Useful Lessons From How To Write A Good Advertisement by Victor Schwab
How To Write A Good Advertisement by Victor Schwab is a great book for beginner copywriters and more advanced pen-smiths alike. It’s got plenty of structured material to take you through creating your first sales letter, as well as insights which you’ll appreciate if you’ve written a few pieces of copy before as well.
I’m reading this book as part of Gary Halbert’s 30 Day Copywriting Challenge. This challenge involves reading a handful of books, copying some famous adverts, doing the whole thing again and then writing your own adverts to finish it off.
At the moment, I’ve almost finished the reading list. Here are the articles I’ve written so far:
- Scientific Advertising
- The Robert Collier Letter Book
- The Boron Letters
- The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches
Today, I’m going to write about How To Write a Good Advertisement by Victor Schwab. Before I get into the lessons I’ve learned from it, let me give a brief overview of How To Write A Good Advertisement.
How To Write A Good Advertisement by Victor Schwab; A Review
Copywriting books – especially from an era before quick-fix internet marketers took over – are interesting reads. The density of information is great, the amount of insight and methods you pick up will make you a better copywriter and business person in general, and most of the books in the challenge are loaded with examples.
One of the major plus points I liked about How To Write A Good Advertisement is that it contains bad examples. I’ve found with handcopying and the other book examples that you’re given a lot of great examples. As a beginner though, it’s hard to understand why those examples are great. Your only reference points are other great ads, and it all merges into one. With How To Write A Good Advertisement, you get to see the difference between good and bad… this helps you appreciate the good even more, and see the artistry behind a good ad.
There are some great lessons to be learned from this book. I’m not going to give out basic copywriting information again, because I’ve spent the last few days covering that across the various books. Instead, here are a couple of elusive points that I feel are worth addressing.
There Is No Secret Key
Another big problem you’re likely to run into as a copywriter is procrastination of an insidious form. Because copywriting is a scientific process with measurable goals (i.e. “What converts best?”) people tend to procrastinate in the form of waiting for the perfect sales letter or technique to arrive.
Instead of writing an advert, they’ll read and study and create endless philosophies about which headline works better or whatever.
Now, I’m all for split-testing. But one needs only to look at your favourite entrepreneurial forum or Reddit to see that for every person actually running tests, there are dozens – if not hundreds – of people who anal-retentively naysay and obsessively pick holes in any idea having pulled one variable out of all proportion. Those people are all searching for the perfect element – and they’ll never find it.
A good advert combines multiple things, and those things – whilst not perfect on their own – add up. If you spend all your time searching for one perfect variable that works every time, you’re wasting time.
Why You Need To Put Facts and Stats in Your Sales Letters
One of the biggest issues you’re going to come across as a copywriter is convincing others (and yourself) that you’re not just writing some sales pitch for the sake of it.
You might say, “But I am!” and that’s the point. Most beginner copywriters have an ethical mental block because they’re uncomfortable with convincing people to buy something. This is compounded by the fact that readers are distrustful of ads, and are looking for signs that they’re being spun a yarn.
You’re a professional enthusiast, and people know that.
You need to use facts that are objective and measureable. This counteracts the sales pitch.
If I’m selling you a protein bar, then I can obviously say, “It’s the tastiest and best performing bar I’ve ever had.” That means nothing to customers who know I’m selling to them.
“This protein bar contains 37g of protein – 25% more than the nearest competitor.”
That’s either a true statement or it isn’t. If people cross check that statement, they’ll assume I’m telling the truth about the rest of it too – my status as salesman cannot affect the facts. (Which is ironic, because my placement of said facts is a key part of my salesmanship.)
Facts are weapons for a salesman. If you cannot arm yourself with facts about a product, you’re going to come across as the caricature used-car salesman that most people think of salesmen as.
Final Thoughts
How To Write A Good Advertisement is a great text on copywriting, which I’ve barely scratched the surface of in this article.
The interesting thing for me with this challenge is that I’m picking out parts of these books which I find interesting at my current stage of development. If I’d have done this challenge a year ago, I wouldn’t have picked the same topics to write about. I doubt I will if I revisit these books in a year’s time.
That’s why if you’re considering being a copywriter, you should try this challenge. By all means, get the book even if you’re not, but reading all of these books will help you get a grip on copywriting and build your knowledge and skills.