We must think like a salesperson in order to sell effectively. Here’s how to do that:

When writing, visualize one individual buyer in front of you and try to see from their perspective. If a good salesperson wouldn’t say something to that potential buyer in person, then don’t put it in your ad!

Many useless things we often see in ads would disappear with this mindset, including empty slogans, baseless boasting, and unnecessary creative fluff.

You may be thinking, “But I see many of the most successful companies doing ‘creative’ advertising, even today!” Claude Hopkins would reply that if these companies actually measured the effectiveness of their ads, they would quit wasting their money! This actually leads us into a broader debate in the advertising world, between “branding” and “direct response marketing,” but we don’t have time to get into that here…

Deep knowledge is the key to selling effectively, says Hopkins, and many hours of painstaking research are usually required to write one good ad. That may include dozens of hours of reading, hundreds of interviews with customers, or thousands of survey letters mailed.

Here are 3 fascinating examples of how deep market research made the difference:

• Selling caffeine-free coffee. After many hours of research, Hopkins uncovered a key medical fact: the “kick” that coffee gives isn’t from the caffeine, which is tasteless and odorless, the kick comes two hours later. This became the cornerstone of a successful campaign.
• Marketing canned pork and beans. This product was initially marketed against the competitors, but their survey found the real problem—that almost nobody buys canned beans! 96% of consumers were baking their own beans at home. Recognizing this, Hopkins quickly pivoted the campaign towards the convenience of canned beans versus home cooking, leading to success.
• Promoting puffed grains. Hopkins studied the manufacturing process of this new food, which revealed an interesting fact, giving birth to the iconic headline “Food shot from guns!”

(Personally, I think that is one of Hopkins’ best. Who wouldn’t want to eat food shot from guns?)

Always remember to treat your ad as a salesperson, not an entertainer. Visualize a good salesperson pitching your product to one potential buyer. If they wouldn’t say something to that buyer face-to-face, then it doesn’t belong in your ad! Invest many hours into deep research, so you can uncover facts on which to build a unique marketing campaign.

📊 3. Make Your Claims Specific: People trust hard facts, not boasting or bragging

A common mistake in advertising is the usage of unclear, boastful claims like “best quality” or “world-class.” According to Claude Hopkins, these generic statements make little to no impact on potential customers. Why? Because they EXPECT us to praise the product we’re selling—so they discount any broad statements we make about it as baseless self-promotion. The key is to transform these fuzzy claims into hard, specific facts.

Being specific with your claims will dramatically multiply the effectiveness of each sentence you write. It will add credibility, authority, and trust to your sales messages—because people will actually take your claims seriously! It’s relatively easy to bluff with some vague boast like “highest quality,” but lying about a particular fact is very risky. So when advertisers say something specific, people trust that fact has been measured and proven.

Here are some examples of how to convert broad claims into specific, persuasive facts (the first two from Hopkins’ own ads):

• “Fastest shave” becomes “78-second shave”,
• “Used all over the world” becomes “Used by people in 52 nations”,
• “Our product is long-lasting” becomes “Our product lasts 4 hours longer than our main competitor”,
• “Our coffee tastes great” becomes “Our coffee, sourced from the high-altitude regions of Colombia, is carefully slow-roasted in small batches, to unlock its rich flavours and aromas.”
• “We provide fast delivery” becomes “We guarantee delivery within 48 hours, or your money back.” (Dominoes Pizza became a major brand with a similar promise.)
• “Our fitness app has workout routines for everyone” becomes “Our fitness app features 3,672 different workouts, each designed by certified trainers to target specific muscle groups.”

In Scientific Advertising, Claude Hopkins even talks about how it’s useful to hire chemists (scientists) to measure specific claims, like the number of calories in a food product. Then you can put that scientific fact in your advertising…

Beware making vague claims like “highest quality,” which make no impact whatsoever. Instead, transform your claims into hard, specific facts—usually featuring a number that has been measured and proven.

🏷️ 4. How to Name Your Product: One type of name to avoid, and three naming formulas that increase odds of success

The name you choose for your product or business can have a powerful impact on its success. After all, the name is prominently displayed to your customers, it’s often the first thing they see. So we need to make sure to choose a name that resonates with your target customers and clearly communicates your product’s unique selling proposition.

First of all, here’s one type of name you should probably avoid:

1. The Generic Name. Choosing a name that exactly describes your product can be appealing, but Hopkins says it risks inviting competitors to come in with “substitution products” that capitalize on the demand you’ve created. Classic examples are “Toasted Corn Flakes” and “Royal Baking Powder,” where pioneering companies built up a demand, only to have competitors rush in and take over the market.

Now here are three types of names that Hopkins does recommend:

2. The Storytelling Name. This is a name that tells a story or paints a picture all by itself. Examples from Hopkins’ time include “Cream of Wheat” and “Palmolive Soap.” Today, we have “5-Minute Energy,” “Facebook” and “SpaceX.” These names not only describe the product, they illustrate a unique promise or selling point.
3. The Owner’s Name. Using the owner’s name can be very good, say Hopkins, because it demonstrates pride in the creation and gives a human touch to the advertising. Whenever possible, he tries to write advertising as coming from a human being, a personality that is relatable, instead of a “soulless corporation.” Examples include: Ford, Kellogg’s, Ben & Jerrys, and McDonald’s.
4. The Coined (Branded) Name. This type of name is based on a word that has no pre-existing meaning, but over time you make people familiar with your brand name. Because you alone own a branded name, nobody else can use it. In come cases, the brand name can become synonymous with the product category, providing a powerful barrier to competition. For example, “Vaseline,” “Jell-O,” and “Kleenex” are all coined/branded names that have stood the test of time.

