Very good idea to collaborate with the Bitcoin community and encourage people to contact their favorite retailers I have contacted a few in my time using Bitcoin and have only received two replies (If I recall accurately) but the ones that did respond stated they are looking into new payment gateways all the time and are well aware Bitcoin. I don't know whether it was the way I write the email or whether they have already looked into Bitcoin but the two that responded pretty much said the same thing.

I disagree.

In your pencil analogy, to be realisitic it would be " the pencil MAY be free if you have the TOOLS to sharpen it". The TOOLS here are compliance with regulation rules, exchange risks and etc... You get the point.

OR the business can just buy this pencil at a price. The price will only be more competitive in the future as more competitors coming in.

The bottom line is the pencil is still alot cheaper than buying it from MC/VISA.

To gain merchant acceptance you must focus on their point of view. There is no downside in "using this payment method" only upside. And there is no extra work being involved which let businesses focus on what they're doing best.

Which is why your letter will not be helpful. We're not there yet. One step of a time.

LOL whats your goal sending this letter?

To tell ppl how great btc is or to have merchants adoption?

As you already know, having merchants adoption is infact what would make btc great. Go one step at a time.

So go edit your letter to archive that goal. Clearly right now its just a confusing spam letter.
 

Sure,

Based on what you wrote, the goal is to have business accepting btc, correct?

Then remove all the market volatility, and keep it simple to fit their bottom line : sales and cost of tx. Thats it.

There are currently only 2 accredited payment gateway for bitcoin: Bitpay and Coinbase. And their fees are already low. No need to talk much about price of btc etc... just talk about easy to integrate, and fees are near zero. Do tell them that Coinbase has the first $1M in tx for free, 1% after that, while Bitpay has 1% or $30 flat fee.

Think of bitcoin as email. Do mainstream ppl want to understand how emails work? and that they can have their own email servers, ....etc ? I'm sure if you pitch someone into using email you would say, sign up on Gmail, yahoo or hotmail and that they can send mails digitally in sec ....

Anyway, i think i made myself clear enough. English isnt my native language, so i hope someone can contribute in writing for you.


EDIT:
To be more clear, all of that is irrelevant from the business's stand point of view.

lol, i can tell these people are not in marketing...

guys the pencil analogy and localbitcoins, is not about selling them into localbitcoins or selling them a pencil..

its called open questioning. its about avoiding yes/no answers. its about avoiding the OBVIOUS hard sale of a one way street..

ofcourse the merchant will go the bitpay/coinbase(pen) route as its obvious they are most convenient. but its not about making him chose yes or no to go that route. its about saying, options 1 2 or 3.. (avoiding yes and no's), making it appear that your not forcing a definete answer on him, but allowing him to decide the best way forward(allowing him to think he is in control).

telling someone the best way is this 1 option, makes some business owners think your treating them like they have been doing it wrong for years, demoralising them by saying they are missing out on this great new thing that could have saved them money for the last 5 years.

but giving them options empowers them to instead of acting defensive with a yes or no answer.. to choose what they think is in their best interest, even though deep down you gave them the choice.
...

ok most of you sound like teenagers, so here's one that will appeal to you:
i walk upto you with a woman and say, "hey guys, i got this lady here, she is hott, she can do pretty much anything your heart desires. do you want her"

smart people will immediately think.. hmm sounds like there a catch.. whats this guys agenda.. whats wrong with her for him to want to hand her over..

but if i came in with three women and said
"girl A: she is a bit uptight but she is honest and loyal and good in bed"
"girl B: she wil do what you want to her but she may ask for a bit of money after"
"girl C: she is free but you have to romance her abit first, you know get her talking"

now your probably trying to pick a b or c. you probably already have picked one. and not even been worrying as much about why im offering you the girls as your first thought

getting better, but there are a million and one ways to write a letter, each with their flaws..



merchant fee's should be changed to 'service charges'.. because its 'services' like bitpay that charge..

and the bit about money transfers from customer to merchant if your advertising bitpay then the bitcoin is transferring to bitpay not the merchant.

change our to their.. as it sounds like credit card company's charge alot to keep our bitcoin secure, especially when you introduced yourself as the bitcoin community..

when i got a spare half our ill dig around for my old letters i sent out or ill write a full letter

quick edit

As a loyal customer of yours I am writing to ask if you have ever looked into the growing number of businesses now accepting Bitcoin currency. We all know credit card companies spend lots of money to keep their system secure, so they have high service fee’s. Yet because Bitcoin’s uniqueness is secured by its very nature, meaning there is little to no fee.

You can accept and process bitcoin currency yourself very easily and have no fee’s because your setting the pricing and manually converting to local currency, or you can use merchant services to automate the whole process which charge a lot less than credit card companies do. Thats just one of the freedoms the bitcoin currency offers, choice.

By accepting Bitcoins, like a number of big companies such as Dell, Dish, Expedia, as well as thousands of small businesses already have. You’ll enjoy Bitcoin’s ease of use, little to no costs, no chargebacks and the sheer publicity of accepting it.

The invention of Bitcoin, much like the invention of the Internet itself, is a revolution - both economically and socially.  It puts merchants and consumers in direct control of their money.  And you can play a vital role in this revolution simply by accepting Bitcoins!  You’ll save a lot of money and cater to a growing consumer base.  I look forward to you accepting Bitcoin at [Business Name] soon, because I look forward to buy more things from you.  Below are some helpful links if you’d like to learn more!


1. i changed 'Bitcoin' into bitcoin currency, to make it sound less like a centralised company brand and more like a open-use currency
2. i added the manual payment option and the choice of services to not seem like a one way street and allow the merchant choices
3. i wrote it to sound like a request from a loyal customer as if accepting bitcoin hewill get more sells. also making it sound less 'cold caller sales pitchy'
4. i removed the 'hope you'll consider' and used 'look forward to you accepting' as it sounds like you (the writer) trust bitcoins more