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50 Things I’ve Learned in 50 Years
By John Caples Vice President, Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn, Inc.
Editor’s Note:
On September 7, 1925 John Caples began his
career as a copywriter with Ruthrauff & Ryan, an advertising agenc y that specialized in handling mail order accounts. In 1927 he moved to BBDO where he is still active. The famous ad “They laughed when I sat down at the piano,” a n d o t h e r w e l l - k n o w n c a m p a i g n s w e r e o r i g i n a t ed ed b y J o h n C a p l e s . He has written copy for many nationally known produc ts and has supervised advertising research for Du Pont, General Electric, U.S. Steel, Lever Brothers, Liberty Mutual Insurance, Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance, The Reader’s Digest, U nited Fruit, G o o d r i c h T i r e s , U . S . N a v y R e c r u i t i n g , T h e W a l l S t r e e t J o ur ur n a l and others. Caples has taught advertising at Columbia and at the A d v e r t i s i n g C l u b o f N ew e w Y o r k . H e i s t h e a u t h o r o f f ou ou r b o o k s o n advertising and in 1973 was elected to the Copywriters Hall of F a m e . I n 1 9 7 5 t h e f o ur ur t h e d i t i o n o f h i s b o o k “ T e s t e d A d v e r t i s i n g
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Methods” was published by Prentice-Hall. This book has also been published in Japanese and Italian. In this article John tells some of the things he has learned in his long career concerning headlines, copy, copy testing and account handling.
Headlines 1.
T h e H e a d l i n e i s t h e m o s t i m po r t a n t e l e m e n t i n m o s t
advertisements.
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T h e b e s t h e a d l i n e s a p p e a l t o t h e r e a d e r ’ s s e l f- i n t e r e s t
or give news.
Examples:
The secret of making people like you D o y o u h a v e t h e s e s y m p t o m s o f n e r v e e x h a u s ti o n ? Announcing a new fiction wri ting course How a new discovery made a plain girl beautiful
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Sometimes a minor change in a headline can make a
d i f f e r e n c e i n p u l l i n g p o w e r . A m a i l o r d e r a d f o r a b o o k o n a u to mobile repair had this headline: H o w t o re p a i r c a r s The pulling power of this ad was increased 20% by changing the headline to read: How to fix cars
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Re-casting a headline can make a big difference in
response. Here is the headline of a couponed ad selling retirement annuities: A v a c a t i o n t h a t l a s t s th e r e s t o f y o u r l i f e Here is the headline of an ad that pulled three times as many coupons: A guaranteed income for life The losing headline attemp ts to be clever by call ing retirement a vacation. The winning headline is a straightforward promise of a benefit.
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L o n g h e a d l i n e s t h a t sa y s o m e t h i n g a r e m o r e e f f e c t i v e t h a n
short headlines that say nothing. A book publisher had difficulty selling a b o o k w i t h t h e ti t l e “ F i v e A c r e s . ” T h i s b o o k w a s t r a n s f o r m e d i n t o a best seller by changing the title to: “Five Acres and Independence.” Another publisher had a book entitled “Fleece of Gold.” The sales of the book were more than quadrupled when the title was changed to “Quest for a Blonde Mistress.”
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6. In writing headlines, the copywriter should try to b r e a k t h e b o r ed o m b a r r i e r . “ H o w I b e c a m e a s t a r s a l e s m a n ” was the headline of a successful ad for a course in salesmansh ip. The pulling power of the ad was increased by changing the headli ne t o “ H o w a f o o l s t u n t m a d e me a s t a r sa l e s m a n . ”
Copy 7.
Write your copy to the sixth grade level. Simple
language is not resented by educated people. And simple language i s t h e o n l y k i n d t h a t mo s t p e o p l e un d e r s t a n d . W h e n y o u r e a d o v e r your copy, say to yourself: “Will this be understood by my barber or by the mechanic who fixes my car?”
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What you say is more important than how you say it.
Mail order advertisers do not use expensive artwork or fancy language.
