SwipeDB
Dear Reader,
In 1482, the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, was at war with the Venetians and the Papal States over the Duchy of Ferrara. The Venetians forces were making substantial gains and laid siege to the city of Ferrara in the winter months.
One day, out of the blue, The Duke got a letter that claimed to solve all his military problems. It listed in clear terms how to build portable bridges, how to get water out of trenches, fling a storm of stones, fortify vessels, and make everything from catapults, mangonels, and armoured chariots. At the end of the letter, the writer briefly mentioned his skills in painting and sculpture.
You can find the letter by searching for "Leonardo da Vinci".
The letter got him the job and the rest...as you know is history.
Most sales letters have little to no response rates. So how do you write a letter that gets incredible results?
In the early 1920’s, a manager for a company wished to join forces with a rival company but animosity between the two made that unlikely. In order to overcome this obstacle, the manager went over to his rivals office to ask for a favour. He asked him how he dealt with customers who were breaking the company terms which had become a serious problem.
This scenario gave one of the greatest marketing minds in advertising history, Robert Collier, the inspiration to sell coats in massive volumes. You see, when you make people feel important, they are much more willing to respond to your questions, inquiries and letters.
In this case the letter asked the recepient for a favour—their opinion on the quality and comfort of the “AnyWeather” coat. This simple appeal generated more than 20,000 orders at $18.75 USD. That is a minimum of $375,000 in sales! In today’s dollars it would be worth $$6,889,802.63 (adjusted for inflation).
Look up the “Do Me A Favor - AnyWeather Coat” letter to read it for yourself.
What if you are on the verge of bankruptcy, the electricity about to be shut off, and a marriage about to collapse? Can writing a sales letter change your fortune for the better?
One day in 1971, fishing for ideas, a sharp and inquisitive minded businessman came across an interesting story in the newspaper. He read how an elderly woman recreated artistic drawings of ancient heraldic Coat-of-Arms based on books she found in the library.
For her it was a hobby. But for the businessman it was an idea that became a sensation! He wrote a single page sales letter in his wife’s name and mailed it out to people with common last names he found in the telephone book.
The result? More than 7,300,000 orders! He had to hire 30 full-time employees just to deposit the 20,000 checks that were coming in per day!
This letter was written by the self-proclaimed greatest copywriter in the world—Gary Halbert (1938-2007).
Some say the “Coat of Arms” letter is the most mailed letter of all time in America and you can find the complete version in this database.
Your Own Personal Swipe File
LettersDB is a database of 62 direct response copywriting examples in the form of sales letters, print ads, cover letters, emails and inquiries.
Each letter contained in this database has generated cash or gotten a result. Each contains all the essential elements of copywriting and persuasion. Copywriters like Robert Collier, Claude Hopkins, John Caples, Victor Schwab, David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert, Eugene Schwartz, Joe Sugerman, Jay Abraham, and more–all wrote direct response copy that generated millions of dollars worth of sales.
Together these letters have crossed the $3 Billion mark. One of which generated $2 Billion alone over a 25 year period! It goes to show that sales letters can be reused indefinitely once they have proven to get results.
A sales letter is like a nucleus around which other elements such as email, social media, web pages and direct messaging orbit. Promoting your offer becomes much easier across multiple channels.
And for these reasons, it is still a powerful tool in every entrepreneurs marketing toolkit.
You see, writing a letter forces you to specify WHO you are writing to, and WHAT you have to offer. Once these are clear, the letter writing process is more of a science than an art. That means, the principles involved in persuasion deal with consumer psychology, not remote fantasies far removed from what your customer actually wants.
Plus you can do this from anywhere there is an Internet connection, and a computer!
Use this database to read high-converting, result-driven letters and then write your own! For that is the path of self-reliance, business growth and customer retention.
Why wait to start making money? Better to start now—grab your copy and find ideas to promote your next offer.
Yours for mutual co-operation,
Sincerely,
Jay Khan
Hand-picked examples of the greatest copywriting written in the past 100 years. Duplicate and modify or add your own samples.