I just carried out an interview with Drayton Bird (more on that soon) where I asked him his recommendations for books and authors to study.

One thing Drayton said is that you should not restrict your reading to only business books. You should also read for leisure. (I won’t go too much into this as it’s all on the interview.)

However, very soon afterwards I received an email from Ken McCarthy of the System Seminar.

In this email he said something which really resonated with me, and should with you, too, if you intend doing well in your business: Be all you can be. Read.

He points to a post on his blog entitled: Ten classic direct marketing books, where he lists his ten best books on the subject.

This was fantastic news to me as I’m always on the lookout for more material to sink my teeth into (if I was a vampire I’d be biting into books rather than necks).

Here’s his list:

1. My Life in Advertising – Claude Hopkins
2. Tested Advertising Methods – John Caples (Fourth edition or earlier)
3. How I Raised Myself from Failure to Success in Selling – Frank Bettger
4. Scientific Advertising – Claude Hopkins
5. How to Write a Good Advertisement – Victor Schwab
6. My First Sixty Years in Advertising – Maxwell Sackheim
7. Secrets of Successful Direct Mail – Richard Benson
8. Breakthrough Advertising – Eugene Schwartz
9. The Robert Collier Letter Book – Robert Collier
10. Common Sense Direct and Digital Marketing – Drayton Bird

That’s a good list.  I already have seven of them.

However, I think he missed one: How to write sales letters that sell by Drayton Bird which, in my opinion, is even better than The Robert Collier Letter Book.

Going too far, did you say?

Woah, give me a break and check it out yourself before getting the whip out.

Anyway, that is quite a comprehensive list and one you’d do well to take note of.

Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water
from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, “Best in the
world,” “Lowest prices in existence,” etc., are at best simply claiming
the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They
suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a
carelessness of truth. They lead readers to discount all the statements
that you make.

People recognize a certain license in selling talk as they do in poetry.
A man may say, “Supreme in quality” without seeming a liar, though one
may know that other brands are equally as good. One expects a salesman
to put his best foot forward, and excuses some exaggeration born of
enthusiasm. But just for that reason general statements count for
little. And a man inclined to superlatives must expect that his every
statement will be taken with some caution.

But a man who makes a specific claim is either telling the truth or a
lie. People do not expect an advertiser to lie. They know that he can’t
lie in the best mediums. The growing respect for advertising has largely
come through a growing regard for its truth.

So a definite statement is usually accepted. Actual figures are not
generally discounted. Specific facts, when stated, have their full
weight and effect.

This is very important to consider in written or personal salesmanship.
The weight of an argument may often be multiplied by making it specific.
Say that a tungsten lamp gives more light than a carbon and you leave
some doubt. Say that it gives three and one-third times the light and
people realize that you have made tests and comparisons.

A dealer may say, “Our prices have been reduced” without creating any
marked impression. But when he says, “Our prices have been reduced 25
per cent” he gets the full value of his announcement.

A mail order advertiser sold women’s clothing to people of the poorer
classes. For years he used the slogan, “Lowest prices in America.” His
rivals all copied that. Then he guaranteed to undersell any other
dealer. His rivals did likewise. Soon those claims became common to
every advertiser in his line, and they became commonplace.

Then, under able advice, he changed his statement to “Our net profit is
3 per cent.” That was a definite statement and it proved very
impressive. With their volume of business it was evident that their
prices must be minimum. No one could be expected to do business on less
than 3 per cent. The next year their business made a sensational
increase.

At one time in the automobile business there was a general impression
that profits were excessive. One well-advised advertiser came out with
the statement, “Our profit is 9 per cent.” Then he cited actual costs on
the hidden parts of a $1,500 car. They amounted to $735, without
including anything one could easily see. This advertiser made a great
success along those lines at that time.

Shaving soaps have long been advertised “Abundant lather,” “Does not dry
on the face,” “Acts quickly,” etc. One advertiser had as good a chance
as another to impress those claims.

Then a new maker came into the field. It was a tremendously difficult
field, for every customer had to be taken from someone else. He stated
specific facts. He said, “Multiplies itself in lather 250 times.”
“Softens the beard in one minute.” “Maintains its creamy fullness for
ten minutes on the face.” “The final result of testing and comparing 130
formulas.” Perhaps never in advertising has there been a quicker and
greater success in an equally difficult field.

Makers of safety razors have long advertised quick shaves. One maker
advertised a 78-second shave. That was definite. It indicated actual
tests. That man at once made a sensational advance in his sales.