9. Illustrations that show the product in use or the reward of using the product or service are usually the most effective. Examples: In an ad for a bicycle, a picture of a boy riding a bicycle shows the product in use. In a retirement income ad, a picture of a happy couple sitti ng on a beach in Florida shows the reward of using the service.
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1 0 . T h e r e a r e t w o f o r c e s a t w or k i n t h e mi n d s o f y o u r prospect. (1) Skepticism, and (2) The desire to believe. You can do your prospects a favor by giving them evidence that what you say is true. Your client will also benefit by getting increased response.
1 1 . S p e c i f i c s t a t e m e n ts a r e m or e b e l i e v a b l e t h a n g e n e r a l i t i e s . An example of a specific statement is the famous slogan for Ivory S o a p – “ 9 9 4 4 / 1 0 0 % pu r e ”
12. Inc lude testimonials in your ads. Two ads for a financial publication were split- run tested in Reader’s Digest. The ads were identical except that one contained four brief testimonials buried in t h e c o p y . T h e a d w i t h t h e t e s t i m o n i a l s p r o d u c e d 2 5 % m or e s a l e s . S o m e o f t h e m o st s u c c e s s f u l m a i l o r d e r a d s h a v e b e e n b u i l t e n t i r e l y around testimonials. Examples: “I was a 97 pound weakling” ... “How I improved my memory in one evening.”
1 3 . L o c a l i z e d t e s t i mo n i a l s i n l o c a l m e d i a a r e e s p e c i a l l y e f f e c t i v e . S e v e n c o u po n e d a d s f o r a p u b l i c u t i l i t y w e r e t e s t e d i n N e w H a v e n n e w s p a p e r s . O n e a d f e a t u r e d a t e s t i m o n i a l f r om a N e w H a v e n w o m a n . T h i s a d o u t p ul l e d a l l t h e o t h e r s . A n e w s pa p e r c a m p a i g n f e a t u r i n g l o c a l t e s t i m o n i a l s f o r a pa c k a g e d l a u n d r y s o a p r a i s e d t h e sales of the soap from fourth place to first place.
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1 4 . A d s t h a t i n v o l v e th e r e a d e r a r e e f f e c t i v e . F o r e x a m p l e , the best pulling ad for a book of etiquette showed a picture of a man walking between two women. Headline: “What’s wrong in this picture?” A successful ad for a course in Interior Design had this headline: “Can you spot these 7 common decorating sins?”
15. Straightforward ads usually outpull “cute” ads. Two couponed ads soliciting subscriptions for a dail y newspaper were tested by mail order sales as foll ows:
A d N o. 1 H e a d l i n e : “ T a k e i t f r o m m e th i s i s t h e n e w s pa p e r f o r y o u . ” Illustration: Picture of a smiling newsboy offering the reader a copy of the Times.
A d N o. 2 H e a d l i n e: H o w t o ge t th e Ti m e s delivered to your home Illustration: No illustration. Just headline and copy Results: Ad No. 2 outpulled Ad No. 1 by 190%
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1 6 . I n w r i t i n g c o p y , d o n ’ t m e re l y t e l l y o u r pr o s p e c t t h e benefits he will get by buying your product or service. You should also tell him what he will lose if he doesn’t buy.
1 7 . P u t y o u r b e s t f o ot f o r w a r d i n y o u r c o p y . A c o p y w r i t e r asked my opinion of an ad he had written. He said: “I saved the b e s t b e n e f i t t i l l t h e e n d a n d u s e d i t a s a p u nc h l i n e i n t h e l a s t paragraph.” I said: “Put your best benefit in the first paragraph. O t h e r w i s e t h e r e a d e r m a y n e v e r g e t t o y o u r l a s t pa r a g r a p h . ”
1 8 . A v o i d h u m o r . Y o u c a n e n t e rt a i n a m i l l i o n pe o p l e a n d n o t s el l o n e o f th e m . T h e r e i s n ot a s i n g l e h u m o r o u s l i n e i n two of the most influential books in the world, namely, the Bible and the Sears Roebuck catalog.
