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# Boron - Chapter 15

The Boron Letters - Chapter 15

Tuesday, 9:09 AM

June 26, 1984

Dear Bond,

Happy
Birthday!

You know son, you are the joy of my life. I hope you pass
your driver’s test today. But, if you don’t, it’s ok, just
keep working on it till you do.

Yesterday, as you remember, we left off after discussing the
baggie and today, I think I need to begin to teach you the
particulars of how to write copy.

As you will note, we haven’t talked about writing copy as of
yet. What we have talked about mainly is the
“conceptualization” of our marketing effort. However, now
that we…

Here’s how to begin: The first thing you need to do is to
assemble a file that contains everything you can get your
hands on that is relevant to your promotion. Here are some
of the things that might be included in your file:

1) List cards describing the lists you are going to test

2) A copy of the report you intend to sell

3) Copies of DM pieces that other people have used to sell
products or services related to what you want to sell.

4) Copies of space ads that other people have used to sell
products or services related to what you want to sell.

5) Copies of books and reports on real estate investing.

6) Copies of exceptionally good ads and DM pieces, even if
they are not related to real estate.

7) A copy of that book I’m going to give you that contains
hundreds of headlines.

8) Anything else you can think of that might be an “idea
generator”.

OK now, after you have assembled all this stuff, what you
need to do is start reading and taking notes.

Now, here is a little quirk of mine: I have a special way of
taking these notes which, incidentally, I call “nugget
notes.”

You see, what I do is take my notes in the form of little
nuggets of information. When I am done the paper I have been
writing on looks like this:

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Remember this when you are taking these notes don’t stuff
yourself.

Sometimes, my nugget notes consist of just one word.
Sometimes they consist of meaningless phrases. Many times my
notes make sense but many times they don’t. No matter. I
never worry about it. I just keep writing. I write what
occurs…

Now here are a few things you should always include. A
complete description of your product including how many
pages, how many words, how many photos, who wrote it, facts
about the author (his age, background, success stories,
etc.). You should also take notes on what this product will
do for you. Will it make you wealthy? How will more…

OK now, after you have taken all these notes what I want
you to do is re-read the notes and the really good ones, put
a star * beside them. And the ones that are even better put
two stars next to them. And then, the red hot ones you
put three * or more stars beside them.

Now, at this point, what you need to do is stop working on
this project. That’s right. Just let it go. Put it right out
of your mind. Just go on about your other business for a day
or two.

Now then, often what happens during this time, is that an
outstanding sales idea will occur to you. Sometimes…

Bond, I got interrupted here. Two prison guards came over
and searched me and B. and told us to stay out of the little
park where we take our breaks. Apparently, some little kid
was caught smoking pot here yesterday.

Ah well, that’s life in the big city.

So let’s get started again. As I was saying, sometimes your
breakthrough idea or “aha experience” will be a way to get
attention like my baggie idea, or a new way to help the
prospect visualize the benefits of owning what you have to
sell, or a new order generating…

By formula I mean you should work within a proven sequential
outline like AIDA.

What does AIDA stand for? It stands for ATTENTION, INTEREST,
DESIRE, ACTION. So, to make it clearer your letter should:

1. First, get his attention

2. Second, get him interested

3. Third, make him desire what you are selling

4. Compel him to take whatever action is needed to get
whatever it is you are selling.

Tomorrow, we’ll go over this in more detail. But for today,
once again I want to wish you HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I love you…

# Boron - Chapter 16

The Boron Letters - Chapter 16

Wednesday, 9:09 AM

June 27, 1984

Dear Bond,

AIDA. As I said yesterday, it stands for attention,
interest, desire, and action.

Now, let’s talk about each of these four formula elements
and how we will use them in our sales letter.

Attention comes first. Naturally, we must get our readers
attention before he can become interested in and
desirous of our offer. Getting attention is CRUCIAL. If you
don’t get it, your letter or advertisement will never be
read. That’s why I like to attach things to the top of my DM
letters. I have attached coins, dollar bills…

However, as I told you before, you must get the
right kind of attention. If not, your reader will be
insulted and angry and probably won’t become a customer. So,
always remember that your attention grabber needs to be
relevant. It needs to tie in naturally with your
letter.

Now, as we have discussed, we have decided to attach a
plastic baggie filled with sand to the letter we are going
to use to sell our report on real estate investing.

There’s no doubt that this technique will get our reader’s
attention. It will really make him sit up and take notice.
It will be the right…