The Boron Letters - Chapter 16

Wednesday, 9:09 AM

June 27, 1984

Dear Bond,

AIDA. As I said yesterday, it stands for attention, interest, desire, and action.

Now, let’s talk about each of these four formula elements and how we will use them in our sales letter.

Attention comes first. Naturally, we must get our readers attention before he can become interested in and desirous of our offer. Getting attention is CRUCIAL. If you don’t get it, your letter or advertisement will never be read. That’s why I like to attach things to the top of my DM letters. I have attached coins, dollar bills, 2-dollar bills, Japanese “pennies”, Mexican pesos etc. and there gimmicks has always gotten a lot of attention.

However, as I told you before, you must get the right kind of attention. If not, your reader will be insulted and angry and probably won’t become a customer. So, always remember that your attention grabber needs to be relevant. It needs to tie in naturally with your letter.

Now, as we have discussed, we have decided to attach a plastic baggie filled with sand to the letter we are going to use to sell our report on real estate investing.

There’s no doubt that this technique will get our reader’s attention. It will really make him sit up and take notice. It will be the right kind of attention too. Because it is relevant. It has a natural tie in with the story our letter has to tell. Actually, we have, as you will recall, more or less written this part of the letter in an earlier lesson.

OK now, we have got attention and our first few paragraphs have made a natural tie in with our “attention grabber.” So, what’s next? Well, referring right back to our AIDA formula we see that the next thing we need to do (after getting his attention) is catch his interest.

How do we do this? Well, let’s start by feeding him interesting facts. Like how much money there is to be made by investing in Maui real estate. By telling how much sand (cubic tons) is on the beach where we got the sand in that baggie. By telling how this is one of the best beach front investment opportunities in Maui. By telling how many pretty girls there are around. By telling the specific kinds of fish you can catch right off the beach etc.

OK, now after we have told him a lot of interesting facts our AIDA formula now tells us we should now arouse his desire.

Well, Bondo Dog, things get curiouser and curiouser. I just got fired from my job. I’ll tell you the story when you visit; there’s really not much to say and it’s kind of boring so let’s get back to our letter.

So, meanwhile back at the ranch I believe we were talking about how to create desire and, as I was saying, here’s how we do that: What we do to create desire is we describe the benefits our prospect gets if he buys our product or service. Now, in the case of an investment orientated offer what we have to offer is the prospect of making money. At least this is our main attraction. So, what's let's do is let’s help him to picture in his mind the benefits of having more money. Don’t think it’s not necessary. Remember, you must always do even the obvious. Here then, are some benefits of having more money:

New car - impress your friends and family, ride in comfort and luxury

Nice house - comfort, luxury, and status

Peace of mind - no worries about bills or financial emergencies

Vacations - money lets you travel the world, go where you want when you want

Attract the opposite sex - money, as any fool knows, makes you much more attractive to the opposite sex - it gives you more opportunities to meet them in nice places also

Leisure time - money buys time: perhaps the best reason of all for having fun goes

Alright kiddo, we’ve got his attention, we’ve got him interested, created desire and now what’s left? Go back to our AIDA formula and you will see that that last “A” stands for action. And that’s just what we’ve got to get, action! Action in the form of him sending us an order.

You should pay very close attention to how I get action in my MD and DM pitches. I do this better than anybody. I am very thorough when it comes to closing a sale. Here’s a little of example of how I do it. “Would you like to get in on this great investment opportunity? Would you like to be one of the privileged few who actually own a piece of the finest beach in Maui? If so, it’s easy to order. All you have to do is fill out the order coupon and send it to me with your payment, etc., etc.”

One thing I want to stress is that you must be very clear, very specific about what you want him to do. Lead him by the hand and take him exactly where you want him to go. Tell him where the order coupon is. Tell him to fill it out. Tell him to enclose the payment. Tell him how much to send. Tell him who the checks and money orders should be made out to. Tell him to use the envelope. Tell him the envelope doesn't need a stamp. (If it doesn’t.) Tell him to put the envelope in the mail.

And, above all, tell him to do all this RIGHT NOW! TODAY!

Tell him what he will get if he hurries and tell him what he will lose if he delays.

Seriously, Bond, you should read my ads and DM pieces and pay particular attention to how I close the sales. Sometimes I devote as 25% or more of the entire ad to closing.

This, of course, has been just a few “starter ideas” on how to create a DM promotion. As I keep saying, I’m just warming up and will get more detailed later.

In the next couple days or so, I intend to send you Eric’s sales letter and I want you to read it and then see if you can see how everything I taught you in the last few days would make his letter more effective.

But, in the meantime, I have an assignment for you. Here’s what I want you to do: what I want you to do is get a copy of the facelift ad and then sit down and copy it in your own handwriting. I want you to write it out just the way you would if you were going to take it to a secretarial service to have it typed. By the way, check with B on this and he’ll tell you what format your hand written copy should be in.

And guess what? After you have completed this assignment I will explain why I am having you do this and how it will help you.

I Love You And Good Luck!

Dad

P.S. I heard you got your driver’s license! I’m very proud of you!