Gary Halbert’s Email Masterclass: The Starving Crowd Strategy

Lena: You know, I was thinking about why most marketing feels like such a slog—like you’re trying to shove a boulder uphill just to get one person to notice you. But then I came across this idea from Gary Halbert, the legendary copywriter, about a hamburger stand. He asks, if you and a competitor both opened a stand, what single advantage would you want? Better secret sauce? Higher quality meat? A prime location?

Miles: Most people would probably go for the fancy chef or the high-traffic corner, right? But Halbert’s answer is much more visceral. He says the only advantage he wants is a starving crowd. Think about that for a second. If people are literally starving, they don’t care if your bun is toasted or if your sign is neon. They just want the burger. It’s a complete shift from "how do I sell this?" to "who is already desperate for this?"

Lena: It’s so counterintuitive because we’re taught to focus on the product—the features, the "innovation." But Halbert argues that you should be a student of markets first, not products. He literally said that a guy who has uncovered a hot market can always find a product to fill it, but a guy with a product can’t always find a market.

Miles: Exactly. It’s the difference between hunting for a needle in a haystack and standing at a water station in the middle of a marathon. If you’re at that water station, you don’t need a complex sales pitch to get people to drink. Today, we’re going to dig into how you can use this "starving crowd" philosophy specifically for email marketing—using the principles from Halbert’s famous Boron Letters.

Lena: Which, just for context, are these incredible letters he wrote to his son, Bond, while he was actually in prison. It’s like this raw, unfiltered masterclass in human psychology and direct response.

Miles: And we’re going to show you how to apply his "Master Plan"—from finding that hungry audience to writing emails that feel like a personal letter from a friend rather than a corporate blast.

Lena: So, if you’ve ever felt like your emails are just disappearing into the void, get ready. We’re moving from "pushy salesperson" to "trusted advisor with exactly what they need." Let’s get into how you actually find that crowd before you even think about hitting "send."

Miles: The biggest mistake you can make—and Halbert saw people doing this constantly—is developing a product first and then looking for a place to sell it. He called that "backasswards." If you want your email marketing to actually convert, you have to start by identifying a mailing list or a group of people who are already motivated by a specific need or fear.

Lena: I love how he applied this during a recession. He didn't just think, "I want to sell financial info." He looked for a crowd of people who were terrified of losing their money or were looking for a way to profit from the bad economy. He called them a "hungry crowd."

Miles: And he wasn't just guessing. He’d go through things like the SRDS list book to find people who had already shown they were willing to spend money on specific topics. Today, for you, that might mean looking at who’s active in specific forums, who’s buying certain types of lead magnets, or what groups are surging on social media.

Lena: It’s really about becoming a "student of markets." You’re looking for what people want to buy, not just what you think is cool. Halbert’s strategy was to find the list first, then create "paper and ink"—basically information products or reports—that solve a very specific problem for that list.

Miles: Think about the titles he came up with. "How To Raise Your Child's I.Q. Before It Is Even Born!" for expectant mothers. Or "How To Make A Boatload Of Cash From The Looming Recession!" They aren't vague. They target a specific person with a specific desire.

Lena: It makes me think about how we approach data today. We have all these tools for audience research, but are we actually looking for the "hunger"? Or are we just looking for demographics? Halbert would say to look for the pain point that keeps them up at 2 a.m.

Miles: Right, and once you identify that, your copy becomes almost secondary to the offer itself. If you find a group of people who are desperate to fix their car's gas mileage, and you have a report titled "How To Fix Your Car To Get 50% More Miles Per Gallon!", you don't need to be Shakespeare to get them to click.

Lena: So the first step for anyone listening is to stop writing and start observing. Where is the "starving crowd" in your niche? What are they complaining about in reviews? What are they asking for in forums?

Miles: And once you find them, you need a way to get them into your world without being "that guy"—the pushy marketer. Halbert had a very specific "Master Plan" for moving people from a simple ad or a social post into a high-value email relationship.

Lena: I was fascinated by Halbert's "Master Plan" for the recession campaign. He didn't just run an ad saying "Buy my $5,000 course." That would have bombed. Instead, he used a "lead generating ad."

Miles: Yeah, he’d run an ad in a paper like Investor’s Business Daily with that big, bold headline about making cash from the recession. But the call to action wasn't a purchase—it was just "e-mail me for the free report." He wanted to find the "hot prospects"—the people willing to take that extra step to get information.

Lena: This is exactly what we call a lead magnet today, but the way he structured the follow-up is the real secret sauce. Once they emailed him, an "automatic e-mail" went out immediately with the report. No friction. Just giving them what he promised.

Miles: And here’s the key: that first report asked for nothing. He just gave them great info to make them happy and think nice things about him. He was building "believability" and trust before he ever asked for a dime.

Lena: It's such a psychological move. He’d wait about a week before sending the next email. In that second email, he’d give even more good info—this time about what the big players in the stock market were doing—and only then would he mention, "Hey, we know a guy who is successful at this, click here to see his stuff."

