The Boron Letters Read online

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  The Boron Letters

  Chapter 5

  Saturday, 10:02 a.m.

  June 16, 1984

  Dear Bond,

  How's my favorite youngest son? I'm sitting here waiting for the phone and I decided to start writing so let's push forward.

  Today, we are going to get started on the subject of how to make money. Usually, when someone asks me what is the #1 big secret to making money I tell them they should get involved in whatever excites them the most.

  This is good advice. Money, in my opinion, especially big money, is most often a by-product of enthusiasm. If a person, secretly in his heart, wants to be an architect, he shouldn't go into selling real estate, for example, just because he has heard that that is where the money is.

  The money is where the enthusiasm is. Please remember this! Remember it also, when, in the future, you need to hire someone. Always look for the most enthusiastic person, not necessarily the most qualified.

  When it comes to making money, attitude is the most important thing of all. That's why you are so appreciated at Advanced Management. You have exactly the kind of attitude that a sharp employer looks for. So remember all this and when it is your turn

  STOP APPROX 10:11

  START AGAIN

  10:27

  to hire someone. Usually, Bond, when I discuss making money with someone, I spend a lot more time on attitude because it is so important. But you already have a great attitude so I'll save any further discussion for later.

  Also, you already seem to have a natural talent and enthusiasm for direct marketing so I am going to directly proceed to that area.

  Now, pay attention. The very first thing you must come to realize is that you must become a "student of markets". Not products. Not techniques. Not copywriting. Not how to buy space or whatever. Now, of course, all of these things are important and you must learn about them, but, the first and the most important thing you must learn is what people want to buy.

  And it's easy. You see, the way to deduce what people want to buy is to simply observe what they DO buy!

  It's as simple as that. But be careful. You want to know what people actually DO buy, not what they SAY they buy.

  Here's a true story. Once upon a time a beer company did a survey to find out which of their products customers preferred and you know what? To their astonishment they found that 80% or so of the people they surveyed preferred their premium beer as opposed to their regular beer.

  Why were they astonished? The answer is easy. You see, their sales figures were showing that most people bought their regular beer and NOT the premium.

  What's going on here? Well, for one thing, it is very common. You see, the surveyed people were trying to give the "right" answer and so they put down as an answer the beer they felt they SHOULD DRINK.

  It happens all the time. But pity any poor fool who decides to go into the brewery business based on this kind of erroneous marketing information.

  Here's another example of how people struggle to give the "right" answer. How many people do you know who read the "National Enquirer"? Not many huh? Almost everybody I talk with really puts down the "Enquirer". (Even here in Boron) But guess what? The "National Enquirer" is the largest selling newspaper in the world - BY FAR!

  Yet nobody reads it. At least not here on earth. It must be all those Martians.

  What do people read? I'll bet if you took a survey you would discover that the most read book of all is the Bible.

  It's just not true. Hardly anyone (percentage wise) has actually read the Bible. A lot of people own a Bible, a lot of people DISPLAY their Bibles, some people are given to swearing on a Bible but damn-few people have actually READ the Bible.

  And who can blame them? The Bible is repetitive, hard-to-read and most of it is deadly boring.

  Yet people feel guilty and, in their attempt to give the RIGHT answer, they will say (and often convince themselves) that the Bible is their favorite reading material.

  You want to know what some people would consider a sickening statistic? Here it is: MORE PEOPLE READ THE "NATIONAL ENQUIRER" IN ONE SINGLE WEEK THAN HAVE EVER READ THE BIBLE IN THE LAST 2,000 YEARS!

  Sorry. But that's the way it is. And, if you want to be a top notch marketing man you have to know how it is. How it really is. Not how people (or you) wish it was or how they think it is. No. You must become a "student of reality".

  How do you find out what people actually buy? And, more particularly, how do you find out what they buy via direct response? The "SRDS Direct Mail List Book". Then what you should do is turn to the CONSUMER LISTS section and just start reading. It will be quite an adventure. You should pay special attention to the numbers involved and the descriptions of the lists.

  Let's see if I can find an example. Aha! Here are a few that look very interesting under section 561 which is the classification for INVESTORS.

  Diamond And Ruby Buyers

  Description: Investment counselors,

  brokers, dealers and individuals

  who have purchased diamonds and rubies.

  average unit of sale = $5,000.00

  quantity = 3,979

  Wow! Let's think about this for a minute. Here are almost 4,000 people who, according to this information have spent an average of $5,000.00 to buy diamonds and rubies. Let's see now... $5,000 apiece times 4,000 buyers equals - uh 20 MILLION DOLLARS!

  Think about it. What else would they be likely to buy? How about more of the same? (That's usually a good bet.) Maybe (probably) they'd be receptive to a hot new diamond offer.

  Hmn?

