Lessons From Gary Halbert: What the Prince of Print Can Teach Today's Digital Copywriters

Who Was Gary Halbert — and Why Should You Care?

Gary Halbert was a direct-mail copywriter who operated from the late 1960s through the early 2000s. He called himself the Prince of Print, and the title was not empty bravado. His sales letters generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue across dozens of markets — health, finance, information products, collectibles, and more. He published an influential newsletter, The Gary Halbert Letter, that became required reading for a generation of direct-response copywriters. And he mentored, provoked, and inspired more working copywriters than perhaps anyone in the last half-century.

But let me be clear about what this post is and what it is not. This is not a hagiography. Halbert was brilliant, provocative, and deeply influential — but he was also a product of his era, and not every element of his approach translates directly to 2026 digital marketing. What I want to do here is extract the principles that still work, show you how to apply them to modern formats, and be honest about where his thinking needs updating.

I came up in the same direct-response tradition as Halbert. I have spent over 30 years writing the kinds of copy he championed — sales letters, long-form sales pages, VSLs, email sequences — and generating $523M+ in tracked results along the way. His principles informed my early training. Some of them I still use every day. Others I have modified or abandoned. That is the perspective you are getting here: a practitioner's assessment, not a fan's tribute.

The Starving Crowd: The Most Important Principle in Copywriting

If you take nothing else from Halbert's work, take this.

Halbert's most famous thought experiment goes like this: imagine you and a competitor both open hamburger stands. You can choose any single advantage — better meat, better location, a superior bun, a bigger sign. What advantage would Halbert want? A starving crowd.

The point is deceptively simple but profoundly strategic. It reframes the copywriter's job from "write persuasive words" to "find a desperate audience first, then write to them." This is not a subtle distinction. It is the difference between a campaign that converts and a campaign that flops regardless of how well-written it is.

I have seen this principle validated thousands of times in my own work. The campaigns that produced the biggest returns were not the ones where I wrote the cleverest headline or the most elegant body copy. They were the ones where the market research uncovered an audience with a burning problem, the disposable income to solve it, and limited options. When you find that starving crowd, your copy does not need to be perfect — it needs to be clear, credible, and relevant.

How the starving crowd applies in 2026

In the direct mail era, finding your starving crowd meant buying the right mailing list. Today, it means:

• Audience research before copywriting. Before you write a word of a sales page or VSL script, you need to know who is desperate for this solution, why existing options have failed them, and what language they use to describe their pain.
• Paid media targeting. Facebook, Google, and YouTube give you tools Halbert could not have imagined for finding your starving crowd. But the principle is the same — targeting precision matters more than creative brilliance.
• Niche selection. For entrepreneurs and info-product creators, the starving crowd principle means choosing a market based on demand intensity, not personal interest. A passionate audience with no money is not a starving crowd. Neither is a wealthy audience with no urgency.
• Funnel architecture. In a modern sales funnel, the starving crowd principle applies at every stage. Your lead magnet should attract people with active, urgent problems. Your email sequence should filter for those ready to act. Your offer should match the exact solution the starving crowd is looking for.

“The copywriters who produce the biggest results are not the best writers — they are the best researchers. Every campaign I have ever written that exceeded expectations started with a deeper understanding of the market than the client expected.”

A-Pile Mail: The Attention Principle That Governs Every Channel

Halbert divided all mail into two piles. The A-pile was personal mail — letters from friends, family, people you actually want to hear from. You open the A-pile first, every time. The B-pile was everything else — catalogues, bills, obvious marketing material. Most of the B-pile goes straight into the bin without being read.

Halbert's obsession was making his direct mail pieces look and feel like A-pile mail. That meant plain white envelopes. Handwritten (or handwritten-looking) addresses. First-class stamps instead of bulk-rate indicia. A personal greeting inside. No corporate logos on the outer.

The principle behind this is not trickery — it is attention economics. In any medium, the first battle is getting noticed. If your message looks like marketing, it triggers the reader's automatic filter. They mentally (or literally) toss it into the B-pile before they have read a word.

The A-pile principle in digital channels

The medium has changed. The psychology has not.

Email marketing. Your subject line is the envelope. If it screams "marketing email," it gets deleted or ignored. Subject lines that read like they came from a real person — specific, conversational, slightly mysterious — earn the open. This is the A-pile principle applied to inbox behaviour.

