This article is in continuation to 100 Lessons from “The Boron Letters” by Gary Halbert. You can read the first part here!
Highly recommend reading the first part before continuing as it gives you the necessary background to read this part, but if you don’t want to, here’s the short version:
The Boron letters are a series of letters sent by Gary Halbert, one of the best OG copywriters to his son, from prison (Boron Federal Prison, hence the name) where he attempted to teach is son everything he know about life and marketing.
I’ve read through these more than once, taken notes (furiously) and complied the best lessons from the Boron letters here. The first 50 lessons are in Part I. This is Part II.
Off we go:
51. You either hook a reader or lose him when he first looks at your AD or DM piece.
Not when he reads it, but when he actually looks at it.
Yes, it is possible that people may change your first impression about your AD or DM, but don’t count on it. Most of the time a person will never alter his first impression.
What does this mean for when you’re creating ADs/Promotional content?
Your AD or DM should give your prospect a life, it should cause his pupils to dilate as soon as he SEES it.
52. Random Life Lesson – Remember this word – HALT.
HALT stands for
- Hungry
- Angry
- Lonely
- Tired
Never make a decision when you’re any of these things.
53. If you’re going to use a second color in your letters to underline or highlight words you should use RED.
54. Gary H believed that most of our decisions about whether we like something or not…. are made in the first fraction of a second that we see something new.
We unconsciously spend the rest of our decision making time searching for justification to support the decision we’ve already made.
The “sale” or “no sale” decision is largely made the instant a prospect sees your ad and reads your headline.
If your prospect gets a lift from just looking at your AD, he will read – and he will look for reasons to convince himself that what you’re saying is true. All you have to do is not disappoint him and you have a really good chance of closing the sale
55. The best AD would look like a rave review written by a reporter.
55. You can do a better job selling when at first it does not appear you are attempting to do a sales job.
57. How do you make your promotional content such that the reader instantly likes it?
Couple of tips, straight from Gary:
- Your promotion should have a crisp look about it.
- The layout should be clean.
- There should be a lot of contrast.
- It should look easy and inviting to read.
- If you use pictures, they should generally be of an upbeat nature.
58. Women like to see pictures of women in ads and men like to see pictures of men.
(Note : I’m not so sure about this one, as using pictures of an attractive women almost always increases CTR, but hey! If Gary H says so, it’s worth mentioning.)
59. Your letterhead should be dignified and non distracting.
The type face should be sans serif – no funky fonts.
60. Random Life Lesson – Self reliance is the most satisfying thing in the world, and it is important to know that self reliance is the real motive of great businessmen and not money.
61. Whenever you feel out of inspiration or overwhelmed:
The idea is to just get it moving.
If you need to write and you aren’t able to – just take up a blank page and write whatever comes to mind. It doesn’t have to make sense – this garbage needs to clear your system so that what you write next is better. The “content” doesn’t matter – the “process” does.
Remember – you don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it moving! You can also try running, working out, meditiating etc.
62. When you’re offering a deal/promotion….
Tell them why you’re doing it – this makes you more believable.
Ex –
“I got new stock coming in so I’m selling you what I have at dirt cheap prices”
“I have to raise money for XX”
“I’m having a sale, since you have are good judge of art – I will give you this painting for half off – but only if you give me your opinion in writing, etc. “
Here, Gary H used a powerful example. He once wrote a letter to sell a family crest wall plaque. The letter, along with a photo of the crest, went something like this:
This little baby went on to make 40 million dollars in sales. Crazy, eh?
63. Read your copy out loud.
This way, you will verbally stumble over all the places that are not smooth.
Rewrite the rough spots and read it again. Repeat till it flows and you can read it without stumbling.
64. Random Life Lesson: When you depend on others you give yourself an excuse for failure.
65. Be human.
If you’re a beast that gets everything done 24*7 without ever taking a break, people just wont relate to you. If you feel a little unmotivated, or generally low energy…share it. Keep it real.
People who share both their highs and lows are far more believable than those who portray a picture perfect story. Influencers who share their unflattering photos develop cult like followings which root for them, relate to them, and buy from them
66. If you use good common sense, your chances of success are good. Where people go wrong is that they make things too complicated.
67. The single most common mistake in the Direct response business is finding or developing a product and then looking for a market to sell it to.
This is backwards.
You must first always find a market first, and then concentrate on a product!
