Written by Victor O. Schwab, a marketing and advertising legend with 44 years of career experience, How to Write a Good Advertisement: A Short Course in Copywriting gives tested, common-sense guidance on every aspect of copywriting.
The book was originally published in 1962, but the lessons are still as valuable and as valid today as when first published. It is a must-read for anyone who wants to write powerful advertisements that will make people see, read, and act upon them, that is, to go out and demand the product or service advertised and no other.
Contents Covered:
- Preface
- Introduction
- Chapter 1
- Get Attention
- How Important Is the Headline?
- What Kinds of Rewards Do Good Headlines Promise?
- 100 Good Headlines and Why They Were So Profitable
- The Attraction of the Specific
- How Many Words Should a Headline Contain?
- The Primary Viewpoint -- the "Point of You"
- Don't Worry about a "Negative" Approach
- Neophobia? -- Americans Don't Suffer from This Ailment!
- Stale News to the Advertiser May Be Fresh News to the Reader
- Making Your Layout Get Attention
- Two Ways to Do It
- The Use of Pictures
- Show Product in Use
- What the Illustrations Should (and Should Not) Do
- Quiz on Chapter 1
- The "So What?" Department
- Chapter 2
- Show People an Advantage
- You're on Both Sides of the Counter
- What Do People Want?
- Psychological Background Behind These Desires
- New Trends for Old
- How Shall We Select Our Copy Appeal?
- Judy O'Grady and the Colonel's Lady
- Eliminating the "Testing of the Obvious"
- Importance of Your First Paragraph
- Quiz on Chapter 2
- "Tell Me Quick and Tell Me True"
- Chapter 3
- Prove It
- Why You Need Facts -- and Where
- Two Forces Are Needed to Pull a Sale
- Never Forget This Psychological Truth
- The Heart Dictates to the Head
- The Kind of Facts to Get
- The Missing Ingredient in Many an Otherwise Good Advertisement
- How to Present Your Facts
- Quiz on Chapter 3
- Too Much Sand
- Chapter 4
- Persuade People to Grasp This Advantage
- A $600,000,000 Example
- A Simple Illustration of It in Action
- How a Salesman Uses This Factor
- It May Be Negative or Positive
- The Sixth Prune
- Aim at the Hardest Target
- Quiz on Chapter 4
- Thirteen Against The Gods
- Chapter 5
- Ask For Action
- The Gap Between Reading and Acting
- What Kind of Action Shall We Ask For?
- Guarantees Get Action
- "Delay Is the Enemy of a Sale"
- The Fallacy of "Sometime"
- Not What People Say -- but What They Do
- The Battle for the Bucks
- Quiz on Chapter 5
- The Unbeatable Brief Case
- Chapter 6
- How Long Should the Copy Be?
- Platitudes Won't Answer This Question
- Eight Milestones to a Sale
- The Qualities of Quantity
- How Far Will You Carry the Majority?
- The Vital Key Word
- The Quantity of Quality
- 22 Ways to Hold Interest Longer
- How to Make It Look More Inviting
- The Form vs. Substance Mistake
- A Condensed Recapitulation
- How to Decide the Best Copy Length
- It's Easier to Get Attention and Interest than to Hold It
- The Everlasting Yea and Nay
- If It Isn't There It Can't Do Any Work
- When Shorter? When Longer?
- And Now You're Going to Cut -- or to Expand
- You Need This Additional Guidance
- The Lowly Subhead
- How to Make Them Do More Work
- Use Questions -- Sequence
- Let Them Speak Out Strongly
- Quiz on Chapter 6
- Aida or Emma? -- Which Shall the Copywriter Marry?
- Chapter 7
- How to Get More Inquiries
- Inquiries -- the Cornerstone of Many Businesses
- Ten Ways to Increase Them
- How to Reduce the Number of Inquiries
- A Delicate Balance
- What to Decide First
- How to Decide Whether to Reduce Them
- Ten Ways to Reduce Them
- How to Make the Inquiry Coupon Itself Do a Better Job
- Three Kinds of Prospects
- Ten Ways to Improve Your Coupon
- Coupon Riders -- Worth Much, Cost Little or Nothing
- Allow People to Trade Up if They Want to
- Seven Other Factors Which Influence the Effectiveness of an Advertisement
- Size of Advertisement
- The Use of Color
- When It Appears
- Position
- The Effect of Big News Events
- The Effect of Weather
- And the Most Important Factor of All
- Quiz on Chapter 7
- You Can Profit -- After Hours
- Chapter 8
- How to Size an Advertisement
- Your Vision May Be Too Narrow
- Look Beyond the "Nuts and Bolts"
- If You Are Testing a New Product
- Quiz on Chapter 8
- Subcutaneous Advertising
- Chapter 9
- Do Copy Appeals Have a Sex?
- "Longer-Haul" Thinking
- "Shorter-Haul" Thinking
- Do Your Observations Check with This One?
- Why It Has Bearing on Your Copy
- Quiz on Chapter 9
- Mr. John Jacques Jonathan Jones
- Chapter 10
- Facts or Fancies -- Which Shall You Feature?
- "The Most Wanted Product in the World"
- Some Ads Don't Need Much Factual Underpinning
- Quiz on Chapter 10
- Are You an "Adsomniac"?
- Chapter 11
- Fourteen Interesting and Instructive Split-Run Tests
- Sufficiently Conclusive -- if Properly Handled
- Differences Should "Scream" -- not "Whisper"
- The General Application of Split-Run Experience
- Quiz on Chapter 11
- To the Joneses
- Chapter 12
- "Cumulative Effect" -- A Common Alibi for Poor Advertising
- Why Multiply Zero?
- False Reliance upon the "Series" Idea
- What's Profitable about Procrastination?
- What's the Cumulative Cost in Time and Money?
- You're Not in an Endurance Contest
- Quiz on Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- The Hard-Boiled Attitude -- And How to Acquire It
- What's Behind This Attitude?
- But There Are Two Compensations
- When Is an Ad "Good"?
- Knowing and Avoiding That Which Is Most Likely to Fail
- More Nays than Yeas
- The Tougher the Job, the Better the Copy
- How to Acquire the Hard-Boiled Attitude
- Doubt Makes Demands
- A Hair Shirt Worth Wearing
- Not What They Think, but What They Do
- Quiz on Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Index
| Format: | PDF Digital Reprint, e-Facsimile |
| No. of Pages: | 245 |
| Page Size: | A4 (210mm × 297mm) |
| Download Size: | 22.4 MB |