Social media ads. Ads that look like ads get scrolled past. Content that looks like something a friend would share earns attention. The most effective Facebook and Instagram ads often look like organic posts — user-generated content, casual photography, conversational copy. That is A-pile thinking applied to the feed.

Sales pages. A sales page drenched in hype, loaded with red fonts and countdown timers, can trigger the same B-pile instinct. The reader's filter says "this is marketing" before they engage. Pages that feel like a personal letter from someone knowledgeable — conversational tone, natural pacing, genuine credibility — earn the read.

VSLs. A video sales letter that opens with a corporate intro, logo animation, and polished production can actually depress conversions compared to a simple, direct-to-camera presentation that feels like someone is talking to you personally. Halbert's A-pile instinct explains why.

Writing as If to One Person: Halbert's Voice Principle

Halbert wrote his sales letters as if he were sitting across from one specific person at a kitchen table. Not a "target demographic." Not a "customer avatar." One person. He would visualise them, imagine their day, think about what they worried about at 2 a.m., and write directly to that individual.

This gave his copy a quality that is rare in marketing writing: it felt personal. Even though millions of people received the same letter, each reader felt like Halbert was talking specifically to them. This is not accidental — it is the natural result of writing to one person instead of a crowd.

The psychological mechanism is straightforward. When you write to "everyone," you write generically. The language becomes corporate, vague, and safe. When you write to one person, you use their language. You address their specific situation. You speak to their particular fears and desires. The reader feels recognised, understood, and spoken to — which makes them far more likely to keep reading and eventually act.

How to apply this technique today

In every format — emails, sales pages, VSLs, ads — the most effective copy reads like a personal communication, not a broadcast.

Before you write, define your one person. Not a demographic profile. A real individual. Give them a name. Know their day-to-day frustrations. Understand the specific moment when they would be reading your copy and what emotional state they would be in. Then write to that person.

Use "you" more than any other word. Halbert's letters were overwhelmingly focused on the reader. "You" appeared in virtually every sentence. This is not a gimmick — it is a structural principle. Copy that talks about the company, the product, or the brand is self-focused. Copy that talks to the reader about the reader's life, problems, and desires is other-focused. The second always outperforms.

Match the reader's internal language. Halbert spent enormous effort understanding how his audience actually talked about their problems. He read their letters, studied their complaints, listened to their conversations. The best copywriters today do the same through forums, reviews, customer interviews, and support tickets. When your copy uses the exact phrases your reader uses in their own mind, it creates an uncanny sense of connection.

Research First, Write Second: The Halbert Process

Halbert believed that the quality of your research determined the quality of your copy — and he was not casual about it. Before writing a word, he would immerse himself in the product, the market, the audience, and the competitive landscape. He studied the prospect's world until he understood their problems as well as they did.

This is the principle that separates professional copywriters from amateurs. Amateur copywriters start with a blank page and try to be creative. Professional copywriters start with a research file that is thicker than the final copy. The writing phase is the shortest part of the process — the research phase is where the real work happens.

Halbert's research process typically involved studying the product exhaustively, understanding every feature and what it meant for the user. He would analyse the audience — who they were, what they feared, what they desired, what had failed them before. He would study the competition to understand what claims were already being made and what angles were unexploited. And he would look for what he called the "hidden benefit" — the one advantage that was real, verifiable, and not being communicated by anyone else.

The research principle in the AI era

Here is where Halbert's approach becomes even more relevant than it was in his lifetime. In 2026, AI tools can generate competent marketing copy in seconds. What they cannot do is conduct the kind of deep market research that produces genuinely persuasive messaging.

AI can write. It cannot think strategically about a market. It cannot identify the emotional trigger that will move a specific audience to action. It cannot uncover the hidden benefit that competitors are overlooking. It cannot sense the difference between what people say they want and what they actually buy.

This means that the research phase — the part Halbert considered the most important part of the process — is now the primary differentiator between AI-generated copy and professional copy. A copywriter who does the research Halbert advocated will produce work that AI cannot replicate, because the strategic insight that drives the copy does not exist in any training dataset. It comes from original analysis of a specific market at a specific moment in time.

