How to Write Blockbuster Sales Letters

look at what lists we mailed. We’ll see if there were mistakes in the
way the package was assembled and produced. We’ll usually come up
with an answer, or at least a theory for why the letter failed.
Almost always the reason for a package performing poorly is that
the writer has made some fundamental mistake, violated some basic
marketing principle tied to the iron laws of human nature.
To be the biggest and most successful you usually have to be the
first. But I prefer not to be the first because to be the first to market
with a new idea is incredibly risky. Coke is #1 because it came first.
Pepsi came second, so it will always be #2. But it’s not bad being
Pepsi.
No one could have predicted the success of Coke. But once Coke
proved successful, this paved the way for competitors such as Pepsi,
RC Cola, and so on.
I prefer not to be the first to do anything. I would rather watch
others and see what’s working and then follow in their wake. Maybe
I’ll try to do it a little better and make some refinements. But I’m very
happy to watch others spend their money blazing new trails. Most of
the trailblazers will fail.
A few will succeed. I will then learn from them. I will copy what
they are doing. I will be very happy being #2, #3, or #4. And I will
have taken far less risk. I’m not much of a gambler. Avis will always
be the #2 car rental company behind Hertz. But it’s not bad being
Avis.
I’m happy to follow along behind the pioneers. I’m not interested
in being Lewis or Clark. I would much prefer to learn the lessons of
success and failure from the trailblazers who came before me. I study
these courageous people—these geniuses and pioneers—carefully.
If I have one original idea in my lifetime, I will have made a
contribution to the advancement of Western Civilization. I doubt I will
ever achieve this milestone.
Einstein had an original idea: The Theory of Relativity.
But I am a person of average intelligence. I don’t plan to develop
any new theories in my lifetime. I will be very happy just to learn the
great ideas that have already been developed—especially in the area of
marketing.
For this reason, I read the great Claude Hopkins over and over
again. Hopkins was perhaps the greatest advertising writer who ever
lived. I also study Bob Stone and David Ogilvy. Any aspiring
marketer who reads Hopkins, Ogilvy, and Stone will know most of
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