19. If you want to drive home a point, you should say it three times. For example, suppose you are making a free offer. At the beginning of your copy, say “It’s free.” In the middle of your copy, say “It costs nothing.” At the end, say “Send no m o n ey . ”
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20. You can sometimes combine two successes to make a super success. For example: Seven ads for house paint were tested for pulling power. Here are the headlines of the two most successful ads: 1. New house paint made by (name of manufacturer) 2. This house paint keeps white houses whiter These two headlines were combined as follows: New house paint made by (name of manufacturer) keeps your white house whiter A campaign with this theme sold more house paint than any previous campaign.
2 1 . L o n g c o p y s e l l s m o r e th a n s h o r t c o p y . T h e m o re y o u tell, the more you sell.
22. Write more copy than you need to fill the space. If y o u n e e d 5 0 0 w o rd s o f c o p y , b eg i n b y w r i t i n g 1 , 0 0 0 w or d s . T h e n boil it down to a conc ise, fact-packed message.
23. You can often improve the pulling power of an ad by setting a time limit. Retail advertisers increase sales by setting a c u t - o f f d a t e . R e a d e r ’ s D i g e s t , i n s e l l i n g s u b s c r i p t i o n s , f r e q u e n tl y uses such phrases as: “Return this card before October 31” .
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2 4 . S p e l l ou t y o u r g u a r a n t e e . T h e w o r d g u a r a n t e e h a s been used so many times it has lost much of its force. H e r e i s a c l a s s i c e x a m p l e o f a s p e l l e d - ou t g u a r a n t e e : “This is my own straightforward agreement that you can have my coaching material in your hands for 10 days examination and reading before you make up your mind to keep it. You are to be the sole judge.
“ Y o u c a n r e t u r n t h e m a t e r i a l f o r a n y r e a s on , o r f o r no reason at all, and your decision will not be questioned. Your refund check will be mailed to you in full by the very n e x t m a i l . T h i s a g r e e m e n t i s j u s t a s b i n d i n g a s t h o ug h i t h a d b e e n w r i t t e n i n l e g a l t e r m s b y a l a w y er . ”
25. You should ask for action at the end of your ad. Tell the reader what you want him to do. Sometimes it pays to offer a reward for action. In selling a 10-volume world history, the Book-of-the-Month Club offers a free book “to new members who enroll at this time.”
2 6 . P e o p l e w h o b u y o n c e a r e y o u r b es t p r o s p e c t s f o r buying again. I used to write ads for a publisher who sold little b o o k l e t s b y m a i l f o r 2 5 ¢ e a c h . T h e p e o p l e w h o b o u g h t t h e b o ok l e t s
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were good prospects for th e publisher’s $5 books. And a number of the folks who bought the $5 books were later induced to buy the p u b l i s h e r ’ s $ 2 5 l i b r a r y . T h e s a m e pr i n c i p l e a p p l i e s i n f u n d r a i s i n g . People who give once are the best prospects for giving again .
2 7 . T h e c o p y w r it e r ’ s j o b d o e s n o t b e g i n a t 9 a . m . N o r d o e s it end at 5 p.m. His job is with him all the time. Some of his best ideas come to him while he is shaving in the morning, while he is riding on a bus, or at lunchtime, or whil e he is walking along the street, or sometimes in the middle of the night. He should have paper and pencil handy at all times. He should write down ideas the minute they occur. Otherwise some of his most precious thoughts will be lost.
Testing 2 8 . T h e k e y t o s u c c e s s i n a d v e r t i s i n g ( m a x i m u m s a l e s pe r dollar) lies in perpetual testing of al l variables.
2 9 . O v e r t h e y ea r s , m a n y m e t h od s f o r t es t i n g c o p y h a v e b e e n d e v i s e d . O p i n i o n t e s t s , r e a d e r s h i p t e s t s, e y e c a m e r a t e s t s , pupilometer tests, recall tests, comprehension tests, coupon tests, i n q u i r y t e s t s , a t t i t u d e t e st s , e t c . M o s t o f t h e s e t e s t s p r o d u c e d useful information.
