Posted by: Len Bailey
June 25, 2010
Issue #953

The Single-Page Sales Letter
That Was So Amazingly Successful …
They Had to Build a Bigger Bank!

Dear Business-Builder,

It seems I owe you an apology for my article two weeks ago.

Somewhere amidst the meetings, phone conferences, and general chaos that comes with launching a business, I overlooked a perfect opportunity to present you with a must-have Swipe for your collection – as well as pay tribute to one of the best the business has ever seen.

I’m talking about the late, great Gary Halbert.

If you’ve been a copywriter or marketer for any length of time, you probably don’t need me to tell you who Gary Halbert was. Like Clayton, Gary is a legend in direct response marketing. He created some of the most well-known sales letters and advertisements around. And he befriended and mentored many of the people considered masters of Internet marketing today.

Sadly, Gary passed away a few years ago. But were he still with us, Saturday, June 12th would have been his 72nd birthday.

I had originally planned to make one of Gary’s most famous sales letters the Swipe of the Week … but forgot all about it until I’d already written and submitted my article.

So even though we’re now a couple weeks late, I still want to share with you …

Gary Halbert’s Legendary "Coat of Arms" Letter

If you’re a Gary Halbert fan, you’ve no doubt seen this letter before. After all, it’s one of his most famous – and most successful – pieces.

But depending on your name, there’s also a good chance you received it in the mail at some point … because this little single-page letter mailed over 600 million times.

Let me say that again: This little, single-page letter mailed over six hundred million times.

Needless to say, it was profitable. Smart marketers – and Gary was one of the smartest – don’t keep mailing something that doesn’t turn a profit.

Gary mailed this baby for over 30 years. At its peak, he sent out one million copies (1,000,000) each week. And this magic letter pulled in conversions as high as twenty-three percent with an average order of $3.00.

So how much money are we talking?

In terms of today’s dollars, this letter was pulling in a third of a million dollars every day. In fact, Gary had to hire a staff of 40 women just to deposit the checks that came pouring in – as many as 20,000 in a single day.

There were so many deposits to make, the bank had to dedicate its third floor entirely to processing them. And before long, it opened an entirely new branch … just to handle Gary’s business!

Now THAT’S what I call a successful sales letter!

So make sure you study this gem in detail. Pick up the nuances in the copy. Count the number of times the prospect’s name is used. Notice how everything about it is designed to look and feel like a personal letter and NOT a piece of marketing "junk mail."

This impression was only heightened by the way each letter was delivered – mailed first class from the Bath, Ohio Post Office in a plain envelope. No teaser copy or address labels to break the spell … the envelope (like the letter) looked to have been banged out on a typewriter.

And it worked like gangbusters.

As I said above, at its peak this letter was mailing 1 million copies a week – and bringing in a third of a million dollars a day.

Before the Internet.

So you can easily see why I consider this a must-have Swipe for every copywriter and marketer. If you don’t already have a copy, click here to download it now for your collection.

Until next time…

Best wishes for success,

Len Bailey
Makepeace-Trained Copywriter
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

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8 Comments »

1. Comment by Bob Duke — June 25, 2010 @ 10:50 am

   Len,
   That is a great letter. Your intro is short and to the point, too, reinforcing your views about how a short and to-the-point marketing piece can do wonders.

   And I loved your incomplete sentence making up your 3rd from the bottom paragraph. That probably did more than anything else to drive your point home.

   Thanks,
   Bob

   P.S. Thinking about coats of arms caused me to remember that we had a couple of those reports around our house or I saw them at my grandparents’ home. My sister made a punch rug with the coat of arms on it for my folks. I also realized that your last name is the same as my mother’s mother’s last name. Good people from East Texas!

2. Comment by Sid — June 25, 2010 @ 12:36 pm

   Hi Len,

   I’ve been a fan of Clayton for a long time and I’m pleased to say I’m now a fan of yours. Great article…

   But, somehow I missed the “swipe”. Gary Halbert’s Legendary “Coat of Arms” Letter.

   I fee certain I received the original letter years ago.

