If Your Life Counted On One Letter…

A man you probably never hear of is dead.

Not to worry. Age and a life spent living will do that to us all eventually. And this guy’s been dead for a number of years. But before he parted he left us with a few clues on how to really make it in advertising and selling. He was one of the greats.

His name was Gary Halbert. He produced two sons – Bond and Kevin – who today carry on his tradition of producing outrageously successful sales copy.

That ought to tell you something about the caliber of the man. Not only was HE successful, but he had systems for succeeding that inspired and carried his sons to fortune as well. Not to mention the many companies he worked for over his long and colourful career as an Ad Man.

He died April 8th, 2007. The King is dead. Long Live the King.

The most profound offering he made to your business (In my humble opinion) is the mind blowing question he posed to get peoples gears crunching around how to structure a direct mail piece.

The exact words elude me a little and I have to admit to a little laziness. I have it somewhere in the shelves to my left. But I reckon I can share the juice with you without getting it word perfect.

His question was…

See… far too many businesses just send out graphically great looking drivel because they know they have to send out something to get customers to come in. But rarely do they approach the task of advertising using the “Gun To The Head Method”. Like their whole future depends on producing that result. When humans (probably any warm blooded creature for that matter) approach a task or a moment like it’s their last chance at breathing – that’s when we cause miracles.

So what would you do?

It’s going to take some critical thought. You need to examine every step of the process AT THE OTHER END.

• What will get the recipients attention?
• What will make them open the letter?
• What will force them to start reading the letter?
• What will make them read the whole letter?
• What will make them take action immediately?

To answer those questions you need to understand a great deal about people in general, and you need to know a great deal about the specific person you are sending the piece to.

And that’s when you and I start sweating. Because we naturally want to get out of such a complex situation with excuses like

• But I can’t know everything about every one of my customers
• I’m not a mind reader
• It’s a numbers game. I can’t force people to do something they don’t want to do
• bla bla bla

It’s Ok. I do stuff like that. I try to weasel my way out of difficult situations too. And every one of the above statements is true. But if you are entertaining thoughts like that, you have not yet peered down the barrel of a gun.

Fortunately the answer is much closer to home and much simpler than it seems.

Here’s another two questions to bring it home for you as quick as possible.

When was the last time you didn’t read a hand addressed, hand stamped, hand written letter sent by first class mail by someone who openly and expressly cares deeply about you?

And don’t you only ever act on things which are of fundamental importance to you? No matter how twisted your thoughts around it may get?

So the answer to getting ads and letters responded to is

• have them stand out from the pile
• make it personal
• make it about something important to the reader

… and then there’s the last one.

Make it time bound. Which sounds a bit like “if you don’t act now the world will end…” Maybe not that extreme (in all cases) but you get the point. There has to be a legitimate reason to act (buy) immediately. Otherwise it gets put on the back burner and eventually forgotten.

So yeah. It takes some thinking and it takes some effort. Nothing worth while – which produces desired results – doesn’t.

BUT…

If you can’t do all the research required or you can’t craft a persuasive letter yourself, you need to do one of two things. Learn how to do it yourself, get someone else who can, Or Die.

I’m a big fan of outsourcing. Mostly because I’m someone you could outsource those tasks to. And I do want your money. Just telling like it is.

But you also need to know when you’ve got someone who can produce the result. You’ll know you’re on the money when you’ve got someone who willingly and routinely sweats bullets over the work they produce.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a letter to write and I’ve got a gun to my head.

Remain Awesome.

Scott Junner
The Unlikely Ad Man.

P.S. I never said you had to hand write every copy of every promotional or sales piece you write. It’s just worth noting that you always read the post card from Grandma.

P.P.S The letter in the image at the top of the page was written by Baseball player Jackie Robinson to the US President Eisenhower in 1958 urging the President to take immediate action on black rights.