The most successful sales letter EVER

(And how to replicate the principles behind it)

This 2-page sales letter generated over $2 BILLION in revenue.

In fact, it’s the most profitable direct mail letter of all time!

So today, I’m going to break it down & explain why it worked so well.

And how you can apply some of the same principles behind it to your own emails (with the help of AI).

Let’s dig in, shall we?

The Letter That Changed Direct Mail Forever

In 1975, a copywriter named Martin Conroy sat down to write a sales letter for The Wall Street Journal.

At the time, the Journal was struggling to acquire new subscribers through direct mail.

Their existing control letters were performing okay - but nothing spectacular.

So they hired Conroy to take a crack at it.

And what he went on to create ended up becoming nothing less than the most successful sales letter of all time:

“The Tale Of Two Young Men” letter.

Some mind-blowing stats:

• The letter ran pretty much unchanged for 25 years

• It was mailed over 100 million times

• And it generated more than $2 billion in subscription revenue.

Now, before we break down the full letter, I highly recommend giving it a read (it should only take a few minutes).

You can do that here.

Once you’ve done that, keep reading so you can find out the 4 principles behind it.

Principle 1: It starts with a story (not a pitch)

Nobody likes being sold to.

But everyone loves stories.

Which is why this sales letter immediately hooks you:

It starts with a story (rather than a product pitch).

Here’s the opening:

“On a beautiful late spring afternoon, twenty-five years ago, two young men graduated from the same college. They were very much alike, these two young men. Both had been better than average students, both were personable and both—as young college graduates are—were filled with ambitious dreams for the future.”

But putting the fact that he used a story aside, Conroy also did an amazing job of creating an irresistible curiosity gap:

Two young men.

Same background.

Same work ethic.

Same opportunities.

But then, fast forward 25 years:

One is a middle manager. The other runs the entire company.

At this point, you can’t stop reading.

You need to know what made the difference.

Principle 2: It sells emotions over benefits

Everyone talks about selling benefits over features.

But there’s yet another level to the game:

Selling emotions.

This letter doesn’t focus on making more money (that’s implied).

Instead, it focuses on status and prestige.

Take this passage, for example:

“Each business day, The Journal’s pages include a broad range of information of interest and significance to business-minded people, no matter where it comes from. Not just stocks and finance, but anything and everything in the whole, fast-moving world of business...The Wall Street Journal gives you all the business news you need—when you need it.”

Sure, Conroy is definitely “selling” the usefulness of the newspaper.

But in a very subtle way, he also makes reading the news feel like something successful business people do.

It’s about identity, respect, and power.

And sure, being a successful businessman usually means you make good money.

But the emotional payoff - who you become - that’s what he’s really selling here.

Principle 3: It anchors back to the story after the CTA

After presenting and breaking down the offer, the letter circles back to the two young men story.

Here’s how Conroy does it:

“About those two college classmates I mention at the beginning of this letter: they were i graduated from college together and together got started in the business world. So what made their lives in business different? Knowledge. Useful knowledge. And its application.”

This reinforcement drives the point and makes the decision feel like a no-brainer.

It’s not just about subscribing to a newspaper - it’s about choosing which path you want to take in your career.

But the ending is also genius…

Principle 4: It ends with a humble disclaimer

Here’s the exact closing:

“I cannot promise you that success will be instantly yours if you start reading The Wall Street Journal. But I can guarantee that you will find The Journal always interesting, always reliable, and always useful.”

It’s counterintuitive but this builds massive trust.

Because it makes the whole pitch feel even more credible.

Instead of overpromising, Conroy acknowledges the limitations of his product - which actually makes the offer more persuasive.

Brilliant!

Now, here’s the thing:

These principles worked in 1975.

And they continue to work today.

So with that in mind, I created an AI prompt that helps you apply this exact framework to your own sales emails.

Let me walk you through it.

This Week’s AI Prompt (And An Example)

The prompt interviews you about your product, audience, and goals - then generates a complete email using the “Two Young Men” structure.

Here’s how to use it:

1. Copy the prompt below

2. Paste it into ChatGPT or Claude

3. Answer the interview questions

4. Get a complete sales email following Conroy’s framework

Quick Example

Now, to give you a sense of what kind of output you can expect, here’s an example of an unedited email I generated for our 21 Days To Better Copy challenge using today’s prompt:

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Subject line: The copywriter who couldn’t tell good from bad

~

Two marketers started using AI to write their copy last year.

Same tools. Same prompts. Same business goals.

Both were convinced AI would transform their marketing.

Fast forward six months.

One is still tweaking ChatGPT outputs for hours, unsure if what she’s publishing is brilliant or garbage. Her ads underperform. Her emails get ignored. She’s producing more content than ever—but her results have actually gotten worse.

The other? She generates ten headline variations in thirty seconds and knows instantly which one will convert. She produces full email drafts in minutes and edits them with surgical precision. Her output has 10x’d, but her quality hasn’t dropped. If anything, it’s sharper.

Same AI. Completely different outcomes.

The difference wasn’t the technology.

It was pattern recognition.

The second marketer had trained her brain to recognize what good copy actually looks like. So when AI generated something, she could evaluate it immediately. She knew what to keep, what to cut, and what to rewrite.

The first marketer never built that foundation.

So AI just helped her produce mediocre work faster.

This is the gap that’s quietly separating marketers right now.

We’re in an AI marketing renaissance—but only for people who’ve developed the underlying skill. Everyone else is just scaling their mistakes.

The good news? Pattern recognition isn’t some innate talent. It’s trainable. And the fastest way to train it is through copywork: transcribing legendary copy by hand until the patterns, rhythms, and structures become part of how you think.

That’s why we created 21 Days To Better Copy.

It’s a 21-day challenge where you spend about 20 minutes a day doing copywork on carefully curated ads, headlines, and sales letters from history’s best marketers. The same method Gary Halbert, David Ogilvy, and Benjamin Franklin used to master persuasive writing.

Here’s what you get:

• 21 handpicked, annotated pieces of legendary copy

• Daily emails with your assignment and accountability

• A private WhatsApp community with other participants

• Free access to our LinkedIn 101 and Email 101 guides

• A physical copy of Alex Hormozi’s $100M Offers shipped to you

• Bonus: AI prompt vault to optimize your copy once your taste is trained

The challenge starts December 3rd and ends December 23rd—right before the holidays.

Your investment: $99 (50% off the regular $199 price through Black Friday).

After December 1st at midnight, the discount expires.

[Click here to join 21 Days To Better Copy]

Remember those two marketers?

The only thing separating them was whether they’d trained their brain to recognize good copy before they started using AI.

Twenty-one days from now, you could have that same pattern recognition—the kind that turns AI from a crutch into a genuine multiplier.

I can’t promise you’ll become a world-class copywriter in three weeks. But I can promise that if you do the work, you’ll finish this challenge with a fundamentally sharper eye for what converts—and a much clearer sense of how to write it yourself.

See you on the inside,

Daniel

P.S. — We have a 14-day, no-questions-asked refund policy. If you don’t feel like you’re getting massive value, just email us and we’ll refund 100% of your money. Zero risk.

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See how it follows the exact same structure as Conroy’s letter?

Story → Emotional benefit → Offer → Story callback → Humble disclaimer.

And sure, it can definitely use a few edits. But overall, this email is pretty solid!

Now without any further ado…

Here’s the prompt (so you can give it a try for yourself):