The “Stolen” Masterpiece Marketing Method…

Here’s a little-known detail about the “most successful sales letter in history:”

The letter’s copywriter stole borrowed the idea.

The writer in question: Martin Conroy.

The letter: The Wall Street Journal’s “Two Young Men.”

The set up: Two young men went to college together. Both were better than average students. They lived in the same town. They were happily married. Both worked at the same midwest manufacturing company.

Then the letter drops the hammer: “But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.”

Then comes the moral of the story: One person (the president) read The Journal and had knowledge. The other didn’t.

A classic winner-loser fable…

…that helped The Journal generate more than $2 billion in subscription sales between 1975 and 2003…

…and vaulted Martin Conroy to fame and fortune.

Fifty-six years before Conroy penned “Two Young Men,” copywriter Bruce Barton wrote “The story of two men who fought in the civil war.”

Both men returned to the same town in Massachusetts. Both “enjoyed the same educational advantages.” Their “prospects for success were equally good.”

But one man “accumulated a fortune.” The other “had hard luck” and “spent his last years almost entirely dependent on his children for support.”

The difference: The winner enrolled in The Alexander Hamilton Institute’s Modern Business Course and Service. The one with “hard luck” didn’t.

Sound familiar?

And lest you think Bruce Barton originated the story, he borrowed the idea from a previous ad for the Roth Memory Mail Course that told of “two clerks in New York City.” (You can guess what happened to those clerks.)

This is great news for you!

You do not have to conjure original content ideas from out of nowhere. Great content ideas abound. Borrow them. Adopt them for your business.

Even $2 billion marketing masterpieces were created that way — inspired by someone else’s story that was inspired by someone else’s story.

If you want to create your own profit-generating marketing masterpieces:

1) Study the masters. “Two Young Men” may never have happened if Martin Conroy hadn’t studied “The story of two men who fought in the civil war.”

2) Develop habits and systems to generate a flood of content ideas (#1 is just one way to do it).

You can do both #1 and #2 if you join Club Storyville.

Members get unlimited admission to the Storytelling Hall of Fame. I share the greatest of the great ads, break them down, and draw from them marketing lessons which you can apply to your business.

“Two Young Men” was among the charter inductees. I add new inductees every month.

As for #2, you’ll find “How to Generate a Flood of Client-Attracting Content Ideas” in Club Storyville’s “Training Replays” room.

After you watch that, you can watch “How to Put Personality in Your Copy,” “How to Use AI Wisely,” and “How to Create Client-Attracting Lead Magnets.”

And here’s the best thing…

Club Storyville is Free for Seven Days

Sign-up here for a 7-day trial. Visit the Hall of Fame. Watch the trainings. If you like what you see, stick around and become a member for a small monthly investment. If you’ve gotten all you need, cancel your membership within seven days, and you haven’t spent a dime. Click the button below to join now…

(Free for seven days)