In the old days all beers were advertised as “Pure.” The claim made no
impression. The bigger the type used, the bigger the folly. After
millions had been spent to impress a platitude, one brewer pictured a
plate glass room where beer was cooled in filtered air. He pictured a
filter of white wood pulp through which every drop was cleared. He told
how bottles were washed four times by machinery. How he went down 4,000
feet for pure water. How 1,018 experiments had been made to attain a
yeast to give beer that matchless flavor. And how all the yeast was
forever made from that adopted mother cell.

All the claims were such as any brewer might have made. They were mere
essentials in ordinary brewing. But he was the first to tell the people
about them, while others cried merely “pure beer.” He made the greatest
success that was ever made in beer advertising.

“Used the world over” is a very elastic claim. Then one advertiser said,
“Used by the peoples of 52 nations,” and many another has followed.

One statement may take as much room as another, yet a definite statement
be many times as effective. The difference is vast. If a claim is worth
making, make it in the most impressive way.

All these effects must be studied. Salesmanship-in-print is very
expensive. Every word you use may cost $10 to insert. A salesman’s loose
talk matters little. But when you are talking to millions at enormous
cost, the weight of your claims is important.

No generality has any weight whatever. It is like saying, “How do you
do?” when you have no intention of inquiring about one’s health. But
specific claims when made in print are taken at their value.

The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he
knows about it the better. He must learn that certain effects lead to
certain reactions, and use that knowledge to increase results and avoid
mistakes.

Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is the same today as in
the time of Caesar. So the principles of psychology are fixed and
enduring. You will never need to unlearn what you learn about them.

We learn, for instance, that curiosity is one of the strongest of human
incentives. We employ it whenever we can. Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice
were made successful largely through curiosity. “Grains puffed to 8
times normal size.” “Foods shot from guns.” “125 million steam
explosions caused in every kernel.” These foods were failures before
that factor was discovered.

We learn that cheapness is not a strong appeal. Americans are
extravagant. They want bargains but not cheapness. They want to feel
that they can afford to eat and have and wear the best. Treat them as
though they could not and they resent your attitude.

We learn that people judge largely by price. They are not experts. In
the British National Gallery is a painting which is announced in the
catalog to have cost $750,000. Most people at first pass it by at a
glance. Then later they get farther on in the catalog and learn what the
painting cost. They return then and surround it.

A department store advertised at one Easter time a $1,000 hat, and the
floor could not hold the women who came to see it.

We often employ this factor in psychology. Perhaps we are advertising a
valuable formula. To merely say that would not be impressive. So we
state–as a fact–that we paid $100,000 for that formula. That statement
when tried has won a wealth of respect.

Many articles are sold under guarantee–so commonly sold that guarantees
have ceased to be impressive. But one concern made a fortune by offering
a dealer’s signed warrant. The dealer to whom one paid his money agreed
in writing to pay it back if asked. Instead of a far-away stranger, a
neighbor gave the warrant. The results have led many to try that plan,
and it has always proved effective.

Many have advertised, “Try it for a week. If you don’t like it we’ll
return your money.” Then someone conceived the idea of sending goods
without any money down, and saying, “Pay in a week if you like them.”
That proved many times as impressive.

One great advertising man stated the difference in this way: “Two men
came to me, each offering me a horse. Both made equal claims. They were
good horses, kind and gentle. A child could drive them. One man said,
‘Try the horse for a week. If my claims are not true, come back for your
money.’ The other man also said, ‘Try the horse for a week.’ But he
added, ‘Come and pay me then.’ I naturally bought the second man’s
horse.”

Now countless things–cigars, typewriters, washing machines, books,
etc.–are sent out in this way on approval. And we find that people are
honest. The losses are very small.

An advertiser offered a set of books to business men. The advertising
was unprofitable, so he consulted another expert. The ads were
impressive. The offer seemed attractive. “But,” said the second man,
“let us add one little touch which I have found effective. Let us offer
to put the buyer’s name in gilt lettering on each book.” That was done,
and with scarcely another change in the ads they sold some hundreds of
thousands of books. Through some peculiar kink in human psychology that
name in gilt gave much added value to the books.

Many send out small gifts, like memorandum books, to customers and
prospects. They get very small results. One man sent out a letter to the
effect that he had a leather-covered book with the man’s name on it. It
was waiting for him and would be sent on request. The form of request
was enclosed, and it also asked for certain information. That
information indicated lines on which the man might be sold.

Nearly all men, it was found, filled out that request and supplied the
information. When a man knows that something belongs to him–something
with his name on–he will make the effort to get it, even though the
thing is a trifle.

In the same way it is found that an offer limited to a certain class of
people is far more effective than a general offer. For instance, an
offer limited to veterans of the war. Or to members of a lodge or sect.
Or to executives. Those who are entitled to any seeming advantage will
go a long way not to lose that advantage.