A guy with a new product cannot always find a hot market for that product but a guy who has uncovered a HOT MARKET can always find a product to fill the needs of that market.
68. The best set of people to sell to – are your own customers.
Before running off trying to get more customers from cold traffic, ask yourself, can you sell something to your existing (happy) customers?
If your answer is no – you’re wrong.
69. This one is picked verbatim from the letters.
Yes. Gary H can write it better than I ever could. I know, I know. I’m as surprised as you are.
I suggest you read it more than once.
One of the questions I like to ask my students is: “If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and we were in a contest to see who would sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you most like to have on your side?”
The answers vary.
Some people say they would like to have the advantage of having superior meat from which to make their hamburgers. Others say they want sesame seed buns. Others mention location. Someone usually wants to be able to offer the lowest prices. And so on.
Anyway, after my students are finished telling what advantages they would most like to have I say to them: “O.K., I’ll give you every single advantage you asked for. I, myself, only want one advantage and, if you will give it to me, I will whip the pants off of all of you when it comes to selling burgers!”
“What advantage do you want?” they ask.
“The only advantage I want,” I reply, “is A STARVING CROWD!”
Think about it.
70. Random Life Lesson: You can’t always control what happens to you in life but you do have a lot of control over your responses.
71. Take writing like you talk to the next level.
Insert blurbs of actual spoken sentences like –
And then I though to myself “man this is really bad”
OR
ARRGHHH! My frustration got the best of me as slumped to the floor”
Basically – write sentences which people can hear in their head (in your voice)
72. This one is picked up verbatim from the Boron Letters too
(Seriously, Gary is taking over my article now! It starting to feel like this article is all about him! Sigh. Oh wait…)
On how to create impact through your promotion-
This was a first class letter that was designed to raise funds for a children’s hospital.
When the recipient opened the envelope he discovered a personal typed letter with a real honest-to-goodness dollar bill attached to it.
The copy explained that the writer wanted to donate a thousand dollars to a certain children’s hospital but that he realised that a thousand dollars wouldn’t go very far.
So, what he (the writer) had decided to do was divide his $1,000.00 contribution into 1,000 – one dollar bills and then mail these bills to 1,000 different people.
Now, he went on to say, what he hoped is that everybody who received one of these dollar bills would decide not to keep it and, instead, send it straight to the hospital with one or more dollars of their own.
Did it work? Oh my! It was probably the most effective direct mail promotion ever mailed. It got better than a 90% response and the people to whom it was mailed eventually contributed tens of millions of dollars!
73. Underline adjectives to make a point.
This method is a lot less tedious. You will lose so much weight with this!
74. Ask questions to involve the reader in your story.
They will start understanding you better.
Examples:
“What the hell was I supposed to do?”
“What would you have done in my place?”
” Have you ever felt this lost, this lonely?”
This tip works very well for writing engaging stories.
75. When you’re ending your email – tell them that its over.
Don’t just leave them sitting there awkwardly.
Say goodbye.
Say “that’s it for today” or something similar.
76. Random Life Lesson : Always be ready to catch a break. That’s how you catch them.
77. When you’re taking a break from emailing, posting, etc. letting your audience know is good idea.
You DO NOT want a situation when your audience expects content from you but doesn’t get it.
78. The more details you give, the more believable you are.
Any person interested in your product/services will want every minute detail. So give it to them. Missing out on a sale just because you failed to inform and educate your prospect enough is a REALLY stupid reason to miss a sale.
Instead of writing “most car owners” write 84% of car of owners. That makes you 90% more believable (Ha! See what I did there?)
You can rarely tell someone TOO MUCH about something they’re interested in. So don’t hold back.
79. The best copy is collated, not written. This goes to show how important research is. Your copy should ideally just be a collage of all of your research. Collect all the consumers-voice sentences you can find and put them together in a verified sequence – something like AIDA, or PAS, etc.
80. One key question you should be asking yourself is “How can I make ordering easier?”
Less friction, more sales.
81. Along with writing the time and date of writing your email/promotion for grounding, a good idea would be to tell the reader exactly what you’re doing at the time of writing. “I’m sitting here knee deep in my clothes, packing for my next trip” Paints quite a picture, doesn’t it?
82. The money is where the enthusiasm is. Please remember this!
Remember it also, when, in the future, you need to hire someone.
Always look for the most enthusiastic person, not necessarily the most qualified.
