Gary Halbert · whole document (22)
2005 - 07-13-05
A lot of you attributed the excellence of the letter written for the Eye Centers of Tennessee to the dollar bill attached as a grabber. Let me explain something: Attaching a dollar bill to the top of a letter to get someone's attention is what I call a "multiplier". In other words, it is very likely to multiply the effectiveness of the letter. But if the letter isn't already effective, just sticking a dollar bill on the first page won't make it profitable. Know this:
You Can't Multiply Zeros!
Other subscribers wrote saying the letter was effective because it was mailed to people with the proper demographics which made them most likely to need the service. Well, as near as possible, the letter will be mailed (hopefully for years to come) to people with the proper demographics. However, any profitable promotion has to be mailed to people who are real prospects for what you are selling if it is to have a chance of making it work. So, if it a profitable sales letter, it's pretty much a given the letter is already being mailed to the people who are actually prospects for what you are selling.
The REAL reason the Eye Centers' letter worked... the really "stand out" feature of this letter over most other letters... can be summed up in one word:
Proof!
Specific, detailed proof.
Ray Mays, the Director of the Eye Centers of Tennessee, gave me substantial help with that letter. How so? He provided me with an enormous amount of detailed information. Information which went a long way to prove the extraordinary lengths Dr. Patterson goes through to provide all his patients with the best possible care... and... the extraordinary lengths Dr. Patterson goes through to ensure all his operations are as safe as possible. I used a great deal of what Ray Mays had already written about the specifics of how Dr. Patterson conducts his medical practice, word-for-word. I used most of it unchanged. And Ray Mays deserves as much credit for the success of that letter as I do. He provided me with nearly all the "ammunition" I needed to write the letter. My primary job was to properly sequence and "showcase" this ammunition so that it would get noticed and read by the target audience.
However, even though Ray Mays provided me with all this invaluable ammunition, you know what else I did? I had Dr. Patterson treat me exactly as though I were a new patient. I filled out the admitting forms, allowed myself to have my eyes examined by his staff, and went through the whole routine just as though I were a real new patient getting ready to find out if I was a candidate for this surgery.
It also didn't hurt that I, myself, have had two eye surgeries. One of which involved the removal of a cataract (which is Dr. Patterson's specialty).
Many of my readers were shrewd enough to mention the letter was, in many ways, similar to the famous "Schlitz Beer Letter" written by Claude Hopkins decades ago. What Claude Hopkins did when he was preparing the advertisement for Schlitz Beer was dramatize the lengths the company went through to create their beer in a 100% sterile environment. Other beer companies probably did the same things to ensure the sterility of their product... but...