An advertiser suffered much from substitution. He said, “Look out for
substitutes,” “Be sure you get this brand,” etc., with no effect. Those
were selfish appeals.

Then he said, “Try our rivals’ too”–said it in his headlines. He
invited comparisons and showed that he did not fear them. That corrected
the situation. Buyers were careful to get the brand so conspicuously
superior that its maker could court a trial of the rest.

Two advertisers offered food products nearly identical. Both offered a
full-size package as an introduction. But one gave his package free. The
other bought the package. A coupon was good at any store for a package,
for which the maker paid retail price.

The first advertiser failed and the second succeeded. The first even
lost a large part of the trade he had. He cheapened his product by
giving a 15-cent package away. It is hard to pay for an article which
has once been free. It is like paying railroad fare after traveling on a
pass.

The other gained added respect for his article by paying retail price
to let the user try it. An article good enough for the maker to buy is
good enough for the user to buy. It is vastly different to pay 15 cents
to let you try an article than to simply say “It’s free.”

So with sampling. Hand an unwanted product to a housewife and she pays
it slight respect. She is in no mood to see its virtues. But get her to
ask for a sample after reading your story, and she is in a very
different position. She knows your claims. She is interested in them,
else she would not act. And she expects to find the qualities you told.

There is a great deal in mental impression. Submit five articles exactly
alike and five people may each choose one of them. But point out in one
some qualities to notice and everyone will find them. The five people
then will all choose the same article.

If people can be made sick or well by mental impressions, they can be
made to favor a certain brand in that way. And that, on some lines, is
the only way to win them.

Two concerns, side by side, sold women’s clothing on installments. The
appeal, of course, was to poor girls who desired to dress better. One
treated them like poor girls; and made the bare business offer.

The other put a woman in charge–a motherly, dignified, capable woman.
They did business in her name. They used her picture. She signed all ads
and letters. She wrote to these girls like a friend. She knew herself
what it meant to a girl not to be able to dress her best. She had long
sought a chance to supply women good clothes and give them all season to
pay. Now she was able to do so, with the aid of the men behind her.

There was no comparison in those two appeals. It was not long before
this woman’s long-established next-door rival had to quit.

The backers of this business sold housefurnishings on installments.
Sending out catalogs promiscuously did not pay. Offering long-time
credit often seems like a reflection.

But when a married woman bought garments from Mrs. —-, and paid as
agreed, they wrote to her something like this: “Mrs. —-, whom we
know, tells us that you are one of her good customers. She has dealt
with you, she says, and you do just as you agree. So we have opened with
you a credit account on our books, good any time you wish. When you
want anything in furnishings, just order it. Pay nothing in advance. We
are glad to send it without any investigation to a person recommended as
you are.”

That was flattering. Naturally those people, when they wanted some
furniture, would order from that house.

There are endless phases to psychology. Some people know them by
instinct. Many of them are taught by experience. But we learn most of
them from others. When we see a winning method we note it down for use
when occasion offers.

These things are very important. An identical offer made in a different
way may bring multiplied returns. Somewhere in the mines of business
experience we must find the best method somehow.

The difference between advertising and personal salesmanship lies
largely in personal contact. The salesman is there to demand attention.
He cannot well be ignored. The advertisement can be ignored.

But the salesman wastes much of his time on prospects whom he never can
hope to interest. He cannot pick them out. The advertisement is read
only by interested people who, by their own volition, study what we have
to say.

The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest. You
wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first thing you say is, “Hey
there, Bill Jones” to get the right person’s attention.

So in an advertisement. What you have will interest certain people only,
and for certain reasons. You care only for those people. Then create a
headline which will hail those people only.

Perhaps a blind headline or some clever conceit will attract many times
as many. But they may consist mostly of impossible subjects for what you
have to offer. And the people you are after may never realize that the
ad refers to something they may want.

Headlines on ads are like headlines on news items. Nobody reads a whole
newspaper. One is interested in financial news, one in political, one
in society, one in cookery, one in sports, etc. There are whole pages in
any newspaper which we never scan at all. Yet other people may turn
directly to those pages.

We pick out what we wish to read by headlines, and we don’t want those
headlines misleading. The writing of headlines is one of the greatest
journalistic arts. They either conceal or reveal an interest.

Suppose a newspaper article stated that a certain woman was the most
beautiful in the city. That article would be of intense interest to that
woman and her friends. But neither she nor her friends would ever read
it if the headline was “Egyptian Psychology.”

So in advertising. It is commonly said that people do not read
advertisements. That is silly, of course. We who spend millions in
advertising and watch the returns marvel at the readers we get. Again
and again we see 20 per cent of all the readers of a newspaper cut out a
certain coupon.

