Don't let that keep you from increased profits! Write masterful messages with these simple steps:

* Pull Reader in * Introduce Product * Explain Product's Significance * Tell Reader to Make a Purchase

(Examples in this article use fictional product "Green Garden Lawn Fertilizer". Any similarity to actual products is unintended and coincidental.)

-------------------------- PULL THE READER IN --------------------------

First, convince your audience that your text is worth reading. Make your first sentence or two very interesting: Make a bold statement, say something seemingly ridiculous, or appeal to your prospect's emotional side. Later, tie this grabber in with rest of your copy. For instance:

"Want to make your neighbors jealous? How about with a lush, green lawn in just 2 weeks?"

-------------------------- INTRODUCE THE PRODUCT --------------------------

What is product you're advertising? What does it do? Directly after your grabber, give a compact explanation of your product. Keep this explanation short, while still being very clear. For example:

"Green Garden Lawn Fertilizer is taking landscaping industry by storm. What else can give you lawn of your dreams in just 15 minutes a day?"

-------------------------- EXPLAIN THE PRODUCT'S SIGNIFICANCE --------------------------

What will it do for me? This is time for details - make this section long and rich. Suggest a variety of product uses, and give examples. Make most of this opportunity to directly target your unique audience! Clearly explain how your readers will benefit from your product.

After studying Barton's letters, books, private memos, speeches, and advertising campaigns, I've discovered Barton's method. I've used his technique to write my own letters and I've been astonished at results. One letter got a 20% response. Another nailed a 10% response. Still another is approaching a 97% response (ninety-seven per cent!)! (It, too, is in The Seven Lost Secrets Of Success.)

I will now reveal technique I've been using: Bruce Barton's "Secret Formula."

Barton said that good advertising copy (and letters are advertisements) had to be three things: (1) Brief. (2) Simple. (3). Sincere. In an eye-opening essay he wrote back in 1925, Barton said following:

About Brevity:

"About sixty years ago two men spoke at Gettysburg; one man spoke for two hours. I suppose there is not any one who could quote a single word of that oration. The other man spoke about three hundred words, and that address has become a part of school training of almost every child."

About Simplicity:

"I think it might be said, no advertisement is great that has anything that can't be understood by a child of intelligence. Certainly all great things in life are one-syllable things -- child, home, wife, fear, faith, love, God."

About Sincerity: