The Boron Letters: Chapter 6

Buckle up - this is a jam-packed essay. Gary Halbert’s Boron letters, chapter 6.

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.

In chapter 5, Gary set Bond, his son, straight on one thing.

If you want to get rich, follow your enthusiasm. If you’re passionate about architecture, don’t go into selling real estate just because you heard there’s money there.

Then we get a lesson in understanding the customer. Understanding what they want, not what they say they want. Big difference.

The customer might say they read the bible, but that’s just because they think that’s what they should say. In reality…they’re reading tabloids.

But that was all last time. This is chapter 6.

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

Gary asks his copywriting students what advantages they’d want if they were opening a burger joint.

Most answered strategically - location, quality of meat, prices.

Gary’s answer is simple: a starving crowd.

He'd beat out everyone else.

But...how do you measure hunger when it isn’t literal hunger?

Simple.

Gary walks us through 10 possible mailing lists we could use to sell a book on investing.

All with different levels of hunger.

Starting with the worst - a list of people we got from the telephone book. Working our way up to the second best - a list of wealthy people who buy from mailing lists, have paid a lot for it, and respond well.

The best list though? Your own customers. That is, of course, if they’re satisfied.

Let’s look at some takeaways.

Takeaways from Gary Halbert’s sixth Boron letter

Lead your reader to the right answer.

It'd be a boring letter if Gary said "Own your list of customers. It's better than any other list."

But he takes Bond on a journey - leading him through all the assumptions you'd make along the way.

It works because it's satisfying for the reader. They learned HOW to come to that conclusion instead of just...what the conclusion is.

Look for underserved markets full of desperate customers

The best place to start a business is one where the market is full of desperate, hungry customers.

They’ve got no alternative and they need something. They’re much more willing to part with their cash than others, and they’re more forgiving. 

When I was leaving Second City in Chicago and couldn't find a taxi. I didn’t even research another rideshare app. I needed a ride, so I used Uber. I was desperate.

Any market like this is a gold mine.

The best customer is the one you’ve already got a relationship with

Gary spends a crazy amount of time trying to show Bond the perfect list to send this investment book to.

“People in the phone book” is too vague. “Upper income earners who buy from mail order ads” is better, but who knows if they want investment advice?

Finally, we reach the “perfect” list, which has all these specific criteria. High earners, have bought from mail order before, bought expensive stuff, etc etc.

But the best list is the list you own. That trumps all the crazy optimization that we were trying to do earlier.

You know them, you’ve done the research, they’ve responded to you in the past, and they’re satisfied. Best of all, you don’t have to spend money to go get them.

Owning your audience in 2024 is more crucial than ever . Especially with AI making blogs and SEO less and less relevant.

Bonus

Writing is far more engaging when you add in little thoughts (like this one) to break up a sentence.

It breaks up the cadence a little. Keeps the reader engaged, too.

Until next time.