But people do not read ads for amusement. They don’t read ads which, at
a glance, seem to offer nothing interesting. A double-page ad on women’s
dresses will not gain a glance from a man. Nor will a shaving cream ad
from a woman.

Always bear these facts in mind. People are hurried. The average person
worth cultivating has too much to read. They skip three-fourths of the
reading matter which they pay to get. They are not going to read your
business talk unless you make it worth their while and let the headline
show it.

People will not be bored in print. They may listen politely at a dinner
table to boasts and personalities, life histories, etc. But in print
they choose their own companions, their own subjects. They want to be
amused or benefited. They want economy, beauty, labor saving, good
things to eat and wear. There may be products which interest them more
than anything else in a magazine. But they will never know it unless the
headline or the picture tells them.

The writer of this chapter spends far more time on headlines than on
writing. He often spends hours on a single headline. Often scores of
headlines are discarded before the right one is selected. For the entire
return from an ad depends on attracting the right sort of readers. The
best of salesmanship has no chance whatever unless we get a hearing.

The vast difference in headlines is shown by keyed returns which this
book advocates. The identical ad run with various headlines differs
tremendously in its returns. It is not uncommon for a change in
headlines to multiply returns from five to ten times over.

So we compare headlines until we know what sort of appeal pays best.
That differs in every line, of course.

The writer has before him keyed returns on nearly two thousand headlines
used on a single product. The story in these ads is nearly identical.
But the returns vary enormously, due to the headlines. So with every
keyed return in our record appears the headline that we used.

Thus we learn what type of headline has the most wide-spread appeal. The
product has many uses. It fosters beauty. It prevents disease. It aids
daintiness and cleanliness. We learn to exactness which quality most of
our readers seek.

That does not mean that we neglect the others. One sort of appeal may
bring half the returns of another, yet be important enough to be
profitable. We overlook no field that pays. But we know what proportion
of our ads should, in the headline, attract any certain class.

For this same reason we employ a vast variety of ads. If we are using
twenty magazines we may use twenty separate ads. This because
circulations overlap, and because a considerable percentage of people
are attracted by each of several forms of approach. We wish to reach
them all.

On a soap, for instance, the headline “Keep Clean” might attract a very
small percentage. It is too commonplace. So might the headline, “No
animal fats.” People may not care much about that. The headline, “It
floats” might prove interesting. But a headline referring to beauty or
complexion might attract many times as many.

An automobile ad might refer in the headline to a good universal joint.
It might fall flat, because so few buyers think of universal joints. The
same ad, with a headline “The Sportiest of Sport Bodies,” might outpull
the other by fifty to one.

This is enough to suggest the importance of headlines. Anyone who keys
ads will be amazed at the difference. The appeals we like best will
rarely prove best, because we do not know enough people to average up
their desires. So we learn on each line by experiment.

But back of all lie fixed principles. You are presenting an ad to
millions. Among them is a percentage, small or large, whom you hope to
interest. Go after that percentage and try to strike the chord that
responds. If you are advertising corsets, men and children don’t
interest you. If you are advertising cigars, you have no use for
non-smokers. Razors won’t attract women, rouge will not interest men.

Don’t think that those millions will read your ads to find out if your
product interests. They will decide by a glance–by your headline or
your pictures. Address the people you seek, and them only.

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The severest test of an advertising man is in selling goods by mail. But
that is a school from which he must graduate before he can hope for
success. There cost and result are immediately apparent. False theories
melt away like snowflakes in the sun. The advertising is profitable or
it is not, clearly on the face of returns. Figures which do not lie tell
one at once the merits of an ad.

This puts men on their mettle. All guesswork is eliminated. Every
mistake is conspicuous. One quickly loses his conceit by learning how
often his judgment errs–often nine times in ten.

There one learns that advertising must be done on a scientific basis to
have any fair chance at success. And he learns how every wasted dollar
adds to the cost of results.

Here he is taught efficiency and economy under a master who can’t be
fooled. Then, and then only, is he apt to apply the same principles and
keys to all advertising.

A man was selling a five-dollar article. The replies from his ad cost
him 85 cents. Another man submitted an ad which he thought better. The
replies cost $14.20 each. Another man submitted an ad which for two
years brought replies at an average of 41 cents each.

Consider that difference, on 250,000 replies per year. Think how
valuable was the man who cut the cost in two. Think what it would have
meant to have continued that $14.20 ad without any key on returns.

Yet there are thousands of advertisers who do just that. They spend
large sums on a guess. And they are doing what that man did–paying for
sales from 2 to 35 times what they need cost.

A study of mail order advertising reveals many things worth learning. It
is a prime subject for study. In the first place, if continued, you know
that it pays. It is therefore good advertising as applied to that line.

