The most concentrated wealth of useful advertising and marketing ideas ever written came out in 1923. The book was Scientific Advertising. The author was Claude Hopkins. Hopkins was the greatest advertising and marketing man who probably ever lived.
That’s not just my belief. David Ogilvie, Gary Benzavinga, Clayton Makepeace, the owner of Advertising Age — they ALL agreed.
There are few lessons Hopkins shares back then that do not still represent the basics on of what great marketing and advertising should be today.
Hopkins understood the invaluable laws of advertising and marketing that still apply today.
He understood that marketing is nothing more (or less) than salesmanship multiplied. Instead of selling one-on-one, you’re selling to a million readers or viewers or listeners. Each one experiences them one at a time.
Hopkins was probably the first, and definitely the best, at grasping the necessity to offer service and a meaningful contribution to the prospect BEFORE asking them to reciprocate by purchasing your products of services from you.
Hopkins tested and compared EVERY marketing assumption he ever made. He never ever let his sense of conjecture overtake his understanding of the marketplace consumer. Always vote with their wallet, credit card or visits. No amount of guesstimates made up for one irrefutable, validating test.
While many in marketing have gone beyond mere headlines as their key to maximizing a impact, Hopkins was the first to understand the omni-powerful role of headlines to telegraph, the benefit advertising and the payoff power in it for the purchaser.
He used, and frequently disseminated a value education and information — and generous samples of his products and services in ways utterly ingenious for the times. They still have worth in your marketing campaigns today.
He was arguably, the finest strategic business mind in the business world. His spectacular string of overnight success stories attest to that fact.
But most online marketers have never, ever even heard of Claude Hopkins let alone read either of his two landmark books, Scientific Advertising and, M Life in Advertising.
Yet those marketers who dominate the direct marketing world – still swear by this man’s principles and fundamental concepts 100 years after they were first discovered by him.
YOU need to read Claude Hopkins at least two times if you want to give your business a huge shot in the marketing arm.
I back much of our beliefs and the vast majority of our marketing efforts or fundamental/ideas and lessons Claude Hopkins first taught them in his book 30 years ago.
Almost every promotional email you’ll be sending out in our marketing is based on fundamental principles I learned by studying Claude Hopkins.
We owe our success to the ideas we both learned from Claude Hopkins years ago….we’re certain you’ll owe a huge debt of gratitude to his work, too.