  Here's another:

  Diamond Buyers And Enquirers

  Description: People who purchased

  or inquired about purchasing

  diamonds. 60% buyers.

  Average unit of sale = $5,000.00

  (always pay special attention to the average unit of sale - the higher the better!)

  Quantity = 52,000

  Let's do the numbers on this one:

  52,000 x 60% buyers = 31,200 actual buyers... and...

  31,200 buyers x $5,000 comes to:

  ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY SIX

  MILLION DOLLARS

  Hot damn! Figures like that will get your greed glands going won't they?

  Stop 11:30

  More later.

  I Love You and

  Good Luck!

  Dad

  P.S. Believe it or not, I didn't know about the above lists until just now. I really and truly turned to them totally by accident. Isn't that something?

  UPDATE:

  The SRDS is still a great tool and has an online division but I’d like to make the case that space ads and direct mail pieces enjoy little competition and great pricing.

  With everyone looking for free exposure and JVs, it’s often the guys who invest actual money who make the big bucks and they don’t brag about it either.

  Anyway, you can contact the SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Service) online at:

  http://next.srds.com/home

  more free letters at halbertising.com

  The Boron Letters

  Chapter 6

  Sunday, 10:16 a.m.

  June 17, 1984

  Dear Bond,

  No messing around. I'm going to dive right back into the subject of becoming a "student of markets".

  As you know, once in a while I give a class on copywriting and/or selling by mail. One of the questions I like to ask my students is: "If you and I both owned a hamburger stand and we were in a contest to see who would sell the most hamburgers, what advantages would you most like to have on your side?"

  The answers vary. Some people say they would like to have the advantage of having superior meat from which to make their hamburgers. Others say they want sesame seed buns. Others mention location. Someone usually wants to be able to offer the lowest prices.

  And so on.

  Anyway, after my students are finished telling wh
at advantages they would most like to have I say to them: "O.K., I'll give you every single advantage you asked for. I, myself, only want one advantage and, if you will give it to me, I will whip the pants off of all of you when it comes to selling burgers!"

  "What advantage do you want?" they ask.

  "The only advantage I want," I reply, "is A STARVING CROWD!"

  What I am trying to teach you here is to constantly be on the look out for groups of people (markets) who have demonstrated that they are starving (or at least hungry!) for some particular product or service.

  How do you measure this hunger? Well, fortunately, if you are working with mailing lists, it is rather easy. Let's take an example: Suppose you want to sell a book on how to invest money and you have created a direct mail promotion designed to sell this book. Who do you mail your promotion to? Here are some possibilities:

  Possibility #1 - We could mail it to people whose names and address we get right out of a telephone book.

  Comments: This is a terrible idea. There are too many non-prospects in this kind of group. The only thing in common that people in the phone book have is that they all have a phone. Some of the people won't have any money to invest. Some of them never purchase anything by mail. Some of them are too busy (or uninterested) to even read your letter. Some of them don't even know how to read! In short there is too much waste circulation. This is like shooting with a shotgun instead of a rifle.

  Onward.

  Possibility #2 - We could mail our promotion to people whose names and addresses we get from a phone book but only to those people who live in high income areas.

  Comments: This is a little better, but not nearly good enough. High income areas are, incidentally, easy to identify because several companies have compiled statistics on every zip code in the United States and they can tell you with great accuracy the average income per person in each zip code. They can also, by the way, tell you the average education level; average age, how much they spend on automobiles and a bunch of other stuff.

  However, as I said, this still isn't nearly good enough. For one thing, not everybody who lives in a high-income area has a high income. Some of these people might be the maids or gardeners or some other type of servant. (Come to think of it, I'm not so sure that quite a few gardeners aren't wealthy.) Some of these people may have money but are not interested in investing. Some of them may always buy books from a bookstore and never by mail. Some of these people can't read English. (There are more and more rich foreigners in our country.) Some of them may have money to invest but are only interested in investing in areas in which they already have expertise.

  Whatever. Once again we are shooting with a shotgun instead of a rifle. Once again, too much waste circulation.

  Let's see if we can do a little better.

  Possibility #3 - We could mail our piece to a group of people that we are relatively sure have above average incomes. Like doctors. Lawyers. Architects. Top executives. Accountants. Owners of expensive homes. Owners of Rolls Royce automobiles.

  And so on.

  Comments: Not bad. We are now getting into areas where we at least have a chance.

  STOP

  11:01 AM

  START AGAIN

  6:52 PM

  At least we are relatively sure that most of these people have a high enough income to maybe be interested in investing. Whether they are interested or not, we can't know, but at least, if they are, they probably have the ability to do some investing. This group of people is certainly more likely to respond to our pitch than the first two groups but, as you shall see, we can do a lot better.

  Possibility #4 - We could mail our promotion to a list of upper income people who are proven mail order buyers. Buyers of what, you ask? Actually, for the purposes of selling by mail, it is generally true that mail order buyers of anything are better than almost any group of non-mail order buyers. And, in this case, we have added the extra qualifications that they must be wealthy mail order buyers.

  Comments: Now we are getting down to business. This is the first group I have described that gives us a reasonable shot at success. Not bad. Not bad at all. But now, let's stop fooling around and go for the hill!

  Possibility #5 - We could mail our promotion to a group of wealthy people who have ordered some other investment book by mail.

  Comments: Bingo! Now we're cooking. What could be better? They are upper income. They are mail order buyers. And, they have purchased BY MAIL a product similar to ours. What could be better? This is just about as "hot" of a list as we can get! Or is it? Actually, it is not. Let's keep trying.

  Possibility #6 - We could mail our promotion to a list of wealthy people who have purchased (by mail) a product similar to ours - several times!

  Comments: Yeah! Now we're cooking! Just imagine. They're MO buyers. They're wealthy! They've purchased (by mail) a product similar to ours. AND they are repeat buyers of this type of product. How sweet it is! Can it get any sweeter? Yes, dear Son, it can! Read on.

  Possibility #7 - We could mail our promotion to a list of wealthy people who have purchased (by mail) a product similar to ours - several times AND WHO HAVE PAID BIG MONEY FOR WHAT THEY BOUGHT.

  Comments: Goody. These people are very close to the "crème de la crème" of lists we can mail to. But wait! Why do I say they are "very close" to the best? After all, what more could we ask for? Hold on! We're not done yet.

  But not quite. Just keep reading.

  Possibility #8 - We could mail our promotion to a list of wealthy people who have purchased (by mail) a product similar to ours - and who have done so repeatedly - and who have paid big money for what they purchased - AND WHO HAVE VERY RECENTLY MADE SUCH A PURCHASE!

  Comments: This is almost as good a list as we can get. It is certainly the best list we are likely to be able to rent.

  But not quite. Just keep reading.

  Possibility #9 - We could mail our promotion to a list of people who have all the characteristics of possibility #8 AND WHO OUR FRIENDLY LIST BROKER TELLS US IS WORKING LIKE CRAZY FOR OTHER MAILERS WITH PROMOTIONS SIMILAR TO OURS.

  Comments: For a variety of reasons, many lists that should work don't. Who knows why? It really doesn't matter why. What matters is that a list is or is not

  STOP

  7:25

  START AGAIN

  8:34

  responsive. And the best way to know what lists are hot is to have a good relationship with a good honest broker. In fact, if you have a good relationship with a good broker one of the things he will do (because it is to his financial advantage) is to keep an eye out for hot lists that are likely to work for your offers. And now, with this last list we have finally and truly identified the best list you can mail to.

  Almost.

  Yep. We can still do better!

  Possibility #10 - There is one group of people who will respond even better than all the other 9 groups I have described. Can you guess what list this will be? Think about it a minute and then turn the page for the answer.

  THE BEST LIST OF ALL IS

  YOUR OWN CUSTOMER LIST!

  Comments: All other things being equal, your own customers should respond far better than any other list you can get. Of course there is one caveat. THEY MUST BE SATISFIED CUSTOMERS!

  That's it for now.

  I Love You and

  Good Luck!

  Dad

  8:43 PM

  UPDATE:

  It’s true you can get decent gains by tweaking various aspects of your sales funnel and even though little changes can lead to big profits, nothing will add to your bottom line as fast as selling something new to your existing customers and sourcing new prospects.

  Having something to upsell customers will always beat trying to make your website look fresh and upgrading to 3d buy buttons.

  The numbers show little tweaks do make a difference but they show there is far more money in adding to your product line and creating backend offers which Gary will discuss a little lat
er in letters.

  more free letters at halbertising.com

  The Boron Letters

  Chapter 7

  Monday, 10:30 AM

  June 18, 1984

  Dear Bond,

  Let's get right back into the subject of becoming a student of markets, especially mailing lists.

  My last letter gave you a beginning insight into what makes a list more responsive. Let's review a few conclusions we came to based on the data in yesterday's letter. You will remember, of course, that I said that, as a general rule, any list of proven mail order buyers will out perform any list of non-buyers.

  Now, as another general rule, there are three main guidelines you can rely on when you are picking lists to test.

  STOP 10:35

  START AGAIN

  10:36

  These three guidelines are recency, frequency and unit of sale. A brief explanation follows:

  Recency - The more recently a person has purchased (by mail) something similar to what you are selling, the more receptive he will be to your offer. Get 'em while they're hot! In fact, always check to see if the list you are interested in has "hotline buyers" and see if you can rent them before anybody else. Hotline buyers are the most recent buyers of all. Sometimes they will be 90-day hotline buyers or even 30-day hotline buyers. These names are extremely good prospects!