The probability is that the ad has resulted from many traced
comparisons. It is therefore the best advertising yet discovered for
that line.

Study those ads with respect. There is proved advertising, not
theoretical. It will not deceive you. The lessons it teaches are
principles which wise men apply to all advertising.

Mail order advertising is always set in small type. It is usually set in
smaller type than ordinary print. That economy of space is universal. So
it proves conclusively that larger type does not pay.

Remember that when you double your space by doubling the size of your
type. The ad may still be profitable. But traced returns have proved
that you are paying a double price for sales.

In mail order advertising there is no waste of space. Every line is
utilized. Borders are rarely used. Remember that when you are tempted to
leave valuable space unoccupied.

In mail order advertising there is no palaver. There is no boasting,
save of super-service. There is no useless talk. There is no attempt at
entertainment. There is nothing to amuse.

Mail order advertising usually contains a coupon. That is there to get
some action from the converts partly made. It is there to cut out as a
reminder of something the reader has decided to do.

Mail order advertisers know that readers forget. They are reading a
magazine of interest. They may be absorbed in a story. A large
percentage of people who read an ad and decide to act will forget that
decision in five minutes. The mail order advertiser knows that waste by
tests, and he does not propose to accept it. So he inserts that
reminder to be cut out, and it turns up when the reader is ready to act.

In mail order advertising the pictures are always to the point. They are
salesmen in themselves. They earn the space they occupy. The size is
gauged by their importance. The picture of a dress one is trying to sell
may occupy much space. Less important things get smaller spaces.

Pictures in ordinary advertising may teach little. They probably result
from whims. But pictures in mail order advertising may form half the
cost of selling. And you may be sure that everything about them has been
decided by many comparative tests.

Before you use useless pictures, merely to decorate or interest, look
over some mail order ads. Mark what their verdict is.

A man advertised an incubator to be sold by mail. Type ads with right
headlines brought excellent returns. But he conceived the idea that a
striking picture would increase those returns. So he increased his space
50 per cent to add a row of chickens in silhouette.

It did make a striking ad, but his cost per reply was increased by
exactly 50 per cent. The new ad, costing one-half more for every
insertion, brought not one added sale.

The man learned that incubator buyers were practical people. They were
looking for attractive offers, not for pictures.

Think of the countless untraced campaigns where a whim of that kind
costs half the advertising money without a penny of return. And it may
go on year after year.

Mail order advertising tells a complete story if the purpose is to make
an immediate sale. You see no limitations there on amount of copy.

The motto there is, “The more you tell the more you sell.” And it has
never failed to prove out so in any test we know.

Sometimes the advertiser uses small ads, sometimes large ads. None are
too small to tell a reasonable story. But an ad twice larger brings
twice the returns. A four-times-larger ad brings four times the returns,
and usually some in addition.

But this occurs only when the larger space is utilized as well as the
small space. Set half-page copy in a page space and you double the cost
of returns. We have seen many a test prove that.

Look at an ad of the Mead Cycle Company–a typical mail order ad. These
have been running for many years. The ads are unchanging. Mr. Mead told
the writer that not for $10,000 would he change a single word in his
ads.

For many years he compared one ad with another. And the ads you see
today are the final result of all those experiments. Note the picture he
uses, the headlines, the economy of space, the small type. Those ads are
as near perfect for their purpose as an ad can be.

So with any other mail order ad which has long continued. Every feature,
every word and picture teaches advertising at its best. You may not like
them. You may say they are unattractive, crowded, hard to read–anything
you will. But the test of results has proved those ads the best salesmen
those lines have yet discovered. And they certainly pay.

Mail order advertising is the court of last resort. You may get the same
instruction, if you will, by keying other ads. But mail order ads are
models. They are selling goods profitably in a difficult way. It is far
harder to get mail orders than to send buyers to the stores. It is hard
to sell goods which can’t be seen. Ads which do that are excellent
examples of what advertising should be.

We cannot often follow all the principles of mail order advertising,
though we know we should. The advertiser forces a compromise. Perhaps
pride in our ads has an influence. But every departure from those
principles adds to our selling cost. Therefore it is always a question
of what we are willing to pay for our frivolities.

We can at least know what we pay. We can make keyed comparisons, one ad
with another. Whenever we do we invariably find that the nearer we get
to proved mail order copy the more customers we get for our money.

This is another important chapter. Think it over. What real difference
is there between inducing a customer to order by mail or order from his
dealer? Why should the methods of salesmanship differ?

They should not. When they do, it is for one of two reasons. Either the
advertiser does not know what the mail order advertiser knows. He is
advertising blindly. Or he is deliberately sacrificing a percentage of
his returns to gratify some desire.