3 0 . H e r e i s a s i m p l e t e s t . W h e n y o u w r i t e a p i e c e of copy, put i t aside and read it over the next day. You will almos t always be able to improve it.
3 1 . A n o t h e r s i m p l e me t h o d i s t o a s k s o m e b o d y t o r e a d your copy aloud. If he stumbles over a sentence, say to yourself: “That’s not his fault.
I t ’ s m y f a u l t . I m u s t ma k e t h e s e n t e n c e
b e t te r .”
32. If you want to get an associate’s opinion of an ad you wrote, don’t show him just one ad. Chances are he will try to please you b y saying: “It’s good.” That gets you nowhere. Show him two ads and say, “Which is better?”
33. Testing ads by asking people for their opinion is helpful. However, i t can be misleading. Many will not vote for all-type ads. Most believe that an ad is not good unless it has a picture. T h i s i s n o t s o . S o m e o f t h e b e s t -p u l l i n g m a i l o r d e r a d s h a v e h a d n o pictures.
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34. In an opinion test, people hesitate to reveal their selfish motives. For example, in an opinion test of life insurance ads, an ad with the headline “What would become of your wife if something happened to you?” outpulled an ad with the headline “ T o m e n w h o w a n t t o qu i t w o r k s om e d a y . ” W h e n t h e s e a d s w e r e subjected to a mail order sales test, th e results were reversed.
3 5 . D o n o t d i s c a r d op i n i o n t e s t i n g b e c a u s e i t i s s o m e t i m e s i n a c c u r a t e . O p i n i o n t e s t i n g h a s o n e b i g a d v a n t a g e o v e r m a i l o r d er tests. You can ask the respondents why they voted for a certain ad. You can find out if the copy is understood or misunderstood. You cannot do these things in a mail order test.
3 6 . T h e b e s t t e s t s , i f p r o p e r l y h a n d l e d , a r e s a l e s t e s t s. Mail order advertisers have an advantage in this respect. Every mail order ad is a sales test. In mail order, you can test copy, media, position in media, and season – all by sa les results. Hence, mail order advertisers know a great deal about the realities of advertising. Much of this knowledge is applicab le in those forms of advertising whic h cannot be accurately tested.
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37. The most accurate test is a mail order split-run test where two ads – A d A and Ad B – are tested under identical conditions. Many publications offer split-run copy testing. They do this by splitting the press run. Ad A runs in half the circulation. Ad B runs in the other half of the circulation – same issue, same page, same position on the page. If a news dealer has 100 copies of the publication, 50 copies will contain Ad A and 5 0 copies will contain Ad B. Thus each ad has an equal chance to get results.
3 8 . T e s t i n g c o p y i s f u n , e x c i t i n g , r e w a r d i n g . I r e c al l working on ads for a finance company that offered small loans. Several of us wrote ads a nd we tested them in newspapers by c o u n t i n g p h o n e c a l l s f r o m p r o s p ec t s . F o r e x a m p l e , o n e a d w o u l d s a y “ T e l e p h o n e t h i s n u m b e r a n d a s k f o r Mi s s S m i t h . ” A n o t h e r ad would say “Ask for Miss Miller,” and so on. Thus we could tell exactly how much business each ad brought in. Then each copywriter would bet a dollar that his ad would win. Testing copy became a game we all enjoyed. It was as thrilling as betting on a horse race. We learned a lot. And the client b e n e fi t t e d.
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Account Handling
3 9 . W h e n y o u a r e s ol i c i t i ng a n e w a c c o u n t , d o n ’ t t el l the ad manager how bad his ads are. You may be talking to the man who wrote the ads .
40. In starting work on a new account, you are sometimes faced with the tough problem of beating the client’s best ad – an ad that he has used successfully for years. How do you proceed? One way is to include in your ad every good thing in the prospect’s ad p l u s s o m e g oo d t h i n g s o f y o u r o w n . A n o t h e r w a y i s t o t e s t , not just one new ad but ten new ads. Your chances of finding a winner are increased tenfold.
