The Times They Aren’t a Changin’

People love to think they live in uncommon times.

The pandemic has been “unprecedented times” – even though that’s not true. People complain that everyone is on their phones, how crime is running amok and my goodness, kids these days!

I recently read How to Write a Good Advertisement by Victor Schwab, which was written in 1962. I was skeptical about its relevance, because my job isn’t much like Mad Men – I hardly ever get so drunk in the office at 11 a.m. that I pass out and pee myself.

However, I discovered technologies may change – there was a lot of newspaper references – but human behavior remains the same.

Getting Attention

The headline of the advertisement must be persuasive. Yes, and persuasive enough to compete with all the other distractions of life. It must capture attention.

Our attention spans may be getting shorter, but the truth is th – hold on, let me check my phone……okay, what was I talking about? Oh! Yeah, so our attention spans may be getting shorter, but marketing and advertising has always been about overcoming the noise. Whether its 1962 or 2022, people have busy lives and plenty of options – so why should they care about you?

Power of the Headline

In the book, Schwab provides 100 examples of effective headlines and I couldn’t believe how much they read like clickbait BuzzFeed headlines. Here are a few examples:

• They Laughed When I Sat Down at the Piano – But When I Started to Play!

• Have YOU These Symptoms of Nerve Exhaustion?

• You Can Laugh at Money Worries – If You Follow This Simple Plan

• This Sorting Quiz Will Tell You Which Hogwarts House You Are

Okay, so I made up the Hogwarts one. But the point remains: Headlines that intrigue the reader – “How am I supposed to resist learning more about that??” – is the way in the door.  

Writing Readable Copy

Unreadable copy goes unread. Readability makes longer copy seem shorter.

Schwab continues with a list of 22 ways to hold interest longer, including:

• Begin with your strongest consumer-benefit fact

• Avoid vague generalities

• Try to make it entertaining to read

• Use short, simple sentence construction, crystal-clear in meaning

I’ve mentioned how often bad business marketing relies on vague, BS buzzwords. Instead, write clear, simple sentences in an engaging way and use tangible evidence to sell the product.

Understanding How People Read

Consequently, even “grasshopper readers” (who will not read the copy consecutively but simply hop around in it and sample what interests them most) can’t be sold enough unless they are told enough.

One of the biggest mental hurdles for a writer is understanding most people won’t read all your beautiful words. But look how beautiful this writing is! Nope. Because people tend to scan, like those grasshopper readers, use plenty of subheads. Also, write them so if somebody reads only the subheads, they understand the gist of what you’re trying to say.

Grab attention with the headline, but convey information with your subheads.

Other tricks for scannablity:

• Write shorter paragraphs
• Include numbers whenever possible
• Include quotes whenever possible

It’s Just Copy

‘Just knock the copy out; it shouldn’t be too big a job.’ It always gives a copywriter an acute pain when someone (perhaps someone who can’t construct a good clear sentence) asks him to dash off a piece of copy. It makes it all sound so simple.

This always feels like Lucille Bluth saying, “It’s one banana, what could it cost? $10?”

People always misjudge the time and effort it takes other departments to do their job. I do it, too.

Effective, good copy takes some time. It involves brainstorming, actual writing, editing several times, walking away from it for a while, etc.

The end product may be a couple of sentences, but there is attention paid to getting those sentences perfect. It’s like the famous quote: ‘I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.’

Gender roles

Males:

His thinking flows more naturally toward long-run things – his job, his rate of advancement, the ultimate educational advantages for his children, life insurance, security in later years, the future prospects of his company and of his position in it, etc.

Females:

Women’s processes of thinking are likely to be more “shorter-haul” in general – circumstances concerned with dates, courtship, marriage, motherhood, daily problems of the children, the relation of specific events to social standing, etc.

Okay, so maybe some things have changed.