and so is considered inappropriate for letters that are intended to be formal or personal. It has also been adapted to the email format, with the goal of ensuring the most attention grabbing content in the email is visible in the preview pane of an email reader. The Johnson Box is named after

direct marketer Direct marketing is a form of communicating an offer, where organizations communicate directly to a pre-selected customer and supply a method for a direct response. Among practitioners, it is also known as ''direct response marketing''. By ...

Frank Johnson, who is credited with using the Johnson Box to improve response to his offers for ''American Heritage'' magazine. He does not claim credit for creating the device, claiming to have only popularized it. The Johnson Box has since "evolved" by use. It is often used in the middle of the page, particularly to highlight a testimony or an important sentence from the writing. It is now even used to surround an order form at the bottom right of the page which reiterates the benefit and offer.

References

External links

Frank Johnson's original letter, the first use of the Johnson Box
Direct marketing {{marketing-stub