There is some apology for that, just as there is for fine offices and
buildings. Most of us can afford to do something for pride and opinion.
But let us know what we are doing. Let us know the cost of our pride.
Then, if our advertising fails to bring the wanted returns, let us go
back to our model–a good mail order ad–and eliminate some of our
waste.

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Remember that the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They
care nothing about your interest or your profit. They seek service for
themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake
in advertising. Ads say in effect, “Buy my brand. Give me the trade you
give to others. Let me have the money.” That is not a popular appeal.

The best ads ask no one to buy. That is useless. Often they do not quote
a price. They do not say that dealers handle the product.

The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information.
They cite advantages to users. Perhaps they offer a sample, or to buy
the first package, or to send something on approval, so the customer may
prove the claims without any cost or risk.

Some of these ads seem altruistic. But they are based on a knowledge of
human nature. The writers know how people are led to buy.

Here again is salesmanship. The good salesman does not merely cry a
name. He doesn’t say, “Buy my article.” He pictures the customer’s side
of his service until the natural result is to buy.

A brush maker has some 2,000 canvassers who sell brushes from house to
house. He is enormously successful in a line which would seem very
difficult. And it would be if his men asked the housewives to buy.

But they don’t. They go to the door and say, “I was sent here to give
you a brush. I have samples here and I want you to take your choice.”

The housewife is all smiles and attention. In picking out one brush she
sees several she wants. She is also anxious to reciprocate the gift. So
the salesman gets an order.

Another concern sells coffee, etc., by wagons in some 500 cities. The
man drops in with a half-pound of coffee and says, “Accept this package
and try it. I’ll come back in a few days to ask how you like it.”

Even when he comes back he doesn’t ask for an order. He explains that he
wants to send the woman a fine kitchen utensil. It isn’t free, but if
she likes the coffee he will credit five cents on each pound she buys
until she has paid for the article. Always some service.

The maker of an electric sewing machine motor found advertising
difficult. So, on good advice, he ceased soliciting a purchase. He
offered to send to any home, through any dealer, a motor for one week’s
use. With it would come a man to show how to operate it. “Let us help
you for a week without cost or obligation,” said the ad. Such an offer
was resistless, and about nine in ten of the trials led to sales.

So in many, many lines. Cigar makers send out boxes to anyone and say,
“Smoke ten, then keep them or return them, as you wish.”

Makers of books, typewriters, washing machines, kitchen cabinets, vacuum
sweepers, etc., send out their products without any prepayment. They
say, “Use them a week, then do as you wish.” Practically all merchandise
sold by mail is sent subject to return.

These are all common principles of salesmanship. The most ignorant
peddler applies them. Yet the salesman-in-print very often forgets them.
He talks about his interests. He blazons a name, as though that was of
any importance. His phrase is “Drive people to the stores,” and that is
his attitude in everything he says. People can be coaxed but not driven.
Whatever they do they do to please themselves. Many fewer mistakes would
be made in advertising if these facts were never forgotten.

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To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments one
must start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship. Its
principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in
both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question
should be answered by the salesman’s standards.

Let us emphasize that point. The only purpose of advertising is to make
sales. It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.

It is not for general effect. It is not to keep your name before the
people. It is not primarily to aid your other salesmen.

Treat it as a salesman. Force it to justify itself. Compare it with
other salesmen. Figure its cost and result. Accept no excuses which good
salesmen do not make. Then you will not go far wrong.

The difference is only in degree. Advertising is multiplied
salesmanship. It may appeal to thousands while the salesman talks to
one. It involves a corresponding cost. Some people spend $10 per word on
an average advertisement. Therefore every ad should be a super-salesman.

A salesman’s mistake may cost little. An advertising mistake may cost a
thousand times as much. Be more cautious, more exacting, therefore.

A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your trade. Mediocre
advertising affects all of your trade.

Many think of advertising as ad-writing. Literary qualifications have no
more to do with it than oratory has with salesmanship.

One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly,
just as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So
is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They
reveal the hook. Any studied attempt to sell, if apparent, creates
corresponding resistance.

That is so in personal salesmanship as in salesmanship-in-print. Fine
talkers are rarely good salesmen. They inspire buyers with the fear of
over-influence. They create the suspicion that an effort is made to sell
them on other lines than merit.

Successful salesmen are rarely good speech makers. They have few
oratorical graces. They are plain and sincere men who know their
customers and know their lines. So it is in ad-writing.

Many of the ablest men in advertising are graduate salesmen. The best we
know have been house-to-house canvassers. They may know little of
grammar, nothing of rhetoric, but they know how to use words that
convince.

