I read an amazing book by legendary copywriter Gary Halbert and the book was
entitled The Boron Letters. He wrote a series of letters to his son during his life and The Boron
Letters summarize life lessons he has learned in life in general and more specifically in the
marketing world. Throughout Halbert’s life he understood certain commonalities that influenced
successful people’s lives. The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert aims to provide the reader with an
abundance of knowledge that will improve their lives personally, professionally, and will aid in
their marketing efforts.
The first half of the book elaborated on life lessons that every person should practice to
be successful. The first chapter emphasized working out for an hour each morning for six days a
week after waking up. The book then gets into eating fruit, high-fiber cereal, vegetables, drinking
milk (protein and calcium), and eating and eggs. Furthermore he emphasized the importance of
getting strong arms and being independent, meaning self-reliant. Overall this concludes the
segment of the book pertaining to health, wellness, and their interconnection to success.
In terms of determining what people demand in the marketplace look at what people
already buy and adapt your offering accordingly. There is a segment of people that he considers
being a “starving crowd”; meaning individuals who have high demand for a product, capitalize
on this opportunity and position an offering accordingly. Furthermore it is important to consider
factors he calls recency, frequency, as well as units of sale. Recency refers to how recently they
made a purchase that was similar in nature to your offering. Frequency refers to how often they
made this purchase and lastly units of sale refers to how much money they spend on a similar
purchase. Halbert views knowledge as power and accordingly he emphasizes the importance of
reading about everything related to your industry and learning the ropes. This will open up new
opportunities for business. Halbert argues that you must do something disruptive when
attempting to grab the viewer’s attention. This has to make them enquire further about your
product or service.
Halbert also emphasizes the importance of giving the viewer a call to action that makes
things personal and lowers the “barrier to entry” for the consumer. He also emphasizes split
testing, thereby minimizing risk and increasing the probability of success. This is because once
an individual determines the optimal message to send out to prospective customers then they can
maximize the ROI on their spend. He has also found that using the AIDA model (attention,
interest, desire, action) is effective when attempting to convey value to consumers. You must use
this model and integrate the benefits and give the lead a direct direction as to what they should
do. When structuring an ad it is invaluable to make it look great, but not letting the viewer notice
that you formatted it in a way to manipulate them into a sale. Let the reader know why they are
there, do not make it look like an ad. Halbert goes into the importance of being self-aware,
because analyzing yourself every day for better or worse allows for significant improvement.
Overall The Boron Letters by Gary Halbert offers an immensity of value for marketers
and people who desire success. Halbert sees traits that successful people have, and more
importantly successful marketers. Halbert’s tips on success are valuable for any reader in my
opinion. He offers proven tactics, whether it be working out in the morning or simply just eating
right, for successful people. Also, Halbert offers key insight as to minimizing risk when crafting
offerings for consumers, as well as the best way to display an ad to a person. The Boron Letters
was a great read and the personal and marketing lessons it offers are very valuable.