The Most Important Advertising You Never Do

Check this out:

Right now I’m reading through a whole pile of Gary Halbert’s old newsletters, about 1,200 pages in all.

(The late Gary Halbert was my introduction to copywriting. He was a genius—his ads and sales letters appeared billions of times before his death in 2007.)

Reading newsletters this way is kinda like bing-watching a show on Netflix. You start to pick up on patterns that you might have missed if you’d consumed the product a month at a time.

One thing that I’ve noticed is how Gary almost always closed his newsletters with a couple of lines like this:

P.S. Some of the names pulled like crazy and some names didn’t work at all. Can you guess why? I’ll tell you next month, and I’ll also tell you how to test a list without getting burned.

It is very important you know this stuff about how to test a list. Your list broker does NOT know and neither does whatever consultant you are using. And listen: This info on how to test a list is so important that if you have a big test mailing going out before next month, you should call me and I’ll tell you what you need to know (free) on the phone.

What’s the significance of this?

Well Gary was wily. And he knew two things:

1. Attention is a valuable commodity.

2. It’s far, far less costly to keep a current customer than to go out and find a new one.

By adding these teasers to the end of his newsletters, he was taking advantage of the fact that he already had your attention to sell you on sticking with him until next month.

Imagine you were on the fence about his newsletter. How do you NOT want to find out what he’s going to reveal?

Hardly anyone does this. I pay for at least 1-2 dozen different subscription services in my business, and I can think of exactly one business that does a good job of staying in touch with me as a customer and continuing to sell me on their service.

And who knows how many services I’ve canceled because I just forgot that I was getting value from them.

This principle doesn’t just apply to newsletters.

What if you’re building a membership site, like my coaching student Felix? With a little advanced planning, you can start teasing the content you’ll release next month to your current subscribers.

And even if you’re in a seemingly transactional business, like real estate, there are ways to do the same thing. Like telling your new clients early on about the services you offer for after they’ve bought their dream home.

Whenever you have your customer’s attention, look for ways to show them the all the great benefits that are just around the corner.

Just like ol’ Gary, you’ll keep them coming back for “just one more month…”