There is one simple and right way to answer many advertising questions.
Ask yourself, “Would this help a salesman sell the goods?” “Would it
help me sell them if I met the buyer in person?”

A fair answer to those questions avoids countless mistakes. But when one
tries to show off, or does things merely to please himself, he is little
likely to strike a chord which leads people to spend money.

Some argue for slogans, some like clever conceits. Would you use them in
personal salesmanship? Can you imagine a customer whom such things would
impress? If not, don’t rely on them for selling in print.

Some say, “Be very brief. People will read but little.” Would you say
that to a salesman? With a prospect standing before him, would you
confine him to any certain number of words? That would be an unthinkable
handicap.

So in advertising. The only readers we get are people whom our subject
interests. No one reads ads for amusement, long or short. Consider them
as prospects standing before you, seeking for information. Give them
enough to get action.

Some advocate large type and big headlines. Yet they do not admire
salesmen who talk in loud voices. People read all they care to read in
8-point type. Our magazines and newspapers are printed in that type.
Folks are accustomed to it. Anything larger is like loud conversation.
It gains no attention worth while. It may not be offensive, but it is
useless and wasteful. It multiplies the cost of your story. And to many
it seems loud and blatant.

Others look for something queer and unusual. They want ads distinctive
in style or illustration. Would you want that in a salesman? Do not men
who act and dress in normal ways make a far better impression?

Some insist on dressy ads. That is all right to a certain degree, but it
is quite unimportant. Some poorly dressed ads, like poorly dressed men,
prove to be excellent salesmen. Over-dress in either is a fault.

So with countless questions. Measure them by salesmen’s standards, not
by amusement standards. Ads are not written to entertain. When they do,
those entertainment seekers are little likely to be the people whom you
want.

That is one of the greatest advertising faults. Ad-writers abandon their
parts. They forget they are salesmen and try to be performers. Instead
of sales, they seek applause.

When you plan and prepare an advertisement, keep before you a typical
buyer. Your subject, your headline has gained his or her attention. Then
in everything be guided by what you would do if you met the buyer
face-to-face. If you are a normal man and a good salesman you will then
do your level best.

Don’t think of people in the mass. That gives you a blurred view. Think
of a typical individual, man or woman, who is likely to want what you
sell. Don’t try to be amusing. Money spending is a serious matter. Don’t
boast, for all people resent it. Don’t try to show off. Do just what you
think a good salesman should do with a half-sold person before him.

Some advertising men go out in person and sell to people before they
plan or write an ad. One of the ablest of them has spent weeks on one
article, selling from house to house. In this way they learn the
reactions from different forms of argument and approach. They learn what
possible buyers want and the factors which don’t appeal. It is quite
customary to interview hundreds of possible customers.

Others send out questionnaires to learn the attitude of buyers. In some
way all must learn how to strike responsive chords. Guesswork is very
expensive.

The maker of an advertised article knows the manufacturing side and
probably the dealer’s side. But this very knowledge often leads him
astray in respect to consumers. His interests are not their interests.

The advertising man studies the consumer. He tries to place himself in
the position of the buyer. His success largely depends on doing that to
the exclusion of everything else.

This book will contain no more important chapter than this one on
salesmanship. The reason for most of the non-successes in advertising is
trying to sell people what they do not want. But next to that comes the
lack of true salesmanship.

Ads are planned and written with some utterly wrong conception. They are
written to please the seller. The interests of the buyer are forgotten.
One can never sell goods profitably, in person or in print, when that
attitude exists.

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The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status
of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact.
The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well
understood. The correct methods of procedure have been proved and
established. We know what is most effective, and we act on basic laws.

Advertising, once a gamble, has thus become, under able direction, one
of the safest of business ventures. Certainly no other enterprise with
comparable possibilities need involve so little risk.

Therefore this book deals, not with theories and opinions, but with
well-proved principles and facts. It is written as a text book for
students and a safe guide for advertisers. Every statement has been
weighed. The book is confined to established fundamentals. If we enter
any realms of uncertainty we shall carefully denote them.

The present status of advertising is due to many reasons. Much national
advertising has long been handled by large organizations known as
advertising agencies. Some of these agencies, in their hundreds of
campaigns, have tested and compared thousands of plans and ideas. The
results have been watched and recorded, so no lessons have been lost.

Such agencies employ a high grade of talent. None but able and
experienced men can meet the requirements in national advertising.
Working in co-operation, learning from each other and from each new
undertaking, some of these men develop into masters.

Individuals may come and go, but they leave their records and ideas
behind them. These become a part of the organization’s equipment, and a
guide to all who follow. Thus, in the course of decades, such agencies
become storehouses of advertising experiences, proved principles, and
methods.

