A Infallible Formula To Sell Anything
A Infallible Formula to Sell Anything
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| A Infallible Formula To Sell Anything |
If you dedicate yourself to online marketing, you will surely be interested to know who Gary C. Halbert was.
Not a few professionals in the advertising world claim that Halbert (1938 - 2007) was one of the best copywriters and possibly the greatest expert in direct response marketing of the 20th century.
And you know what? After reading The Boron Letters (affiliate link) during this Holy Week - his masterpiece - I am inclined to think the same. And in the process, Halbert has become one of my heroes.
The Boron Letters is a collection of letters that Halbert - nicknamed "The Prince of Words" or "The Godfather of Direct Marketing" - wrote to his son Bond Halbert from prison where he was serving a sentence for a fraud case (it seems that he took his advertising campaigns too far, which does not mean we cannot learn a couple of interesting lessons from his extensive experience).
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In his book, Halbert reveals to his son the basics and some of the most effective tricks of direct marketing including how to write persuasive headlines and infallible content to sell virtually anything.
Index [ Hide Index ]
1 Aida
2 Capture Attention
3 Awakening Interest
4 Create Wish
5 Take Action
6 Conclusion
The phrase is attributed to Elias St. Elmo Lewis - a pioneer of the advertising world who coined it at the end of the 19th century - although it was later refined by other professionals in the sector to define the four steps that invariably lead to a purchase decision:
A = Attention
I = Awaken Interest
D = Create Desire
A = Take Action
Let's look at each of these steps in more detail ...
Catch attention
Halbert's formula begins by capturing the attention of our potential customer, and usually when we talk about online marketing this is done through a headline impossible to ignore (even an art in itself, as we discussed here).
In the pre-Internet advertising era dominated by the great geniuses of direct marketing, when the sale was made by sending traditional mail to segmented databases (similar to how e-mail marketing works today), Gary C. Halbert was a pioneer in attaching something physical to his shipments - such as a 1 dollar bill or a handful of sand from a real estate development - to capture the reader's attention.
This to attach handfuls of sand to our shipments is not easily replicable in the digital environment, but the principle is the same: to awaken the curiosity of our potential client and focus their senses on a specific point ...
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People give their attention to things that affect them directly, that attract them, or that are simply out of place (like the handful of sand), but the important thing is that whatever we use to capture the attention of our business prospect is directly related to the product or service that we are trying to sell - that is relevant within the context of the story that we are telling you - or otherwise we run the risk of feeling.
Wake up interest
The objective of capturing the potential customer's attention is to continue reading, and the objective of reading continues is to arouse interest in what we are offering; either a physical product or a digital one such as a course, a subscription to a service or online community or an electronic book.
Halbert suggests that the best way to awaken interest is by offering the user irrefutable facts and data about our product, for example, in the case of a book, how many pages it has, the number of illustrations, the topics covered, how many other users it has previously acquired, what have they thought ...
In this second phase, it is advisable to know our potential client deeply, understand their needs and possible objections in advance, and respond to each of them in our commercial action irrefutably.
Create Wish
In the penultimate phase of this commercial mindset, we are interested in taking our potential customer from mere interest to uncontrollable desire.
Beyond explaining the benefits of our product or service in detail, at this point we want the potential customer to visualize themselves enjoying its advantages. It is no longer about communicating facts, numbers, or data, but about igniting passions and stimulating feelings.
We want the user to be able to taste our product, feel it in their hands and - even for a moment - perceive exactly how it would change their life with what we are offering.
Many legendary marketing artists say that the goal of advertising is not to create desire for a product but to channel existing frustrations, dreams, fears, and aspirations toward a specific product.
In this sense, products and services have no value in themselves; what sells is what that product allows us to do, be, or pretend. What you sell is the functionality of the product, and your mission in this third phase of the commercial process is to do just that.
But how does this translate to reality? If you are selling a product that helps you lose weight, for example, focus on the emotions and feelings of your potential client: what you can do when you lose weight and that before you could not do so easily, the advantages of a healthier life, how others will see him, the clothes that he will be able to wear and that he did not fit before, the renewed feeling of self-esteem ...
Note that the Disney theme parks (approximately 50 million visitors last year in Orlando alone) do not emphasize the number of attractions, nor the speed of their roller coasters, nor the number of restaurants ... They emphasize "going back in time," "leave your problems behind," or "return to feel the illusion of a child." And that sells. A lot.
To take action
As much as some clueless advertisers and advertising agencies strive to make a distinction between "branding campaigns" and "results marketing," this distinction is 100% artificial, and the ultimate goal of any advertising action is to sell.
In the long term, creativity is irrelevant. Branding is irrelevant. The interaction of your users with your brand on Twitter is irrelevant. The only relevant thing is to sell. Point.
The last step of your commercial process, therefore, should be to direct the user to where you want - which can be buying something but also registering in your email newsletter, reading a related article, leaving a comment, or sharing your content - and the best way to do it is by explaining exactly what they have to do. What happens is that in direct marketing, the relationship between the advertising process and the sale is much more direct and visible. And, how could it be otherwise, in direct marketing, the business process concludes with an order: when the potential customer becomes a current customer and purchases the product or service that we have prescribed.
Take your user's hand, explain what you want them to do with great detail and, above all, ask them to do it NOW. NOW. Do not wait.
Explain to your potential customer the advantage of being in a hurry and the inconvenience of not doing it. Let them know you will get a benefit (or avoid a loss) if they act immediately.
Conclusion
Well, there you have it, a summary of one of the most important and practical aspects of The Boron Letters - the most popular publication of the interesting (and not a little controversial) Gary C. Halbert.
Of course, it is much easier to explain the theory than to implement the practice, and really the best way to apply this commercial process will depend, among other things, on your niche and what you are trying to sell, but I think it is a good reference point.
When you read the great masters of direct marketing like Gary C. Halbert, the most important thing to remember is that their advice does not have to apply exclusively to an order form or a hard sell, but it can also apply to your emails, your posts on social networks, your blog posts, or any other type of content where what you are looking for is not money but the time and attention of your audience.
In short, The Boron Letters are full of practical examples - perhaps somewhat outdated at first glance - but of which no doubt you can learn a lot.