   Who would have thought I’d be asking to read it again.

   Your new fan, Sid

3. Comment by Sid — June 25, 2010 @ 12:40 pm

   My Apologies Len,

   The link was right in front of my tired old eyes all along but somehow I missed it.

   Your fan, Sid

4. Comment by Omar — June 25, 2010 @ 1:02 pm

   I loved your headline for this article! I put it inmediatly in my swipe file.
   Thank you!

5. Comment by Len — June 25, 2010 @ 2:54 pm

   Thanks for the kind feedback, guys. This letter has been one of my favorites for a long time - especially once I learned some of the story behind it.

   One thing I forgot to mention…

   Gary spent 18 months working out the kinks on this promotion before it took off. Oh, the sales letter was pretty much final right away. But sometimes they’d mail and pull a 15-20% response while other times, they’d get nothing.

   It drove Gary nuts until his wife, Nancy, pointed out the answer wasn’t complicated at all. Gary just couldn’t see the forest through the trees.

   The more people with the last name, the lower the response they got from the mailing. People with last names of Smith or Jones were just too common — they either didn’t believe the letter or didn’t care.

   However, if your last name was Halbert, Bailey, Clapton, or Makepeace … there was a pretty good chance you’d find the letter interesting and the offer worthwhile.

   Once they worked that out, the promotion took off like a rocket. And that just reinforces one of my favorite Marketing Maxims …

   Copy is king — but you still need to put the right offer in front of the right prospect if you’re going to succeed.

6. Comment by Clarke Echols (Resident scientist and rabble-rouser) — June 25, 2010 @ 11:02 pm

   Yep.

   I remember that letter well. He said they’d found an Echols coat of arms. But working on and knowing family history (some on my mother’s side back into the 13th century), I smelled a rat. So did a lot of other genealogists who were *really* up in arms about it.

   I’m thinking the genealogists were trying to get the FTC or somebody involved, but Gary covered his tracks pretty well by never claiming any accurate family tree connections.

   Classic P.T. Barnum. Give ‘em what they want, and they’ll willingly dump dollars in your hands. And since it’s only a few bucks and something you can frame, why not?

   But I didn’t order one.

   Still, I’ve always wondered what it would look like…

   Now that’s effective copy when somebody remembers it 35 years later!

   I don’t know any other junk mails from that era that I specfically recall…

   Except one my dad and I responded to when I was in high school about 50 years ago. Now as an engineer I can see it was an effectively promoted hoax — a gadget to replace the rotor bug in your car’s distributor that would increase gas mileage. Can’t happen unless the one you have needs replacement anyway.

   I like his soft-sell “I’ve had a few extras made up” routine. I wondered how many Echols households got that letter, and that’s decades before I’d heard of copywriting as a profession — much less names like Makepeace, Bly, Carlton, et al.

   Nice swipe!

   Clarke

7. Pingback by Copywriting Blogs Roundup – 26 June 2010 | "Maximum Results Copywriting" — June 26, 2010 @ 4:06 am

   [...] One other thing.  At Clayton Makepeace’s “Total Package” every week there’s a “Swipe Of The Week”.  This time it’s the classic “Coat Of Arms” letter from Gary Halbert (“The Single Page Sales Letter That Was So Amazingly Successful…They Had To Build A Bigge…). [...]

8. Comment by Mark — June 26, 2010 @ 4:46 am

   I always liked Gary…he was a true maverick in the business…even with his ups and downs.

   Many of his ideas were original…he was a true “artist” when it came to convincing the reader to act.

   …most people who want to be a good copywriter never will be…even if they spend a fortune on courses…you need the ability to be creative and innovative…I guess it’s the promise from the “Guru’s” of quick fortunes…if only you know how to say the right words in the right order…

   …funny how millions are made from books that break down every aspect of past great sales letters…

   Good copywriting as you know is sales in print, the basics are always the same…people are and always have been vain…they want to look good and feel good…and have everyone think they look good and are a somebody…

   and if you can convice them you have a way for them to achieve those simple concepts you have a winner

   …be original…