The tools for research have improved dramatically. You have access to review mining across platforms, social listening tools, customer interview platforms, competitive intelligence software, and data analytics that Halbert could not have imagined. But the discipline is the same: understand the market before you write a word.

The Boron Letters: A Copywriting Education in Plain Language

The Boron Letters are a series of letters Halbert wrote to his son Bond from prison in the 1980s. They cover copywriting, direct mail strategy, health, fitness, and life philosophy. They are personal, unpolished, and remarkably practical.

What makes the Boron Letters valuable is not just the content — it is the format. Because Halbert was writing to his son, not to an audience of marketing professionals, he stripped away jargon and explained concepts in plain, conversational language. This makes the letters one of the most accessible introductions to direct-response copywriting principles ever produced.

Key principles from the Boron Letters

The importance of daily habits. Halbert devoted significant space to physical health, mental clarity, and daily routines. His argument was that copywriting is demanding cognitive work, and you cannot produce your best thinking if your body and mind are not operating at a high level. This is practical advice that most copywriting education ignores.

The mechanics of sales letters. The letters contain detailed breakdowns of how Halbert structured his sales letters — from the greeting to the P.S. line. He explains why each element exists and what job it performs in the overall persuasion architecture. For anyone learning to write long-form copy, these breakdowns are invaluable.

The business of copywriting. Halbert was candid about the financial realities of professional copywriting — how to find clients, how to structure deals, how to price your work, and how to build a career on your ability to generate results. This practical business advice is as relevant now as it was then.

The value of swipe files. Halbert was a relentless collector of successful promotions. He studied what worked, analysed why it worked, and adapted the principles to his own projects. The Boron Letters emphasise building a swipe file not for plagiarism, but for pattern recognition — understanding the structures and techniques that produce results across markets and eras.

Halbert's Principles Applied to Modern Formats

Halbert wrote for direct mail. But his principles were never really about direct mail — they were about persuasion. And persuasion does not expire when the medium changes. Here is how his core ideas translate to the formats that drive revenue in 2026.

VSLs (Video Sales Letters)

The VSL is, in many ways, the format most aligned with Halbert's philosophy. A VSL is a sales letter delivered through video — long-form, narrative-driven, and designed to move the viewer through a complete persuasion sequence.

Halbert's principles apply directly. The starving crowd principle governs audience targeting and traffic strategy. The A-pile principle governs the opening — if the first 10 seconds feel like a generic ad, the viewer clicks away. The write-to-one-person principle governs the script's voice and tone. And the research-first approach ensures the script addresses real objections, real desires, and real language.

Email sequences

Email copywriting is arguably the closest modern equivalent to Halbert's direct mail. You are sending a message to one person's inbox. You need to earn the open (the A-pile principle applied to subject lines). You need to hold attention with conversational, personal writing. And you need to build toward an action.

Halbert's letter structure — a compelling hook, a personal and engaging body, a clear close with a specific action — maps almost exactly onto effective email architecture. The cadence of a multi-email sequence mirrors the follow-up strategies Halbert used in direct mail, where multiple mailings to the same list increased response dramatically.

Sales pages and funnels

Every long-form sales page on the internet descends from the direct mail sales letter. Halbert's structural principles — lead with the reader's problem, build the case with proof and story, present the offer as the inevitable solution, close with urgency and a clear call to action — remain the foundational architecture.

In a multi-step funnel, the starving crowd principle applies to the top of the funnel (are you attracting the right audience?), while Halbert's persuasion mechanics apply to each step (is each page doing its job of moving the prospect forward?).

Headlines and hooks

Halbert was a student of headline craft. He tested relentlessly and believed that a great headline could save mediocre copy, while a weak headline would kill even the best body copy. This principle is amplified in digital, where the headline or hook competes against an infinite scroll of alternatives.

His approach to headlines was not formulaic — it was strategic. He started with the strongest benefit or the most compelling curiosity angle, informed by his research into what the audience actually cared about. The copywriting formulas that circulate today are useful frameworks, but Halbert would have insisted that no formula replaces understanding your market deeply enough to know what will stop them mid-scroll.

Where Halbert's Approach Needs Updating

Respecting Halbert's work does not mean treating it as scripture. Several aspects of his approach need adaptation for 2026 realities.

