December 2

John Carlton’s Best Ads: The Nearly-Crippled Businessman

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Here is an early self-defense letter, which struck a major nerve in the customer base for this market. It’s run every year for the last decade in the major magazines and mailed even more often to hotlists.

The appeal is simple and to the point: This is hard-core stuff, designed to be learned by people who do not possess the usual strength and agility of most martial artists.

The key line is on the first page: “I was vulnerable as a baby. ” That hits home for many people.

There’s an old saying in politics– a conservative is a liberal who got mugged. It’s easy to be above the fray in the street when you don’t have to deal with the street. But once you get a taste of how nasty things can get, you want to make sure you never get hurt like that again. It changes your life, changes the way you look at things.

Most people will not spend a nickel to prevent something from happening. That’s just human nature. But they will empty their bank accounts to fix something that’s been broken. Confidence is something that a lot of people have simply because it’s never been shaken. This particular market is full of people who have had their confidence shaken… and never want it shaken again.

Identify your core market, and then give them exactly what they already want. This letter makes zero attempt to convince anyone to learn self-defense. It merely helps the reader identify with the situation. If it strikes a chord with you, you’re ripe for becoming a customer. If it doesn’t, you’ll move on.

In this market, this appeal struck gold.


Click here to see the “Nearly-Crippled Businessman” ad.
(It will open in a new window or tab, so you can toggle between the ad and Carlton’s commentary.)


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