Dashiell Hammett, the famous mystery writer, once gave other writers this advice:

"When in doubt, have someone come crashing through the door with a gun."

His advice reflects on the power of drama. When copywriting, you have to remember two things: it's hard to get someone's attention and it's hard to keep their attention

One excellent way to grab attention right from the get-go is a technique known (appropriately enough) as a "Grabber." The classic is the dollar bill letter, made famous by copywriting legend Gary Halbert. He would attach pennies, quarters, dollars, even c-notes to the top of the letter to get his prospect's attention. Of course, once you get them to pay attention, you need to follow through and KEEP IT! This means that you need to incorporate the "Grabber" item into the overall context of the message given. Halbert's formula usually went something like this:

Dear _____,

As you can see I have attached a nice, crisp dollar bill to the top of this letter. Why have I done this? Actually there are two reasons:

1. I have something very important to say to you and I needed some way to make sure this letter would catch your attention.

2. And second, since what I am going to tell you is how you can make hundreds of dollars, I thought it especially appropriate to use a dollar as an attention getting eye catcher.