I have nothing to write today. So, I thought I should up anyway.
Mind you, there’s a book I read a few years ago, written by the legendary Gary Halbert. Most people have never heard of him, but his name keeps coming up in marketing circles. In 1975 he wrote a letter estimated to have grossed $2 billion by 2003. Yes, the revenue was generated over 28 years but who will give you $2 billion for writing a one-page letter?
Here it is.
The back story
The story behind this letter is even more fascinating. Gary was a student of copywriting. In case you don’t know, copywriting is the art of writing to sell. As another legend of copywriting, Claude Hopkins once wrote, copywriting is salesmanship in print. The logic is that a salesman goes knocking door to door to offer their product. Copywriting is multiplied salesmanship. It is a salesman who visits many more doors than a human could.
Gary, smelling fortunes, took up copywriting. But he was terrible at it. At one point, he used money intended for electricity, rent and gas for books and advertising. But he received zero feedback, rendering him and his wife destitute.
One afternoon, he asked himself: If I had a gun to my head, and I had to write a letter that sold or I would be shot dead, then what would I write? He browsed through the hundreds of letters and books he had read before. But there was no spark of genius. After all, he had tried everything he could without results.
A week or so later, he went to the Library to read more books on advertising. Then he saw a lady making coats of arms. It was a hobby for her. She spent weeks researching the history of surnames, writing summaries, and designing a coat of arms describing the history, which she sold for a few dollars. Gary’s eyes lit up because, as he said in one of his seminars, “Here was a great product poorly sold.”
He rushed back home and told his wife Nancy that they were starting a business selling coats of arms. That’s when he wrote this blockbuster letter.
The success was not overnight, one might think. They went through the telephone book at the time, found all the people with a certain surname, in a certain area, and then sent them copies of the letter. He received a 20% conversion rate, which more than covered his cost of mailing the letters and producing the coat of arms. Then he repeated the process with more people’s surnames over 28 years and in different areas and generated well over $2 billion.
This is a true story.
“Learn how to write because you are one letter away from your first million” Gary Halbert
In one of his seminars – you can look them up on Youtube – Gary famously said you are one letter away from your first million. These words stuck to me back in 2012 when I picked up copywriting, also out of necessity. I can testify that Gary was right about writing being a great source of income. But my journey was different from his, which I think is normal.
I did not make money selling products through copywriting. However, I built credibility by writing reports and proposals to win clients and create new partnerships. To this day, most people I have worked with know me for excellence in report and proposal writing. Some have also hired me to write on their behalf, including proposals to raise funds for their businesses. One gentleman in Midrand asked me to write a proposal that raised him R400,000 for his first restaurant. It’s called Perere. He recently opened his third restaurant in Durban.
I learned that contrary to what Gary Halbert said, copywriting will not make you millions on its own because it is impossible to sell a bad product. However, as Gary discovered at the library, there are many great ideas out there, but many of them die before they are even born because their bearers cannot articulate them – they cannot bring them to the world. This is where copywriting comes in.
Further, many mediocre products sell millions because they are sold well. One example is the McDonalds burger. I have never heard anybody say McDonalds makes the best burgers in town. However, everybody knows the slogan, “I’m Lovin it.”
I say, therefore, invest the time and learn how to write because your ideas (and those of others) have a far better chance of survival if you know how to share them. Also, every important sales process, be it a business you want to sell or a partnership you want to create, goes through some kind of proposal process. If you know how to write proposals, your chances of accomplishing your goals will multiply many times over.
Where to start in learning persuasive writing
Before I share where to start, I should add that copywriting has opened many other doors too. On one occasion I wrote a proposal to get into a rental agreement even though I was black-listed and did not have the six month’s proof of income they required. A letter solved the problem.
Recently, I was accepted at Wits University to study for a master’s degree in Applied Ethics. I have shared previously that my highest academic qualification is grade 12. So, I had to write a proposal and demonstrate that I was a masters level student. Beyond acceptance, I wrote another proposal to companies, one of whom confirmed yesterday that they would pay for my studies in a scholarship arrangement. These are all the results of writing.
Therefore, if you want your life to improve significantly, I say you should take writing seriously starting with buying the following books.
- Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins
- Confessions of an Advertising Man by David Ogilvy
- Alchemy by Rory Sutherland
- The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert
- Business Proposal Blueprint by Vusi Sindane
The last one is an e-book I wrote about 8 years ago while studying all these greats. It is my interpretation of everything I studied and a collection of experiments that worked for me. Also, some of the books above are classics, written in the mid-1900s when there was no internet, no email and no social media. I tried to extract their principles and offer modern applications in the proposal blueprint. Whenever you are ready, you can get the book here.
In closing (and a summary)
It was not my intention to write about copywriting today. As you saw in my opening statement, I had no clue what I was going to write about. Yet, here we are. Simply showing up is a fundamental key to succeeding at anything. Even when it’s hard or you have nothing to show up for. Just show up anyway. Showing up is its own reward.
Secondly, learn to write. I promise that writing is the greatest investment you will ever make to improve your quality of life both monetarily and in the enrichment of the mind.
Until next week.
Vusi Sindane