Attention spans have compressed

Halbert wrote 8-, 12-, and 16-page sales letters. Some of them were brilliant, and some markets still respond to that kind of length. But the default attention threshold in digital is dramatically shorter. A Facebook ad has roughly 1-2 seconds to earn attention. A VSL hook has 5-10 seconds. An email subject line competes against dozens of alternatives in a glance.

This does not mean long copy is dead — it means you earn the right to go long by being compelling at every stage. Halbert's principle of making every sentence earn the next sentence is even more critical when the reader can disappear with a thumb swipe.

Data-driven testing has evolved beyond what Halbert imagined

Halbert tested through the mail — which meant waiting weeks for results and spending significant money on each test variation. Today, you can A/B test headlines in hours, run multivariate tests across entire funnels, and use data analytics to identify exactly where your copy loses the reader.

This means the testing discipline Halbert championed is now more accessible and more powerful than ever. But it also means that copywriting has become a more iterative, data-responsive process. You are not writing one letter and mailing it to a million people — you are writing, testing, analysing, and refining in continuous cycles.

Multi-channel funnels require system thinking

Halbert operated in a single-channel world: direct mail. Today's campaigns span email, paid social, organic content, retargeting, VSLs, landing pages, and more. The copy for each channel must work independently while also functioning as part of a larger system.

This requires a level of strategic coordination that Halbert's single-letter approach does not address. Modern copywriters need to think in terms of customer journeys, not individual pieces — understanding how each touchpoint builds on the last and sets up the next.

Compliance and trust standards have risen

Halbert operated in an era with fewer advertising regulations and less consumer scepticism. Some of the claims and techniques that worked in 1980s direct mail would face regulatory action, platform bans, or consumer backlash today. Modern copywriters must be aggressive in their persuasion but honest in their claims — a balance that requires more nuance than Halbert's era demanded.

The psychology is timeless — the application is not

This is the essential point. Halbert understood human motivation, attention, desire, and resistance at a deep level. Those psychological realities have not changed. But the channels, the competitive landscape, the regulatory environment, and the technology have changed enormously. The copywriter who succeeds in 2026 takes Halbert's psychological insights and applies them with modern strategic thinking — not by copying his techniques literally, but by understanding the principles beneath them and translating them for today's reality.

The Practical Takeaway: How to Use Halbert's Work

If you are a working copywriter or a business owner who writes your own marketing, here is how I recommend engaging with Halbert's material.

Start with The Boron Letters. They are free, they are practical, and they give you the clearest introduction to his thinking. Read them with a notebook. Write down the principles that resonate with your current projects.

Study the newsletter archive. The Gary Halbert Letter contains decades of practical copywriting education. Focus on the issues where he breaks down specific techniques, analyses campaigns, and explains the reasoning behind his decisions.

Apply the starving crowd test to every project. Before you write a word, ask: is there a starving crowd for this offer? If not, no amount of copy quality will save the campaign. If yes, your job is to match the offer to the hunger as clearly and credibly as possible.

Use the A-pile filter. Before you send an email, publish an ad, or launch a sales page, ask: does this look and feel like something the reader would want to engage with? Or does it look like marketing that will get filtered, scrolled past, or ignored?

Write to one person. Not a demographic. Not a persona. One specific individual. Visualise them. Write to them. This single technique will improve every piece of copy you produce.

Build your swipe file. Halbert was a collector. Collect what works — not to copy it, but to understand the patterns. Over time, your swipe file becomes a library of proven principles that you can draw from for any project.

Where This Leads

Gary Halbert left behind a body of work that continues to educate copywriters decades after his death. His principles — rooted in human psychology, market selection, and personal persuasion — are as relevant now as they were when he was mailing millions of letters. What has changed is the medium, the speed, and the scale. What has not changed is the fundamental challenge: find people who desperately want what you are selling, get their attention, and make the case so clearly and compellingly that action becomes the obvious next step.

That is the work. It was the work in Halbert's era, and it is the work now.

If you are looking for a copywriter who applies these time-tested direct-response principles to modern campaigns — VSLs, sales pages, email sequences, and full-funnel systems — I would be happy to discuss your project. You can reach me here and we can talk about what a results-driven approach looks like for your specific situation.