83. Random Life Lesson :Rely on your own strength, not someone else’s compassion
84. Make yourself a collection (a “swipe file”) of good ads and good DM pieces and read them and take notes.
Going through them for ideas is like starting the engine of your car – getting it ready to go.
(Side note: Visit this website: swiped.co)
85. Most of the best marketers are in the best markets — the starving markets. These are the markets which will never, ever lose their appetite.
Because no matter how many times people fail, they will try again (maybe differently)
The big 3 markets to keep in mind –
Health, wealth and relationships.
Remember this, no matter how many times people have failed, or have been burnt by these markets, they will ALWAYS try again.
Think about it – have you ever stopped wanting better health, more money, better relationships? Yeah. Me too.
86. The deal, the offer, the proposition you’re making is the heart and soul of great copywriting! If your offer does not resonate with your audience, no amount of copy, ADs or design skills can save you.
The best offers? They’re the easiest to sell.
Yeah, keep changing the colour of your BUY NOW button all you want. It ain’t doing a thing till you get your message-to-market match right.
87. Caring about your prospects makes your job 10x easier. If you’re writing a promotion/letter/ AD for a really boring market, this should make it a little better (Think Dentists)
88. Random Life Lesson: Winners revise their plans over and over and constantly reassess.
89. How to create the ultimate piece of copy –
Will it be the one thing your reader sees today, clicks on it, becomes more and more engrossed as he reads it, gives him hope, makes him feel like XX (your promise) is achievable, tell others how he “found” something amazing?
Can you imagine that happening to your prospect?
If not, back to the drawing board we go.
90. If you have contract with a client – set up a frequent payment schedule. It makes writing that (large) check easier for them.
Thing is, clients don’t feel like cutting a check…when they think they don’t need you (after you’ve given them the AD/promotion.
A frequent payment schedule could very well save your relationship with a client.
91. Bulleted lists make everything better.
A simple template to writing bullet lists “The fastest/simplest way to achieve XX without <objection>
92. Random Life Lesson : It doesn’t matter how much you learn, if you don’t use what you learn.
93. Easy way to make your copy NOT BORING – Stories.
Adding stories makes your copy go from selling – to being a good combination of educating and entertaining. Not to mention, it keeps the reader reading till they’re convinced (ha! caught you!)
Learn to tell THEIR story while telling your own.
94. Picked up verbatim from the letters :
Mail order (and all other) fortunes are made by men and women who know what’s going on in their fields. These are the people who stay up to date. They read the trade journals, they make sure they are on everybody else’s mailing list so they know what the competition is doing, they read all the “HOT” mail order publications, they keep their “SWIPE FILE” up to date, they read and reread the classic books written by the best people in the field, they have idea files that contain newspaper articles, notes of unusual info, hot new ideas, good layouts, unusual propositions, and so forth.
They also know who the leaders are in their respective fields and they communicate with these people on a regular basis.
You know, kiddo, quite often I am referred to as an advertising genius, the “best copywriter in the world” and so forth. Now, as you know, I would be the 1st person in the world to deny these claims but if I really am so good, there is at lest one reason for it that everybody misses. It is this: I Work Like Crazy!
95. Immediately talk about what’s in your headline.
Imagine you nearly dropping your phone clicking on a headline that excites you – and you scroll to find no mention of that anywhere 🙁
Sucks, eh?
There’s a reason someone came onto your page – they clicked on something that interested them. You better make sure it’s somewhere in there!
96. Using headlines that promise to tell you something others don’t want you to know will always work.
For example – no matter how good of a copywriter I am (in case you’re wondering, I’m pretty good) If there is a headline that says ” Here is the secret Gary Halbert doesn’t want you know to know” or ” Jennifer Aniston reveals how TF her skin looks so good” I’m clicking on that shit.
97. You can make your copy easier to read by the judicious use of parentheses – it will make the copy easier-to-read, easier to understand and provides a little “eye relief” for your reader
98. Going that little extra mile to add professionalism goes a long way in every aspect of marketing and the line keeps moving.
Just stay one step ahead.
Sweat the details.
That’s what it takes.
99. Enthusiasm makes work easy.
100. If it’s difficult to read – no one is going to read it.
And that’s an even 100!
I hope you enjoyed reading and learning 🙂
I will end this with one of the simplest, but most profound lessons from Gary Halbert, in his own words. If you take anything away from this blog post, let it be this:
“I never worry about it. I just keep writing.”
Until next time
Ash
Loved this post and want to check out Part I? Go here