Where do you go to learn how to write effective sales letters? How do I find out how to write advertisements that work? Start by reading Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins.
Claude Hopkins is the father of modern advertising. Almost everything we know about what makes ads work, we know from Claude Hopkins. We have learned very little new about the basic laws of advertising and direct marketing since Claude Hopkins.
Read Claude Hopkins: Scientific Advertising
David Ogilvy, the founder and builder of the world’s most famous advertising agency, Ogilvy and Mather, was a disciple of the great Hopkins.
Ogilvy said: “Nobody should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book [Scientific Advertising] seven times. It changed the course of my life.”
So be sure to follow Ogilvy’s advice and read Scientific Advertising seven times or more. I make a special point to read this classic once a year. Read also Hopkins’ memoir, My Life in Advertising.
But perhaps even more useful than reading Hopkins’ great books is to study Hopkins’ ads. Yes, the actual ads he wrote, some of which I’ve found and reprint here in this little book.
Hopkins invented modern direct response ads, test marketing, order tracking, split testing, and modern scientific market research. Most direct marketers and advertisers of today have forgotten (or never learned) most of what Hopkins discovered and taught us.
All the modern giants of advertising today still study Claude Hopkins' work.
In 1923, Hopkins was earning well over $100,000 a year as an advertising copywriter - which would be in excess of $2,000,000 a year in 2005 dollars.
That’s how valuable Hopkins was to the companies for which he produced his advertisements.
Hopkins earned this money because his ads generated enormous sales -- were in fact responsible for building a number of major corporations that are still household names even today.
Hopkins was born in 1866 in Michigan, the son of a preacher. The death of his father when he was young left the family destitute. When he was nine years old, he began to do odd jobs to support himself. He had to "open two school-houses, built the fires and dusted the seats" before school. After school, he swept the schoolhouse floors and distributed the Detroit Evening News to sixty-five homes before supper.
Young Hopkins took such other jobs as a house-to-house canvasser, a book salesman, and a fruit-picker.
Later in life, the advertising genius concluded that growing up impoverished turned out to be a blessing for him because he had more of a chance to talk to common people. Also, Hopkins gained experience as a salesman that served him later as an advertising copywriter.
Read Claude Hopkins: Scientific Advertising
