Gary Halbert was a well-known and respected direct marketer and copywriter. He began his career before the invention of the internet. His method of communication was direct mail. He mailed to prospects’ homes and business offices. Despite this, Gary’s approaches and ideas work today just as effectively on the internet as they did in the direct mail. One of his most well-known promotional campaigns was the “Dollar Bill Letter.”
The letters were sent out via direct mail to his prospects who responded to a previous ad he published in the Wall Street Journal. Each letter contained an actual dollar bill attached to the top of the letter to catch people’s attention.
When they opened the letter, people were surprised and curious why he sent them money and read the letter.
You must agree that he knows how to get people’s attention?
This letter got a tremendous 90%+ response.
Here is the “Dollar Bill Letter”
- Please pay attention to how he started the letter
- See how he revealed his secrets with curiosity.
- How they stayed secrets to the end of the letter convincing the reader to buy his information package
- See how Gary chose his target audience wisely
- See his story where everyone can find themself in it.
- See the benefits, proof, and confidence in the letter.
Now be honest with you
Do you want to buy the package after you finish reading it?
So what is the main takeaway from his “Dolar Bill Letter”?
Your job as a marketer is to find a way to stand out from the competition.
You must know the product you promote better than the competition.
You must know its features and benefits.
Then, connect it with the strongest emotion.
Now you need to find a way to interrupt your readers with your headline, picture, or other media to catch their attention.
Then evoke curiosity in the copy.
And make readers want to read it to the end.
To accomplish that
Imagine your prospect in front of you. Think of your prospect as your friend and start imagination communication with him. You know their desires and pains and how your product can help them.
Now imagine
- What experience had your prospect with similar products before?
- Imagine the best and worst scenarios and think about their objections to buying your product.
- Did someone screw them in the past?
- Are they afraid it may happen again?
- Are they embarrassed to talk about their problems?
Do your research and see
- What do competitors offer?
- What do you offer better?
- How can you convince the reader that your product is better?
- And how can you do that uniquely and entertainingly to the end of the copy?
If you want to succeed, you must be doing something unique and new to stand out and capture the complete attention of potential customers. You have 3 seconds on the internet to catch readers’ attention. So many other products, messages, ads, copies compete for users’ attention, and everyone wants to be the one who wins.
So think about what can you do to make yourself stand out?
If you don’t find a way to surprise and amaze your prospects, you will be another name in the crowded market.
Think about the famous dollar bill letter when you write your next copy.