Have You Seen This “Million-Dollar” Ad?
Do you want to know how to write a million-dollar ad that will not only change your life, but elevate your income, your relationships and your status through the levels of success it creates for you?
This was what Gary Halbert did, also known as one of the best copywriters in the world, in his sales letter titled: “Have you ever wondered what you would look like with a million dollar smile?”.
This ad’s objective is to sell us that “porcelain veneers” are the best dental solution for your teeth. And it does a damn good job at it.
I believe that there are things we can learn from the marketing greats that have sold millions of dollars of products. In this article, we will break down Gary’s ad and give you some hooks, tricks and techniques to help you craft your next million-dollar winning campaign.
If you haven’t read this article yet, read it first before we proceed with the breakdown.
What Can A “Million Dollar Smile” Do?
A million dollar smile.
Those were the words Gary used in his headline to grab the attention of his people.
The word: “Have you ever wondered..” in the headline asks a hypothetical situation of what will happen if you ever had a million dollar smile? This is an assumptive statement that it is possible for you to have a million dollar smile. What does the word “million dollar smile” mean, it connotes many things, for example a smile that will make you million dollars, but inherently the meaning of a smile is something that you hold within you.
Just a few words.. but they pull heartstrings because of the impact and the image it creates in your mind.
Now, Gary’s tone of voice is very colloquial, I would like you to notice that that for an extremely technical industry like dentistry, using unprofessional language like that would simply be suicide. But he is able to pull it off from a balance of professional language, tugging at the reader’s pain points and great wordplay.
Column 1 Breakdown
The writer introduces the ad with some statistics: “88% of all people in North America say they always remember someone with an especially attractive smile”.
This is not just a random statistic, this is a statistic that relates to you.
Something you can learn from this is to start off addressing the reader, but not simply addressing the reader, addressing the reader’s desires and fears. This is very important because after the headline, the second most important part of the copy will be the hook.
Notice how Gary addresses the reader’s pain point of having bad teeth, “being ashamed of your teeth” while hinting of a possible solution by saying that this was all solvable. He does not reveal what the solution is yet which is how he “agitates” his readers.
This is a standard of how copy is written. PROBLEM > AGITATION > SOLUTION
How you would craft your marketing messages would be by setting the stage for the problem and telling people how bad the problem is while hinting of a solution.
Gary does this the majority of Column 1.
Column 2 Breakdown
A1, C4, B2.
For those that do not know, it’s dental lingo, specifically color coding for dental composites. Having the table section as in the ad allows one to compare and contrast things.
When someone is able to compare and contrast things, they have choices, and when they have choices, they are more likely to make a decision.
This section also the first time Gary handles the objections of “if someone is getting work done on their teeth, why wouldn’t everyone choose A-1 or B-1”. He goes straight into the audience’s head and asks a question that the viewer is likely to be having at this point of time and addresses the concern right then and there.
“But this doesn’t apply to my niche, I’m not in dentistry”
Handling questions like that is common practice in every industry and every niche, just scroll down to any website out there that has a FAQ page. You want to address your reader’s concerns before they pop up.
Just like how I addressed yours.
Column 3 Breakdown
When Gary first introduces “Porcelain Veneers” he brought in the concept of Hollywood celebrities from the 1980s which adds a historical context and also shows social proof that there are influential people using the product.
“The best of course is to be born with perfect teeth.. and then take care of them for the rest of your life. OK, that takes care of about ½ of 1% of all the people on Earth. For the rest of us..”
This paragraph highlights the imperfection of people and makes the article relatable. He starts off by introducing the concept of being born with perfect teeth, which is only about 1% of people on this planet, and then goes on to the rest of us.
He achieves many things through this sentence, firstly he is calling out to his target audience, which are of course every day people that struggle to keep their teeth clean. He’s also creating an us vs them dynamic, people that have perfect teeth vs the rest of us, the majority. Through this dynamic, he did not say that we are the minority, instead he makes sure to make it clear that we are the 99% which makes people feel included.
You can apply this concept: “Most people have X, however we have Y”.
E-COMMERCE: Most people out there buy products from your everyday generic store however with us, we have a lot of options.
Personal development: Most coaches out there will only give you generic advice, with us it is specific, actionable and something you want.
Software: Most companies out there only offer you the features I just listed in their enterprise or pro+ package, however with us you get these simply after getting a basic package.
Feel free to use and adapt these depending on the niche you are in.
Column 4 Breakdown
Gary deals with a very common objective which is about receiving injections. Injections are scary, I don’t want to receive injections at all. But he addresses it skillfully by sharing a personal experience with his dentist that gave a painless injection.
The key part of this is that he shares a personal story.
But what about professionalism, isn’t sharing a story unprofessional?
I actually had a teacher that I was learning Thai from the other day. She was telling me about how this world has experienced a drop of consciousness due to the psychopaths that run it.
Whereas in the past, if an old lady was on the train needing a seat, people would willingly give up their seat for her. However, due to change in culture, everyone would be sticking to their phones and not give a damn about her.
This was because of the term: “Rod ka sam nek” which translates into the world’s loss of human consciousness.
That was how my teacher used a story to teach me a specific word. Was she unprofessional? She was very professional and achieved her desired result.
That is the power of using stories.
Column 5 Breakdown
Finally, after that he introduces the dentists…
Did you notice that throughout the article, the writer was just detailing about crooked teeth, traditional dental practices and how ones smiles affecting ones life but not one mention about which doctor to find?
Only after painstakingly going through the problem, he then introduces the doctors that he has visited on the fifth column.
He did not need to jump straight into the solution because the problem was just that entertaining. He kept the audience on his toes which made the setup for the sale very easy.
Conclusion
Obviously Gary is not a dentist yet he was able to sell dentistry masterfully.
He makes it very conversational while using specific industry terms to keep a balance of making things light hearted and serious.
He connects his arguments together through language and his close only consisted of 5% of the article.
I hope you were able to get value of this analysis and let me know what is one thing you will be applying in your business today.
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