The larger agencies also come into intimate contact with experts in
every department of business. Their clients are usually dominating
concerns. So they see the results of countless methods and policies.
They become a clearing house for everything pertaining to merchandising.
Nearly every selling question which arises in business is accurately
answered by many experiences.

Under these conditions, where they long exist, advertising and
merchandising become exact sciences. Every course is charted. The
compass of accurate knowledge directs the shortest, safest, cheapest
course to any destination.

We learn the principles and prove them by repeated tests. This is done
through keyed advertising, by traced returns, largely by the use of
coupons. We compare one way with many others, backward and forward, and
record the results. When one method invariably proves best, that method
becomes a fixed principle.

Mail order advertising is traced down to the fraction of a penny. The
cost per reply and cost per dollar of sale show up with utter exactness.

One ad is compared with another, one method with another. Headlines,
settings, sizes, arguments and pictures are compared. To reduce the cost
of results even one per cent means much in some mail order advertising.
So no guesswork is permitted. One must know what is best. Thus mail
order advertising first established many of our basic laws.

In lines where direct returns are impossible we compare one town with
another. Scores of methods may be compared in this way, measured by cost
of sales.

But the most common way is by use of the coupon. We offer a sample, a
book, a free package or something to induce direct replies. Thus we
learn the amount of action which each ad engenders.

But those figures are not final. One ad may bring too many worthless
replies, another replies that are valuable. So our final conclusions are
always based on cost per customer or cost per dollar of sale.

These coupon plans are dealt with further in the chapter on “Test
Campaigns.” Here we explain only how we employ them to discover
advertising principles.

In a large agency coupon returns are watched and recorded on hundreds of
different lines. In a single line they are sometimes recorded on
thousands of separate ads. Thus we test everything pertaining to
advertising. We answer nearly every possible question by multitudinous
traced returns.

Some things we learn in this way apply only to particular lines. But
even those supply basic principles for analogous undertakings.

Others apply to all lines. They become fundamentals for advertising in
general. They are universally applied. No wise advertiser will ever
depart from those unvarying laws.

We propose in this book to deal with those fundamentals, those universal
principles. To teach only established technic. There is that technic in
advertising, as in all art, science and mechanics. And it is, as in all
lines, a basic essential.

The lack of those fundamentals has been the main trouble with
advertising of the past. Each worker was a law to himself. All previous
knowledge, all progress in the line, was a closed book to him. It was
like a man trying to build a modern locomotive without first
ascertaining what others had done. It was like a Columbus starting out
to find an undiscovered land.

Men were guided by whims and fancies–vagrant, changing breezes. They
rarely arrived at their port. When they did–by accident–it was by a
long roundabout course.

Each early mariner in this sea mapped his own separate course. There
were no charts to guide him. Not a lighthouse marked a harbor, not a
buoy showed a reef. The wrecks were unrecorded, so countless ventures
came to grief on the same rocks and shoals.

Advertising was then a gamble–a speculation of the rashest sort. One
man’s guess on the proper course was as likely to be as good as
another’s. There were no safe pilots, because few sailed the same course
twice.

That condition has been corrected. Now the only uncertainties pertain to
people and to products, not to methods. It is hard to measure human
idiosyncrasies, the preferences and prejudices, the likes and dislikes
that exist. We cannot say that an article will be popular, but we know
how to find out very quickly. We do know how to sell it in the most
effective way.

Ventures may fail, but the failures are not disasters. Losses, when they
occur, are but trifling. And the causes are factors which have nothing
to do with the advertising.

Advertising has flourished under these new conditions. It has multiplied
in volume, in prestige and respect. The perils have been almost
eliminated. The results have increased many fold. Just because the
gamble has become a science, the speculation a very conservative
business.

These facts should be recognized by all. This is no proper field for
sophistry or theory, or for any other will-o’-the-wisp. The blind
leading the blind is ridiculous. It is pitiful in a field with such vast
possibilities. Success is a rarity, maximum success an impossibility,
unless one is guided by laws as immutable as the law of gravitation.

So our main purpose here is to set down those laws, and to tell you how
to prove them for yourself. After them come a myriad variations. No two
advertising campaigns are ever conducted on lines that are identical.
Individuality is an essential. Imitation is a reproach. But those
variable things which depend on ingenuity have no place in a text book
on advertising. This is for ground-work only.

Our hope is to foster advertising through a better understanding. To
place it on a business basis. To have it recognized as among the safest,
surest ventures which lead to large returns.

Thousands of conspicuous successes show its possibilities. Their
variety points out its almost unlimited scope. Yet thousands who need
it–who can never attain their deserts without it–still look upon its
accomplishments as somewhat accidental.

That was so, but it is not so now. We hope that this book will throw
some new lights on the subject.

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