I am two-thirds of the way through reading, "My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising," by Claude Hopkins. I am a big believer in studying and trying to emulate strategies that have stood the test of time. It is more efficient than re-creating the wheel or worse, screwing up when a successful, proven pattern is easily within reach.
Hopkins, writing on the "science" of advertising eighty years ago, defined the core methodologies of effective advertising with such economy and clarity that all of the industry giants that came behind him have emulated his strategies ever since.
Ad industry legend David Ogilvy, who I blogged about recently, went so far as to say, "Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book (Scientific Advertising) seven times. It changed the course of my life."
So what are the great insights of Hopkins? Surprisingly fundamental stuff that, unsurprisingly, is so often ignored by ad makers seeking to be fresh, amusing or entertaining.
To Hopkins, scientific advertising can be summed up as follows:
- It starts with measuring campaign effectiveness in the fundamental metric of cost per customer or cost per dollar of sales since you can not improve upon what you don't measure.
- Advertising is measured by its effectiveness in generating sales. Period.
- The approach to ad creation should be very similar in content, tone and length to what you would say to a prospect if you were sitting face to face.
- Be plain and sincere in writing, not glib and showy, as this puts customers on edge since they know they are being pitched. Always be asking yourself if the message would help you sell if you were presenting the identical message to the prospect in person.
- Big type and headlines come at a cost of space that eats into effectiveness. Never forget the trade-off.
- Don't write the ad to please the seller, write it for the buyer.
- Focus on service in ads, not asking the customer to buy. Always be asking, what's in it for the customer to respond to your ad, and never confuse your objectives with the prospect's.
- Study ads that are successful (if you see the same ad running for years, it probably is running without change for a reason).
- Mail order is a good medium to study since approaches are so rigorously measured.
- Use coupons/cut outs as a reminder mechanism of what the customer needs to do as much as a call to action item. Consumers are often so busy that something catches their interest but they don't have time to respond in that moment. A cut out acts as that reminder.
- Pictures are useless space wasters unless their role in ad and space cost tradeoff is crystal clear.
- The purpose of a headline is to pick out people that you can interest. Really test if the headline speaks clearly to the target and that they know what they are reading and can quickly qualify if of interest to them. Don't tease or make them guess. The headline is often more important than the ad copy.
- Play to human psychology, people's images of themselves, aspirations, reverse psychology; never cheapen or talk down to consumers.
- Be specific on what your value proposition is. All the better if can quantify and validate that has been tested (e.g., our profit percentage is X).
- Make sure to tell your full story (hold nothing back), as it may be your only chance to connect.
