The following is a brief excerpt from a timeless classic in the copywriting and advertising field, Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins. I wanted to post this excerpt because it really lays a nice foundation for where I’m going with a series of Connexion articles coming up on writing more effective ads.
I’m sure I’ll be exerpting more from this great book in future posts as well. If you are interested in copywriting or advertising, you could do a lot worse than picking up a copy of Scientific Advertising and reading it through. The ebook version is available for free because it’s old enough to be public domain, so you can search for it on Google, but it’s been reprinted enough to be found cheap on Amazon too.
“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 advertiser’s mistake may cost a thousand times that 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.”
