The timeless principles of engaging advertisement
We all know that copywriting is an important skill to have, whether we're creating email subject lines or entire campaigns. But where did this art form come from? What were some of the most successful techniques used by super-successful copywriters in the early 20th century? And how can you apply those techniques today?
In 1925, copywriter extraordinaire Claude Hopkins self-published a book called Scientific Advertising, which taught his revolutionary ads method. This book was a best-seller for years, and many of the principles Hopkins described are still applied to ad campaigns today.
How advertising laws are established
the advertisement used to be through random guessing and guided by opinions, but the scientific approach made it more evidence-based and has shed the light on the most important aspects
Just Salesmanship
be as a salesman, when you are writing the ads, visualize the reader as someone standing in front of you, in fact, that person doesn’t know you, and you are the one who interrupted him
he is now all ears listening to what you got
- are you going to tell them a short speech?
- ❌ do you really speak English
- ✅ speak as long as you think it should
- are you going to tell a long speech?
- ❌ he will run out immediately
- ✅ speak as brief as you think it should
- are you dressing like Bizzard clothes (creativity)
- ❌ trying to create a new fashion!
- ✅ people trust what they already used to see
- are you looking for admiration and applause?
- ❌ yay!, I’m a good speaker, we made the best conversation (one side) in the world
- ✅ only give them enough information to make an action, is it really your role to make them feel entertained
- are you telling them first what would catch anyone?
- ❌ are you human, listen you gonna need this
- ✅ the reader gets curious, but he won’t complete the entire process, it turns out I don’t care, we both wasted time for each-other
Offer service
often selling is a game that is played for sake of one best interest (seller/buyer)
everyone is pulling for their end
as an advertiser, you should be on the buyer side, we know, the buyer is more selfish when it comes to spending, and doesn't give a dime for your efforts
- do you ask to sell
- ❌ direct selling
- ✅ people do only what please them, and they hate being driven by someone else
- acting like we share the same interest
- ❌ they are humans, I'm human, they will understand
- ✅ it is often the interest of the ad-writer not the same as the reader
headlines
what makes an ad effective, is selecting the right audience to talk to, eliminating all the others
selling mans products to women is a wasted effort/money
target all the world and the people in need won’t feel special
are we looking for the perfect headline?, kinda, often the change in the headline will boost the sales, people are getting triggered differently
rarely sells comes because people need what we offer but they are driven by the emotional side, people buy experience, status, the hype surrounding the product
Psychology
aim to make the buyer experience your product, get used to it, then take it away from them, they will beg you to sell it.
selling something for free gives the impression of poor product
offering a sample a taste, a small teaser will make the product stands as a “well trusted” thing
people love familiar things, make your product like, it naturally belongs to the buyer and he will do his best to get it
people buy experiences and the overall atmosphere of the product, thus to make the product sell itself, start working on that mental impression
tell your full story
serious things require a ton of information when buying a new car is considered, which obviously costs worth of money, people will crave information, so give it to them
Art In Advertising
images should not select the audience, nor gap the attention, both are the headline objective
images should only help to sell
things to costly
educating people, changing their habits, introducing new “trouble” to their lives is so expensive, but going into the ones that already knew and are convinced is the right decision
satisfy the needs instead of creating them
being on the customer side “us” is like validating their decision (being already a customer) by reading the education, agreeing on something that they already stand beside
but being on the other side is considered as “them”
preventing a disaster = long term reward
curing a happening disaster = short term reward
why the majority of people tend to be lazy is because we are wired to seek short term rewards, eating one donate is way satisfying than a one-hour workout
focus on the positive side (immediate reward), rather than preventing a disaster
being specific
the easiest what to appear incapable of selling out “perceived bad product” is to start to generalize and exaggerate your product, and often stab on products to which their uses are fully committed.
generalize == perceived lie ⇒ he is bagging us to purchase his product
peoples appreciate behind the scene efforts and the money spent on research, so they think all of this is for them.
one fact that can boost tremendously the ad
If a claim is worth making, make it in the most impressive way
information
one simple fact means all the success of an ad, someone might see an ad and say, I can do better and underappreciated all the weeks and efforts of research
digging in books to find facts, is the ultimate source of useful source
people don’t consider changes without a strong reason, and the perfect fact represent the perfect reason
strategy
the product name is in itself an advertisement, meanless names are okay, but the ones that tell a story, worth millions
A vast amount of space is wasted in displaying names and pictures which tell no selling story
some names lead to shared iniquity, you can easily know the product behind it and so all the alternatives
sell should be directed to only new customers, if a potential customers change his mind, he will never consider it again
literally, you got one chance when the customer turns to you
test campaigns
following the analogy of a salesman going in person, never expect the interest of millions if you can’t get one person interest
let the thousands decide what the millions will do
start making small tests in small groups, then iterate by making improvements and increasing the group size
keep iterating on small groups, even one particular ad seems to outperform
Use of samples
samples offer an opportunity to include “free”, and they usually pay themselves
the “free” keyword forces the reader to take immediate action, otherwise, he will forget
always try to get immediate action, peoples tend to postpone, forget, procrastinate ...
individuality
if people treat the ads as they treat people, they might commit to it all in, so they defend it, convince others about it, and always stand by its side, and vice versa
this is done by introducing a personality to the ad
when an ad succeed, make it the spirit of the other ads, changing the ad's core every time, is like making it stranger each time
negative advertisement
People are naturally biased towards positivity, easiness, friendliness and they hate orders and being imposed onto something
invite people don’t wrong them
Assume that people will do what you ask