From the category archives:

Copywriting Classics

The Biggest Mistake Copywriters Make is They Don’t Prove the Promise

April 5, 2012

“The biggest mistake most copywriters make is they don’t prove the promise.” – Alex Mandossian – author of Marketing with Postcards, noted copywriter and premier student of the copywriting masters. This blogpost is pulled from Bret Ridgway’s Copywriting Classics Quick Tips and is excerpted from a ninety minute interview with Alex Mandossian.  Alex is the [...]

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The Power of Testimonials

December 22, 2011

‘You should always include testimonials in your copy.  The reader finds it easier to believe the endorsement of a fellow consumer than the puffery of an anonymous copywriter.’ – David Ogilvy, ‘Ogilvy on Advertising’ Says James Webb Young, one of the best copywriters in history, ‘Every type of advertiser has the same problem: to be [...]

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Keep Them Moving in the Right Direction

November 10, 2011

‘If your advertised article be of a kind which you cannot reasonably hope to sell him through Printed Salesmanship, make it possible for him in the advertisement to do something toward purchasing.’ – John E. Kennedy, author of ‘Reason Why Advertising plus Intensive Advertising’ This quote from John E. Kennedy, another of marketing’s early master [...]

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It’s All in the Test

September 15, 2011

‘Almost any question can be answered cheaply, quickly, and finally, by a test campaign.  This is the way to answer them, not by arguments around a table.  Go to the court of last resort.  The buyers of your product.’ – Claude Hopkins, one of advertising early experts and author of ‘My Life in Advertising’ and [...]

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Specifics or Generalities?

April 28, 2011

‘Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck.  They leave no impression whatever.  To say ‘Best in the world,’ ‘Lowest price in existence,’ etc. are at best simply claiming the expected.  But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging.  They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a carelessness [...]

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The headline – the greatest journalistic art.

February 18, 2010

“We pick out what we wish to read by headlines, and we don’t want those headlines misleading.  The writing of headlines is one of the greatest journalistic arts.  They either reveal or conceal an interest.” – Claude Hopkins, one of the early masters of advertising and author of ‘My Life in Advertising’ and ‘Scientific Advertising.’ [...]

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Long copy or short copy

February 17, 2010

“The only readers we get are people whom our subject interests.  No one reads ads for amusement, long or short.  Consider them as prospects standing before you, seeking for information.  Give them enough to get action.” – Claude Hopkins, one of the early masters of advertising and author of ‘My Life in Advertising’ and ‘Scientific [...]

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“What is advertising?”

February 17, 2010

“Advertising is salesmanship.  The only purpose of advertising is to make sales.  It is profitable or unprofitable according to its actual sales.” – Claude Hopkins, one of the early masters of advertising and author of My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising. This issue of Copywriting Classics Quick Tips focuses on the late, great Claude [...]

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