Miles: It’s a "delayed ask" strategy. He’d alternate between purely informative reports—like how to live off interest or government bailouts—and reports that pitched an associate’s course where they’d split the profit 50/50. Because the products were high-ticket—around $5,000—he only needed two sales out of 700 leads to be profitable.

Lena: That math is incredible. He calculated that if an ad cost $2,500 and he got 700 names, each lead cost him about $3.57. To break even, he only needed a conversion rate of one-third of one percent!

Miles: And since sending emails costs basically zero, he had "unlimited attempts" to make it profitable. If they didn't want currency trading info, maybe they wanted info on foreclosures or the stock market. He could keep offering different solutions to the same "hungry crowd."

Lena: It’s a reminder that your email list is your most valuable asset because it allows for those multiple attempts. But to keep people on that list, you have to write in a way that doesn't feel like a "sales job."

Miles: Which brings us to how you actually put pen to paper—or fingers to keyboard. Halbert had some very specific, almost "creepy" techniques as some might call them today, to make his writing feel like a one-on-one conversation.

Lena: One of the things that really stands out in the Boron Letters is how much they feel like... well, letters. He’d include the date, the exact time, and even where he was sitting. He’d say things like, "It's so hot in this room I have to keep a bandanna under my arm to keep from getting sweat stains on the paper."

Miles: It’s that "A-pile" versus "B-pile" concept. Most marketing goes into the B-pile—the "junk" pile that we ignore. The A-pile is personal mail from friends or family. Halbert’s goal was always to make his copy look and feel like it belonged in the A-pile.

Lena: In an email context, that means writing as if you're sitting across from one specific person at a kitchen table. Not "Dear Customers" or "Hey Everyone." Just "you." He often started his letters with direct questions to establish a quick connection—like "Guess what?" or "Did you know...?"

Miles: It’s about intimacy and immediacy. He’d use everyday transitions like "Anyway," "Well," or "Now, check this out" to keep the flow natural. It makes you feel like you’re in the middle of a conversation, not reading a lecture.

Lena: I noticed he also used what he called "seeds of curiosity." He’d end a paragraph with something like, "And now, you’re about to learn one of my very most important secrets," which just forces you to keep reading.

Miles: It works, but you have to be careful not to overdo it. If every sentence is a "secret," the reader starts to see the "technique" instead of the message. The real goal is to be "perfectly clear." Halbert said if you’re writing for applause, you’ll go home with empty pockets.

Lena: That’s a great distinction. Good writing in marketing isn't about being "clever"—it’s about being invisible so the message gets through. He even suggested reading your copy out loud to find where you "verbally stumble." If it's not smooth to say, it's not smooth to read.

Miles: I think that’s a drill everyone should try. Read your latest marketing email out loud. Do you sound like a person, or do you sound like a brochure? If you’re using words you’d never say to a friend over coffee, you’re probably in the B-pile.

Lena: And it’s not just the words—it’s how they look on the page. Halbert was obsessed with "eye relief." He knew that if a block of text looks too "forbidding" with long sentences and tiny margins, people just won’t read it.

Miles: That "eye relief" is even more critical now on mobile screens. We need to talk about the visual side of these emails—how to make them look like an "eye treat" rather than a homework assignment.

Lena: Halbert had this fascinating take on layout. He said your ad should catch attention, but not in a way that makes the reader "notice" the layout. He wanted his ads to have an "editorial look"—like an exciting news flash or a rave review from a reporter, rather than a flashy commercial.

Miles: Right, because editorial content gets five times as much readership as advertising content. If your email looks like a highly produced corporate newsletter with banners and logos everywhere, the brain screams "AD!" and shuts down. But if it’s plain text with wide margins and plenty of white space, it looks like a personal message.

Lena: He advocated for short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs. He even liked using parentheses (like this) to provide a little break for the eyes. It’s all about making the page look "inviting" and "easy-to-read."

Miles: It reminds me of his story about the family crest catalog. He spent all this time creating a beautiful, four-color catalog with 70 items. It completely bombed. Then he tried a professional brochure. Only slightly better.

Lena: And then he went back to the "A-pile" strategy. He wrote a very personal letter and just enclosed a single snapshot of one item. He started it with, "I thought you might like to see what the Noble coat-of-arms looks like in full color so I am sending you the enclosed snapshot."

Miles: That one simple, personal-looking letter brought in 40 million dollars! The moral was clear: you do a better selling job when it doesn't appear you're attempting to do a sales job.

Lena: It’s such a powerful lesson for email. Sometimes the best "design" is no design at all. Just a plain text email that looks like it came from a friend’s iPhone.

Miles: Exactly. It goes back to that "one person" principle. If you were emailing a friend to recommend a book, you wouldn't use a HTML template with a "buy now" button. You’d just send a link and tell them why you liked it.

Lena: So, the next time you're about to send a blast, maybe ask yourself: "Would I send this layout to my son?" If the answer is no, you might be over-complicating it.

