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This won’t make you rich overnight, but it will make your marketing infinitely more believable
The Wall Street Journal used it to sell more than $2 billion+ dollars in newspaper subscriptions. And they did it all using a single sales letter that ran, almost completely unchanged, for more than 25 years.
Now I can’t guarantee it will work for you.
But I can say this: from a neurological perspective, it taps directly into the way that attention, belief, and memories are formed in the brain.
Here’s how WSJ made it work for them:
Their sales letter begins with a story about two men who start out almost identical — the same education, the same opportunities, and even the same ambitions in life. And for a while their paths nearly look the same. But when they meet at a reunion many years later, there’s one striking difference between the two men.
Despite their similar beginnings…
One man climbed to top of a very successful company and the other has not.
The other man remained a middle manager, and never saw the success that he truly desired in his life.
Then the letter goes on to talk about how, in business, knowledge is what separates the winners from the rest.
And here they’re basically making an indirect and self-serving claim that subscribing to a newspaper like the Wall Street Journal will mean the difference between achieving your goals in life and getting stuck slaving away at a boring old career in middle management.
Until they hit their unsuspecting readers with this little gem:
“The Wall Street Journal cannot promise you success. But we can give you an edge.”
It’s kind of like if a doctor told you bluntly, “If you keep this up, you’ll be dead in less than 10 years.” Then following it up with, “but here’s the good news — If you start today you can reverse this completely and live to see 110…”
The first part stands out in your mind, and the second part steels your resolve.
Just like that, for 25 years straight, the Wall Street Journal used ‘telling the truth’ as a tool in their marketing to the tune of more than $2 billion dollars.
And while I cannot promise you success, if you want my help getting an edge on your next launch or email marketing campaign, you can use the link the below to apply to work with me today:
Your pal,
Kevin Hood