41. Here is a philosophy you can use when your ad is c o m p e t i n g w i t h s o m eb o d y e l s e ’ s a d . I f y o u r a d w i n s , yo u c a n s a y t o y o u r s e l f : “ My e x p e r i e n c e p a i d o f f . ” I f y o u r a d l o s e s , y o u c a n s a y , “ I l e a r n e d s o m e th i n g . ” S o c r a t e s u s e d a s i m i l a r p h i l o s op h y i n r e g a r d t o m a r r i a g e . He said: “If a man has a good marriage, that is a good thing. If he has a bad marriage, he becomes a philosopher, and that is a g o o d th i n g . ”
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4 2 . C l i e nt s o f t e n t i r e o f a d s b e f o r e th e p u b l i c d o e s . Hence advertisers who cannot measure sales results frequently demand a new campaign every year or so. Mail order advertisers repeat an effective ad till it wears out. Max Sackheim’s famous ad “Do you make these mistakes in English?” ran for 40 years before it wore out.
4 3 . B e h o n e s t . I r ec a l l s e r v i n g a n a d v e r t i s i n g m a n a g e r who was the smartest client I ever met. I said to myself: “I can n e v e r f o o l t h i s m a n . I f I t h i n k a q u a r t e r p a g e a d w i l l b e m or e efficient than a full page a d, I must tell him so, even though the a g e n c y m a k e s o n l y o n e f ou r t h a s m u c h c o mm i s s i o n . I f I t r y t o mislead him, he will see through me. After that he will never t r u s t m e . ” T h i s p o l i c y of h o n e s t y p a i d o f f . I t w a s a h a p p y a c c o u n t t o w o r k o n f o r e i g h t e e n y e a rs . A f t e r I s t o p p e d se r v i n g t h i s m a n , he continued to recommend my services to other advertisers.
4 4 . B e f l e x i b l e . I u s e d t o t a k e t r a i n t ri p s t o H a r t f o r d to p r e s e n t n e w a d s t o t h e a d v e r t i s i n g m a n a g e r o f a l a r g e i n s u r a nc e company. It was a happy rela tionship. The ad manager became o n e o f m y b e s t f r i e n d s . W e us u a l l y a g r e e d o n a d s . B u t s o m e t i m e s we disagreed. In those cases, I argued all morning for my point of view. But after lunch, I would remark: “There may be something in what you say. When I get back to my office, I’ll try it y o u r wa y . ”
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45. Be diplomatic. A successful account executive said to me: “If the ad manager is in a rejecting mood, I don’t show him any more new ads that day. I keep them in my brief case and show them to him some other time.”
46. Don’t feel bad if your client revises your ad. He will like the ad better and his revisions may improve it.
Miscellaneous 47. Bruce Barton, former head of BBDO, gave this advice: “ B e p o l i t e t o e v e r y b o d y , e ve n t h e W e s t e r n U n i o n m e s s e n g e r . Y o u never know when he may turn up as a client. If you are going to be mean to somebody, be mean to the chairman of the board. He w o n ’ t b e a r o un d v e r y l o n g . ”
48. Get out and meet new people whenever you can. Don’t spend all your time with comfortable old cronies. One time I was having lunch with a BBDO associate. A man stopped at our t a b l e . I t w a s R o y D u r s t i n e w h o w a s t h e n pr e s i d e n t o f B B D O . He said: “You men can’t make any money talking to each other.”
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49. Alex Osborn, former vice chairman of BBDO said: “ N e v e r h a v e a n o pe n b r e a k w i t h a n y o n e . T h e m e m o r y o f t h e break will linger on long after the object of disagreement has b e e n f o rg o t t e n . ”
50. Find work you enjoy. My earliest ambition was to m a k e e n o u g h m o n e y s o I c o u l d re t i r e a t f o r t y . B u t a t t w e n t y - f i v e , I had the good fortune to get into advertising. Now that I am in my seventies, I never want to retire. The secret of happiness is enjoyable work plus hel ping others.
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