Miles: But even with the right look and the right tone, you still need a structure to move people toward that "action" part of the Master Plan. Halbert leaned heavily on a classic formula that’s still the gold standard today.

Lena: We can't talk about the Boron Letters without talking about AIDA—Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Halbert walked his son through this formula as the "sturdy building blocks" for any creative idea.

Miles: It starts with Attention. You have to grab them immediately, but—and this is a huge "but"—without annoying them. He hated those "gimmicks" like fake money that people use to trick you into looking. He said if you truly understand the customer's problem, getting their attention won't be hard.

Lena: Then comes Interest. You give them a reason to keep reading. This is where those "seeds of curiosity" come in, or sharing a fascinating detail about the "starving crowd" you've identified.

Miles: Desire is where you show them how you’ll solve their problem and make their life better. Halbert’s trick here was to translate every single fact into a benefit. He’d make a "fact sheet" and then ask "so what does this mean for my reader?" for every single point.

Lena: That’s such a great exercise. Don’t just say the report is 20 pages—say it’s "a quick 15-minute read that could save you thousands in taxes."

Miles: And finally, Action. You have to tell them exactly what to do next. In his recession plan, the action was simply "email me for the free report." It was low-friction and direct.

Lena: What I love is that he didn't just use this for the big sales letters. He used it for every step of the sequence. Each email is a mini-AIDA. The subject line gets Attention, the first sentence builds Interest, the body creates Desire for the info, and the link is the Action.

Miles: It’s a "revenue discipline," not a "creative exercise." He wasn't trying to be a poet; he was trying to move people. And he believed that once you find a "winning formula," it's more important than the profit from any single campaign because you can use it over and over.

Lena: So, how do we actually "internally imprint" these formulas? Halbert had a very specific, almost physical way he recommended his son learn to write great copy.

Miles: Oh, the handwriting thing! This is one of those "old school" tips that sounds tedious but is actually brilliant.

Lena: Halbert told his son to find a collection of good ads and direct mail pieces—what we call a "swipe file"—and actually copy them out by hand. Word for word.

Miles: He said it wasn't just an empty experience. It was a way of "internally imprinting" the process of good writing onto your nerves, muscle fibers, and brain cells. By physically writing out a successful letter, you start to feel the rhythm and the flow of the persuasion.

Lena: I’ve heard of people doing this today with great email sequences or landing pages. It’s like a musician practicing scales. You’re building the "muscle memory" of what works.

Miles: He also had a process for creating new ideas called "nugget notes." You collect everything related to the product, look at your swipe file for headline ideas, and just write down "nuggets"—little words or phrases that pop into your mind.

Lena: And then—this is my favorite part—you walk away. He told Bond to "let it go" for a day or two. Go for a walk, do the dishes, whatever. He believed that the award-winning idea would land in your lap while you were doing something else.

Miles: It’s about letting your subconscious do the heavy lifting after you’ve fed it all that research. Most people try to force the "creative" part at the desk, but the best insights often come when you're "semi-hibernating" as another writer put it.

Lena: So the "Playbook" here is pretty clear: Start with research, build a swipe file, write out the greats, brainstorm your "nuggets," and then give your brain space to breathe.

Miles: And then, once you have that draft, you test it. Halbert was the original A/B testing guru. He’d mail different variations and wait for the results. Today, you can do that in minutes with subject line testing or Facebook ads.

Lena: He knew that if you can consistently test, you’ll eventually find a "winner" that can carry your business for years. It’s all about finding that one "boatload of cash" campaign.

Miles: As we bring this to a close, it’s worth reflecting on how timeless these principles really are. Even though Halbert was writing from a prison cell in the 80s about direct mail, his obsession with the "starving crowd" and the "one-on-one conversation" is exactly what works in 2026 digital marketing.

Lena: It really comes down to human psychology, doesn't it? People want to feel seen, they want their problems solved, and they want to hear from a real person, not a corporate robot.

Miles: If you’re looking for a concrete next step, maybe take a look at your current email list or that group of people you’re trying to reach. Are they a "starving crowd"? Or are you just trying to sell hamburgers to people who just finished a five-course meal?

Lena: And if you find that hunger, try writing your next email like a letter to a friend. Tell them where you’re sitting, ask them a direct question, and focus entirely on the benefit for them.

Miles: Remember Halbert’s "Master Plan"—give away value first, build that trust, and only then offer the solution. It’s a slower road than "blast and burn," but it’s the one that leads to the 40-million-dollar family-crest letter.

Lena: It’s been so fascinating to dive into these letters. There’s something so raw and honest about his advice. It’s a great reminder that at the end of every email is a real human being with real desires.

Miles: Definitely. Thank you for walking through this "Master Plan" with me. It’s definitely given me a lot to think about for my own writing.

Lena: Same here. Thanks to everyone for joining us on this deep dive into the Boron Letters. It’s time to go find your starving crowd!