Blog

On Companies and Leadership:

No idea is big unless it can work for 30 years

Committees can criticize but they can’t create, "search the parks in all your cities you’ll find no statues of committees"

Empower lieutenants - the more centers of leadership you create the stronger your company will be.

Never allow two people to do a job one person could do.

Never summon people to your office, it frightens them.  Go to their office unannounced.  Wander around.

If you want to get action communicate verbally.

Advertising and Copywriting:

Recommends John Caple’s book: Tested Advertising Methods

When you use a photograph of a woman, men ignore your advertisement - and visa-versa 

Tell your reader what your product will do for him or her, and tell it with specifics

Write your copy in the form of a story

Avoid analogies.  They are widely misunderstood

Stay away from superlatives - no brag and boast

If you included a testimonial in your copy, you make it more credible

Readers find the endorsements of fellow consumers more persuasive than the puffery of anonymous copywriters

Testimonials from celebrities get high recall scores, but readers tend to remember the celebrity and forget the product.  They assume the celebrity has been bought, which is usually the case.

Testimonials from experts can be persuasive.

Copywriters believe that markdowns and special offers are boring, but consumers don’t think so.  They are above average in recall.

Always include the price of your product.

When the price is left out, consumers have a way of turning the page.

All my experience says that for a great many products, long copy sells more than short.

Advertisements with long copy convey the impression that you have something important to say, whether people read the copy or not.

Direct response advertisers know that short copy doesn’t sell.

Advertising suffers from sporadic epidemics of "artdirectoritis".  Those afflicted with this disease speak in hushed voices of ‘cool grey bands of type’ as if the copy in the advertisements was a mere design element.  They extol the importance of 'movement', 'balance' and other mysterious principles of design.  I tell them KISS - an acronym for Keep It Simple, Stupid.  I used the same simple layout for all our advertisements in magazines... I challenge you to find a better layout.

Readers look first at the illustration, then the headline, then the copy - so you put the elements in that order, with the headline below the photo.  I f you put the headline above the photo you are asking people to scan in an order which does not fit their habit.

On average headlines below the photo are read by ten percent more people than headlines above.

More people read captions under photos more than read the body copy so never use a photo without putting a caption under it.

Your caption should include the brand name and the promise.

There is no law that says advertisements have to look like advertisements.

Copy has priority over illustration.

Set your copy in serif type.

Use black type on white background.

Advertising agencies usually set their headlines in capital letters.  THIS IS A MISTAKE.

Capitals retard reading.

Another way to make headlines hard to read is to superimpose them over the photo.

Another common mistake is to set copy in a measure which is too wide or too narrow to be legible.

Which typefaces are easiest to read?  Those which people are accustomed to reading like the century family, Carlson, Baskerville and Jenson.

Sanserif faces are particularly difficult to read.

Set key paragraphs in bold or italic.  Help the reader into your paragraphs with arrowheads, bullets, asterisks and marginal marks.
  
If you have a lot of unrelated facts to cite, don’t use cumbersome connectives, simply number them.

11 point type is about right.

If you use leading between paragraphs you increase your readership by about 12%

Captions should appear under all your photographs, twice as many people read them as read body copy

Long copy - more than 350 words - actually attracts more readers than short copy

Use your captions to sell.  The best captions are mini-advertisements in themselves.

News and demonstrations work particularly well.

Your headline is the most important element.

I’ve seen one headline produce 5X as many orders as another.  If your headline promises your strongest and most direct benefit you are on your way....

Long copy sells more than short copy, particularly when you are asking the reader to spend a lot of money.  Only amateurs use short copy.

Cross heads give breathing space to your copy and make it more readable.  Allow skimmers to get your main points.

Testimonials increase credibility and sales.  If one testimonial tests well, try two.

Don’t use testimonials by celebrities unless they are recognized authorities, like Arnold Palmer on golf clubs. 

When you advertise repeatedly in the same magazine response rates almost always drop.

In some magazines your ad may work six times a year and in others you may be able to use it 12 X a year.

Remember there is no correlation between the size of your audience and the number of orders you receive

Advertising which promises no benefit to the consumer does not sell, yet the majority of campaigns contain no promise whatsoever.

The selection of the promise is the most valuable contribution that research can make to the advertising process

One method is to show the consumer a number of promises telling him each one is a promise for a different product and ask them to rate them by which they would be most interested in.

Try to find a promise which is not only persuasive but also unique.

The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to building the most sharply defined image for his product gets the largest share of the market.

The manufacturer who finds himself up the creek is the short sighted opportunist who siphons off his advertising dollars for short term promotions.

Price off deals and other such hypodermics find favor with sales managers but their effect is ephemeral and they can be habit forming.

A cut price offer can induce people to try a brand, but they return to their habitual brands as if nothing had happened.

The higher you price your product, the more desirable it becomes in the eyes of the consumer.

Resist the usual.  In advertising the beginning of greatness is to be different.

The best way to increase the sale of a product is to improve the product.

Factual advertising sells better than empty advertising.

The majority of campaigns fail to give consumers enough information.