The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he knows about it the better. He must learn that certain effects lead to certain reactions, and use that knowledge to increase results and avoid mistakes.

Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is the same today as in the time of Caesar. So the principles of psychology are fixed and enduring. You will never need to unlearn what you learn about them.

We learn, for instance, that curiosity is one of the strongest human incentives. We employ it whenever we can. Puffed Wheat and Puffed Rice were made successful largely through curiosity. “Grains puffed to 8 times the normal size.” “Foods shot from guns.” “125 million steam explosions caused in every kernel.” These foods were failures before that factor was discovered.

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The difference between advertising and personal salesmanship lies largely in personal contact. The salesman is there to demand attention. He cannot be ignored. The advertisement can be ignored. But the salesman wastes much of his time on prospects whom he can never hope to interest. He cannot pick them out. The advertisement is read only by interested people who, by their own volition, study what we have to say.

The purpose of a headline is to pick out people you can interest. You wish to talk to someone in a crowd. So the first thing you say is, “Hey there, Bill Jones” to get the right persons attention. So it is in an advertisement. What you have will interest certain people only, and for certain reasons. You care only for those people. Then create a headline which will hail those people only.

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Something happened recently that provided incontrovertible proof of the importance of an infallible rule in copywriting.

I knew it all along but never saw it proven to me in such a personal and direct way.

What am I talking about? No, it’s not the headline. It’s not being emotional. It’s not benefits. And it’s not split-testing.

Sure, all of those things are important. Very important. But the one element I’m referring to, the one element that can transform your copy into a sales-inducing powerhouse, is…

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Some people like hypey copy, while others prefer newsy copy. Some people like long, others prefer short. Some people drama, stories and testimonials… Others data, statistics and facts.

Does it all matter? Absolutely.

What makes one style of copy more favorable than another? Why does one person buy from one type of copy and not from another? It really comes down to the buying behavior of your market. And in fact, there are four major personality types.

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Michel Fortin: Well, let’s just do a little quick check here. Um, Gary, are you on the line?

Gary Halbert: Listen, if you people would stop slurring my reputation.

Michel: Oh, there we go. Let me just mute this phone right now. We are in presentation mode and…

Gary: Just one second.

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John: First in the men’s room down the hall, it was just hilarious. I folded up my, I closed up my briefcase and I thought well, we’re not going to get anything done today and Albert, you know, bless his soul, stood up, pushed the secretaries gently out and closed the door, and sat back down and said let’s get to it, and I realized, that’s operation money suck.

If you are the guy who brings in the money into your business, then that’s your most important job. That’s your second most important job, your third most important job and on down the line.

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Michel Fortin: Gary you on?

Gary: Let’s roll.

Michel: Hey, Gary, welcome. Well folks, we’re gonna have a great call tonight. I think it’s going to be one of the calls that I would do, I’d be on if I was just an asserting copywriter because what we’re going to do tonight is talk about some of the most effective strategies, some of the most pressing questions that you have about writing an effective copy itself.

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