The Boron Letters: Chapter 11

Lucky you. It’s time for Gary Halbert’s Boron letters, chapter 11.

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 10, the key is movement.

Gary had no idea how he was going to start his last letter. Or this one. He got going, and ideas came out. Instead of waiting for inspiration, he picked a direction and started moving. 

Next, some reading material

• Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

• The Robert Collier Letter Book by Robert Collier. 

• 2001 Headlines by Gary Halbert

• SuperBiz by Ben Juarez

Now, the process for making an ad is simple.

1. Look at all the mailing lists from the catalogue

2. For whatever subject you pick (e.g. real estate) pick 3 or 4 hot books on how to make money in that area.

3. Relentlessly find ads and direct marketing pieces about real estate investing. Read them and take notes.

4. Re-read the books he mentioned.

5. Narrow further. Target a profession in a market who wants to buy real estate. Not just "plumbers". Plumbers in San Jose.

6. Go back to the books from step 2 and condense the best ideas into the report you’re going to sell.

The amazing L.A. roadmap to real estate riches, he calls it.

But that was all last week. This time, it’s chapter 11.

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

We spent last time obsessing 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.

Let me explain.

He’s in the business of direct mail. Physical letters. And in his business, there are two “piles” for letters. An A pile and a B pile.

The A pile has everything personal. Letters from friends, relatives, etc. Everyone opens those. 100% click rate.

The B pile is the junk. Commercial messages. Solicitors. Fluff. You might take a look at one of these, maybe, if it looks interesting or if you’re bored.

You probably won’t.

So, the solution is simple.

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.

1. Handwritten address

2. No company on the return address

3. 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.

Let’s spot some takeaways.

Takeaways from Gary Halbert’s eleventh Boron letter

If you write it like a sales pitch, people will read it like a sales pitch

You mentally use A and B piles every day. Even if it isn’t physical mail. 

Tweets, newsletter posts, YouTube videos.

If it’s packaged like it’s selling me something, I’ll probably avoid it. It doesn’t feel personal or genuine.

Junk mail in any form brings on the “oh yuck” factor. Avoid it at all costs.

Stop writing like you’re selling something. Start writing like your words give value for free. Your click rates will improve.

Package it like it’s personal.

The slippery slope starts with curiosity

Gary is clever.

He uses this letter to inspire curiosity.

He mentions the little plastic bag filled with dirt, but doesn’t explain what it’s even for.

You’re interested. I’m interested. Bond is furious; he has to wait for the next letter. 

Writing for that slippery slope works best when you have the reader curious.

They want to find out for themselves. Can't wait to turn the page, to read that next sentence. Hanging on every word. You'd have to pry the words from their cold, dead hands.

Your metaphorical dirt bag has to have that effect.

Until next week.