Sorry for the confusing title. I read amanda's sticky post for n00bs and i am feeling motivated so i got myself the book and started reading... and typing. Amanda reccomends at least an hour of copy writing a day so i thought i would kill two birds with one stone and sum up the introduction to the book. the book is by John Caples who is famous for, amongst other things the classic adverting headline "They laughed when i sat at the piano. Then i started to play!-" (Hence the title!). Anyway... here goes nothing. I am learning this stuff too so appreciate any comments on anything at all.
Thanks.
John Caples - An Advertsing Legacy
John Caples is a legend in the advertising world. The techniques that he pioneered in the early half of the last century are still widely accepted by the industry today. He saw advertising as a 'scientific' methodology and pioneered techniques that laid the foundation for those that followed. So what is all the fuss about? Lets take a look at some of the basic approaches that he laid out and see what we can learn.
Caples' three step approach to creativity
1. Capture the prospect's attention. Nothing happens unless something in your ad, mailing or commercial makes the prospect stop long enough to pay attention to what you say next.
2. Maintain the prospect's interest. Keep the ad, mailing or commercial focused on the prospect, on what he or she will get out of using your product or service.
3. Move the prospect to favourable action. Unless enough 'prospects' are turned in to 'customers', your ad has failed, no matter how creative.
This is intended to serve as a general rule of thumb for preparing sales copy or indeed, and kind of advertising media. So what can we learn from this? Upon reading these three points as a beginner, I would think that your eyes are opened as to how much thought actually goes in to advertising and also how simple is is when you think about it.
Imagine you just met a prospective client, say you are cold calling at businesses. You walk in and say “hello, I am just in the area and I am offering my services as a web designer. May I have 2 minutes of your time?” - that is step one right there. Step 2; “I can offer you a very competitive price and I am sure I can push your business on to an untapped market” Step 3 “I do ask for fifty percent up front. Would you like to go ahead?”. And there you have it. Caples has taken a traditional sales pitch and laid it out on a page (or landing page in our case!). This is all about selling and I hope you can see how this all ties together. If you can commit these steps to memory then they will serve you well.
Caples further sums up the technique with the acronym A/A/I – Attention / Interest / Action. Just to make it even easier to remember!
Caples' three step approach to testing
1. Include in every ad a way to learn (quantify) the exact results of each promotion.
2. But don't just include it. Take the time and effort to actually learn it!
3. Base your future writing or design for the same product or service on what you learn.
Now this is the 'scientific' bit I referred to earlier. Before John Caples, advertisers just didn't do this sort of thing. Now it is considered essential. The purpose of these three rules is to allow you to 'learn from your mistakes'. In internet marketing a prime example of this is split testing on landing pages. The practice of trying the same page with minor differences and collecting the sales statistics. I am sure you will have seen this mentioned before.
Another accompanying acronym: L/A/L/A/L/A/L – Learn / Adapt /Learn / Adapt /Learn / Adapt / Learn...
With these two formulae in mind. Have a think about what you have been doing and how you could improve using these methods. Easy, right!?
Thanks for reading.
Thanks.
John Caples - An Advertsing Legacy
John Caples is a legend in the advertising world. The techniques that he pioneered in the early half of the last century are still widely accepted by the industry today. He saw advertising as a 'scientific' methodology and pioneered techniques that laid the foundation for those that followed. So what is all the fuss about? Lets take a look at some of the basic approaches that he laid out and see what we can learn.
Caples' three step approach to creativity
1. Capture the prospect's attention. Nothing happens unless something in your ad, mailing or commercial makes the prospect stop long enough to pay attention to what you say next.
2. Maintain the prospect's interest. Keep the ad, mailing or commercial focused on the prospect, on what he or she will get out of using your product or service.
3. Move the prospect to favourable action. Unless enough 'prospects' are turned in to 'customers', your ad has failed, no matter how creative.
This is intended to serve as a general rule of thumb for preparing sales copy or indeed, and kind of advertising media. So what can we learn from this? Upon reading these three points as a beginner, I would think that your eyes are opened as to how much thought actually goes in to advertising and also how simple is is when you think about it.
Imagine you just met a prospective client, say you are cold calling at businesses. You walk in and say “hello, I am just in the area and I am offering my services as a web designer. May I have 2 minutes of your time?” - that is step one right there. Step 2; “I can offer you a very competitive price and I am sure I can push your business on to an untapped market” Step 3 “I do ask for fifty percent up front. Would you like to go ahead?”. And there you have it. Caples has taken a traditional sales pitch and laid it out on a page (or landing page in our case!). This is all about selling and I hope you can see how this all ties together. If you can commit these steps to memory then they will serve you well.
Caples further sums up the technique with the acronym A/A/I – Attention / Interest / Action. Just to make it even easier to remember!
Caples' three step approach to testing
1. Include in every ad a way to learn (quantify) the exact results of each promotion.
2. But don't just include it. Take the time and effort to actually learn it!
3. Base your future writing or design for the same product or service on what you learn.
Now this is the 'scientific' bit I referred to earlier. Before John Caples, advertisers just didn't do this sort of thing. Now it is considered essential. The purpose of these three rules is to allow you to 'learn from your mistakes'. In internet marketing a prime example of this is split testing on landing pages. The practice of trying the same page with minor differences and collecting the sales statistics. I am sure you will have seen this mentioned before.
Another accompanying acronym: L/A/L/A/L/A/L – Learn / Adapt /Learn / Adapt /Learn / Adapt / Learn...
With these two formulae in mind. Have a think about what you have been doing and how you could improve using these methods. Easy, right!?
Thanks for reading.
i reccomend the book!