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The Boron Letters: Chapter 12
A dozen. It’s time for Gary Halbert’s Boron letters, chapter 12.
Quick recap: he’s one of the most successful copywriters in history. He went to prison for mail fraud. While in prison, he wrote 26 letters to his son, teaching him everything he knew.
For Chapter 11, we obsessed over the perfect ad. Research. Digging through competition. Narrowing to the perfect niche.
Gary shows us this week that none of that matters. At all. Unless we get one thing right.
The packaging.
Don’t make the letter look like an ad. If it looks like an ad, no one will read it.
No teaser copy or company logos.
Instead, quality.
Handwritten address
No company on the return address
A real, first-class stamp
Oh, and the easiest way to get them to read the ad? Start them on that slippery slope.
He teases this by showing an example letter with a little plastic baggie full of dirt stapled to the top.
Wait, what’s this dirt for? Why is it sent to me? What could it mean?
“I better read this and find out" is what you’ll say.
And, to his point, this isn’t normal attention. It’s quality attention.
But that was all last week. This time, it’s chapter 12.
Before we get to the summary and the takeaways, as always, take out a pen and paper and write the letter out by hand.
TL;DR of the letter
It’s the little details.
That’s what made Gary rich.
He starts off by getting right to business. Making letters more personal leads to better open rates and better read rates.
He describes exactly where he is as he’s writing this:
“For example, right now I am sitting cross-legged on my back here in room 7 of dorm 6 in the Boron Federal Prison Camp. I have just finished running the hill five times (4-miles) and I did it in 57 minutes and 5 seconds.”
It’s these small things like putting the date and time above the salutation. Addressing the recipient by name.
Finally, he talks about friction.
Lowering it as much as possible for the reader. One point of friction?
The stamp.
Don’t make them pay for it if you’re selling a high ticket item. He does the math, and you’ll still come out on top even if you do pay for stamps for everyone.
Let’s see what we learned.
Takeaways from Gary Halbert’s twelfth Boron letter
Make your writing personal. One to one.
Some people write like they’re giving a TED talk. Or they’re talking to a whole stadium.
Readers don’t want to feel that way. They want to feel like they’re talking to their friend over a drink. More personal. Less…formal.
Gary slips in little details and quips to get this done.
In the letter, he talks about adding small details. The time of day and day of the week. What he’s doing, the room he’s in. But he also starts things personally. “Dear Bond.”
Notice he’s talking like he’d have a conversation. So many rhetorical questions. Study this carefully:
Do you see how this type of personal specific info bonds the reader and writer closer together? You do? Good. I'll continue.
Amateurs say that’s extra words. Why ask a question and act like he heard an answer?
Pros see it’s strengthening that personal connection. It’s how he’d talk to Bond in real life. And it works.
Picks up where he left off
Nobody likes being fooled.
Last letter he ended on a cliffhanger. He could have started this letter with something completely different.
No, he knew Bond was curious. So he jumped right back into it from the start.
Don’t mess around with your readers. They’re smarter than that.
Until next time.