Search

Actually, that's not as clear as it could be, is it? Perhaps
I can do better. O.K., know this: In most publications, the
editorial content gets 5 times as much readership as the
advertising content.

Now, what does this mean on a practical basis? Simply this:
It means that your ads should, as much as possible, have an…

(Better stop here and go call Blade and then go to "work".
Maybe I'll get to rake the sand again today!)

Let's talk a bit more about the "look" of your ads and DM
pieces. As I said, they should look (the ads) "editorial".
However, they should not look like just any old editorial
piece of writing. No…

Here is a way to think about it: Imagine that you have
written a book that you want to become a best seller. What's
the best thing that could happen? Well, how about this?
Suppose a guy who works as a reporter for the L.A. Times
gets a copy of your book and reads it and falls in…

Now, let us further imagine that this reporter likes your
book so much that he writes a full page article about our
book and tells all his readers how wonderful this book is
and why they should buy a copy. Wouldn't that be great? You
bet!

And, just to sweeten things up even more, let us suppose
that at the end of this "Rave Review" he tells his readers
how to get a copy by mail. He tells them how much it costs,
where to send the check or money order and who the payment
should made out to!

Wow! How about that! A full page rave review that makes the
reader desire the book and then tells him where and how to
get it!

Now my son, listen and listen closely. Whenever you write an
ad it should look, in so far as possible, exactly like a
rave review written by a reporter.

It should have the look of an exciting news flash.

Here's something else. You know, whenever I want to study ad
layouts, I often study editorial layouts instead.

How do we apply all this to direct mail? O.K., what would
that reporter do if he wanted one of his friends in Hawaii
to buy your book? The answer…

And, perhaps he would even include a snapshot of the book so
his friend would know what to look for in case he wanted to
go to a bookstore to get the book. This would be one hell of
a sales pitch, wouldn't it? You bet it would and that's how
your DM letters should look.

Here is a true story. Once upon a time I wrote a letter to
sell a product I dreamed up which was a family name research
report. This little report would give you a short history of
your family name and it contained a black and white drawing
of the earliest known coat-of-arms (family crest) ever to be…

As you are aware, this became one of the most successful
sales letters in history. In fact, this simple one page
361-word letter generated more than seven million (actually
7,156,000) cash with order customers.

Not bad, eh? But listen to what happened next! Obviously, we
wanted to sell these research report buyers other products
and the logical course of action was to send them a catalog
showing a bunch of products they could get that would
display (in full heraldic colors!) their family crest.

Sound good to you? It sounded great to me. So, what I
did is I went off on a camping trip by myself and there, all
alone in the woods, I created a 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 four color
catalog which featured about 70 attractive items that could
be ordered personalized with my customer's family crest…

It bombed.

It didn't even return our mailing costs! So, what next?
Well, at that point, what I did is I took the 3 best selling
items in the catalog and I put together an 8-1/2 x 11
brochure that featured only 3 items.

It did only slightly better than break even.

What?

Groan. What to do, what to do?

Here's what I did then: I wrote a very personal sales letter
and I enclosed a snapshot of the best selling of the three
items in the brochure. The opening of the letter went like
this:

Dear Mr. Noble,

I
thought you might like to see what the Noble
coat-of-arms looks like in full color so I am
sending you the enclosed snapshot.

Etc., blah, blah, blah, etc.

40 Million Dollars!

That's right kiddo. That letter brought in 40 mil while my
other "more professional" attempts fell flat on their rears.

What's the moral here? The moral is YOU CAN DO A BETTER
SELLING JOB WHEN AT FIRST IT DOES NOT APPEAR YOU ARE
ATTEMPTING TO DO A SALES JOB.

And, when I come back, the subject of my next teaching will
be the importance of the fact that "YOU NEVER GET A
SECOND CHANCE TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION…

# Boron - Chapter 19

The Boron Letters - Chapter 19

Saturday, 9:27 AM

June 30, 1984

Dear Bond,

Today, as I promised, our subject will be "You Never Get A
Second Chance To Make A First Impression."

Listen to this: When a person goes for a job interview, the
interviewer decides whether or not to hire that person in
the first 40-seconds.

And this: In a jury trial, the members of the jury make up
their minds as to whether the accused is guilty or innocent
during the first half hour or so (during the opening…

And this: When a person falls in love it happens almost
instantaneously. After that, minor things like the truth
about the newly beloved are cast aside unless those "truths"
happen to reinforce the wonderfulness of said love subject.

And this: You either hook a reader or lose him when he very
first looks at your ad or DM piece. Not when he reads it,
but when he first looks at it.

Now, of course, this rule is not 100% accurate. Sometimes a
person will suddenly fall in love with a person he or she
has known for years…