At the ugly age of 12, when I moved from Croatia to California, I made friends with a boy named Mike.
Mike was Mormon, and was one of six brothers and sisters. Other Mormon families I met were just as prolific.
One day, I asked Mike why it’s a thing in the Mormon community to replicate at such a vicious rate. He shrugged. “It says in the Bible to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth.” (I checked. It’s true. God says it to Noah after the big flood.)
Speaking of replenishing the earth, here’s a quote from the most successful direct mail promotion of all time:
“It doesn’t give me any pleasure to predict these things. But I want to get this information out to as many people as I can… because you can prepare yourself. And those you love can avoid this catastrophe. And the more of us who preserve our wealth, the better it will be for our country when the time comes to rebuild.”
That’s from The Plague of the Black Debt, a tiny booklet, written by Lee Euler. Back in the 90s, this booklet got hundreds of thousands of new customers for a little-known publisher called Agora.
There’s a big persuasion lesson hidden in these two examples.
You probably see it.
In case you don’t, I won’t spell it out here. But I did spell it out when I sent this article as an email to my newsletter subscribers.
You can subscribe to that newsletter here.
And why would you want to do that?
Well, to learn more about copywriting and marketing. But also, because the more good people who learn about powerful persuasion influence techniques, the better it will be for the world when the time comes to rebuild after covid-19.