a "killer" lesson from the robert collier letter book

[FuturePrinceofPrint]

Hey all you copywriting nerds. I was reading though the "robert collier letter book" just a few minutes ago and, one of the sections in the book immediately caught my attention.

He's talking about tested different opening paragraphs and, how he stumbled into an opener that pulled in more sales than any other he'd written before.

it goes a little like this....

"You've heard the story, I know, of the proud fisherman who was trying to impress a couple of guides with his fishing tale.

'I had a big tarp [a fish] on the line, he was explaing, 'when along came an enormous shark, opened his mouth and just swallwed that tarp whole. Boy, did i have a time landing that shark.'

'Hmm', grunted one of the guides, 'where I come from, we bait with sharks'

Then the letter-writer segues into how no matter how good of a product you say you have... someone is always gonna come along and have a bigger-badder-better one than you do.

I thought it was a great lesson because as copywriters we have to be good at writing stories. It hypnotizes people and moves then further down the page until they're "foaming-at-the-mouth" to buy whatever its you're selling.

Chiao,
Branden

[Loren Woirhaye]

The Collier book gets more enjoyable the more often you read it.
At first it seems dated and dry, but once you get beyond that
it's a phenomenal text.

[FuturePrinceofPrint]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

The Collier book gets more enjoyable the more often you read it.
At first it seems dated and dry, but once you get beyond that
it's a phenomenal text.

You're absolutely right. The first time I read it, I thought to myself "this is so dull". But the more I kept reading, the more it made sense. Funny how that happens.

[ARSuarez]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

The Collier book gets more enjoyable the more often you read it.
At first it seems dated and dry, but once you get beyond that
it's a phenomenal text.

Collier also had a great sense of humor.

Most people don't pick up on it because of the differences in expression.
But it's there.

Best,

Angel

[fasteasysuccess]

Absolutely...There's gold in there.

A lot of people don't bother reading it or really studying it because they think it's old and unimportant and they are missing out big time.

[FuturePrinceofPrint]

Originally Posted by fasteasysuccess

Absolutely...There's gold in there.

A lot of people don't bother reading it or really studying it because they think it's old and unimportant and they are missing out big time.

Absalutely man. You hit the nail on the head. That book is a gold-mine for any copywriter because back then, if you didn't know how to really persuade someone to do something, they weren't gonna do it. People had to fill out the reply coupon, get a stamp and mail the damn thing.

So, if what they did back then worked... boy, will it ever work now because all we've gotta do is get somebody to click "order here" or "call this number"

[Ross Bowring]

Great book. Dry though. Collier makes Warren Buffet read like Peter Travers.

--- Ross