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Claude Hopkins is revered in the world of direct response marketing as “Uncle Claude”. He’s the patron saint of modern advertising. His tiny book which was Scientific Advertising was written almost 100 years ago and is still on the shelf of every serious direct marketer to this day. If you want to achieve your online marketing dreams then reading Scientific Advertising is perhaps the best use you’ll ever make of a couple of hours.
In fact, marketing legend, David Ogilvy, said: “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until they have read this book seven times.” It’s only about 100 pages. So read it, read it again, read it 7 times and read it every year. It’s really that important.
The very first rule that Uncle Claude explains is that advertising is “Just Salesmanship”. What he means is that you consider your advertising a salesman. You shouldn’t do anything in your advertising that you wouldn’t expect a good salesman to do.
To this day, marketers still make the mistakes that Hopkins warned against way back in 1923:
- Many think that advertisements should be written in lofty or hyper charged language but they would be offended by a salesman talking the same way.
- Many think that advertisements should be clever and contain catchy slogans but they would tune out a salesman who talked that way.
- Many think advertisements should be brief but they would not hold a salesman to a word count limit.
- Many believe that advertisements should be in large type with big headlines but they don’t admire salesmen who talk in loud voices.