Tag: advertising
Scientific Advertising
Scientific Advertising by Claude C. Hopkins is a timeless classic written many years ago but a book whose powerful principles still ring true to this day.
It contains 21 chapters of timeless strategies you don't want to ignore in your advertising and marketing efforts.
In fact, David Ogilvy once said: "Nobody, at any level, should be allowed to have anything to do with advertising until he has read this book seven times."
I highly recommend that your read this book, which is brought to you free, before you spend any money on other copywriting books.
The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning
The 10 Commandments of Power Positioning: Magical Marketing Strategies for Creating an Endless Stream of New, Repeat, and Referral Business is Michel Fortin’s ebook that brings together the art of positioning with the science of direct response.
This version is the 3rd edition with over 140,000 copies distributed to date! This is includes third party distribution since people are invited to freely pass the ebook around. In fact, the estimate is in excess of 140,000 copies in all. (It’s probably closer to 300,000 copies if not more.)
Top-of-Mind Awareness
Before we begin, you must understand the concept that underlies this book. In today's society, I believe we have experienced two major shifts that have almost completely revolutionized the entire business landscape.
The first and most important one is competition.
Thou Shall Not Copy
If there’s one problem in all advertising and marketing, it is the sheer fact that there is too much competition out there. Everything just seems to look like everything else. If one copies another company let alone another company’s promotion, it only serves as a reminder of one’s competition!
You don’t want to remind your prospects about your competition, do you?
Thou Shall Make The Ordinary Extraordinary
So, if you’re following the commandments, you should now have a unique name, possibly a tagline, and established yourself as the first or leader in your unique category. What about the service or product you offer? Do you offer an extraordinary product or service, or do you offer an ordinary one?
Even if the service you provide is customary, traditional, and probably offered by your competition, you should make it appear unique just as well.
Thou Shall Find More With Less
The most common mistake newcomers to business make is to think that by expanding their portfolio they will secure more business. Conversely, they think that by narrowing their market they will also narrow their chances of getting more business. In either case, nothing can be further from the truth.
A management consultant who I believe had a knack for human resources also offered bookkeeping services, thinking that having more to offer will keep her busier — she then wondered why she wasn’t getting any work!
Thou Shall Take it Step by Step
A mistake businesspeople often make is when they try to sell their company directly in every communication they produce. (I’m referring to the idea that they try to sell their company as being merely open for business, also called “institutional advertising,” and not direct marketing, which is different.)
Institutional advertising (or what I call “blind branding”) will draw up immediate clients. When advertising, they spend hoards of cash on repeated, slick and entertaining ads. When marketing to people for the first time, they blab on until the cows come home. When sending out information, they send beautifully designed packages that make shipping crates look like a joke!