A name that is too generic like “Toasted Corn Flakes” invites easy competition. Better are storytelling names that paint a picture like “Cream of Wheat,” or branded names that can’t easily be copied like “Kleenex” or even the owner’s personal name like Kellogg’s which is more relatable.

🎁 5. Utilize FREE Samples: Launch a new product or business fast with this powerful marketing strategy

We’re all just humans and let’s face it, when we’re shopping, it’s all about us. We’re not looking to do any business a favour buying their product. Instead, they have to appeal to our self-interest and show us why the product will benefit us, why it’s worth it. So if you want to catch the attention of your potential customers, then you need to recognize that fact, and offer something that adds value to their lives. (Hopkins would say “offer service.”)

The simplest way to do add value? Offer a free sample.

Think about how much more compelling it is to tell a potential buyer, not “buy my product,” but “try it for a week, then decide.”

Your product itself should be your best salesperson, says Hopkins—so it better be good! Back in his day, a business would send out a sewing machine to a house for a week, or a box of oatmeal.

Today we continue to see the same strategy used for some of the largest products like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Spotify, Disney+, and Apple Music. Typically, they offer a 1-month free trial for anyone to try their services. I’ve even seen special promotions offering up to 3 or 4 months free.

An important warning: Don’t give samples away to anyone. Only give samples to people who have shown their interest in your product by some effort, like by bringing in a coupon. The sample must be combined with the right mental impression created by the ad, for them to see the value of your product.

Beyond that, free samples offer additional benefits like:

• Reducing friction for customers. A major part of good selling is making it as easy as possible for customers to get your product. It’s just human nature that we like to take the path of least resistance. Hopkins found that 4X more customers would show a coupon in stores, rather than taking the larger effort of mailing it in. And 70% of customers would call on the phone, when that option was available. So keep making it easier and easier for your customers to respond!
• Achieving wide distribution. In Hopkins’s era, convincing dealers to stock a new product was a significant challenge. By showing them an upcoming ad with a free coupon, each one representing a full-profit sale, dealers become very inclined to stock the product, knowing many people will likely redeem these coupons. And so free samples were the best strategy for many products (like Palmolive soap) to achieve national distribution fast, and that alone made them worth it.
• Lowering advertising costs. Some business people may object to samples, saying “it’s too expensive!” But Hopkins argues that in his experience, the samples pays for themselves because they allow us to use the word “FREE!” in our headlines. That brings in so many more readers and response, that our cost per each reply and cost per customer end up being significantly lower. He also advises against offering a “50% off” deal or “buy one, get one free” promotion, because those only offer a fraction of the power of “FREE.”

Free samples were, and continue to be, one of the most powerful marketing strategies. Instead of asking people to “buy my product” you’re offering value by saying “try it free, then decide.” Additional benefits of samples include lowering your overall cost of advertising, accelerating distribution, and lowering friction for your customers.

🗣️ 6. Tell More, Sell More: Debunking the common myth that ads need to be short

People will often tell you that ads need to be short and sweet. This myth was as common in the days of Claude Hopkins as it is today.

However, the results from advertising tests usually show that “the more you tell, the more you sell.” If a prospective customer is genuinely interested in buying something—whether it’s a car, a home, or a phone—they may consume pages and pages of information related to that purchase. So we should not be afraid of providing all the information people need to make a buying decision.

Related to this, here are some more points to keep in mind:

• Choose visuals carefully. Pictures should never be used simply to decorate an ad, says Hopkins, because then you’ll just be wasting money and valuable space. Each visual must add to the selling argument more than if that space was used by text. Some good examples: photos work well in clothing and food advertising, or to present an image of what the prospect desires to be using your product—perhaps a successful man or a beautiful woman. (Hey, this book was written in the 1920’s, we should expect some stereotypes!)
• Tell your full story. In other words, include all the appeals that may help to sell your product. If you were selling a toothpaste, your headline may talk about a beautiful smile, and the rest of the ad would include additional benefits like: cleanliness, hygiene, nice breath, etc. Hopkins says that once we have a person’s attention, this will be our one opportunity to sell them, because they will probably not spend time to read out other ads. Therefore, we should tell our full story.
• Study mail order ads. Mail order advertising was the most difficult type to make work. People had to be persuaded to send their payment through the mail for a product they couldn’t see. And because mail order advertising tended to be measured, it provided some of the best lessons for how to sell effectively. One big thing: Using lots of small text to fit in the most amount of words possible. Here’s how we can apply this idea to the current year…

Many believe ads must be short, but testing proves that “the more you tell, the more you sell.” At least, if someone is really interested in your product. So think twice about pictures used only for decoration, share your product’s “full story” and benefits in every ad, and study effective ads and sales funnels.

🧠 7. The Psychology of Advertising: Key principles that can multiply the effectiveness of your sales messages

Finally, we’ll wrap up with a collection of concepts related to the psychology of writing great ads. These are small tips or hacks that didn’t really fit anywhere else in this summary, but you’ll still find them very useful:

1. Curiosity is a powerful trigger. If you can say something unexpected, especially in the headline of your ad, then you’ll capture people’s attention. Like when Claude Hopkins created the headline for a cereal that said: “Grains puffed to 8 times their normal size.”
2. Perceived value, not cheapness. Cheapness is not appealing, says Hopkins, because people tend to judge a product’s quality based on the price. What people want are “bargains, but not cheapness.”
3. Personalization is powerful. Adding a personal inscription to certain products, like a set of business books, made the product far more successful.
4. Urgency and Limited Offers. It always helps to have some reason for the reader to take immediate action, such as an offer available for a limited time or in limited quantities. This combats the natural human tendency to delay.
5. Habits are costly to change. In many cases, when we try to change people’s old habits through ads, it is far too costly. Like a toothpaste advertiser found it cost $25 to get a person to begin brushing their teeth. However, what can be very profitable, says Hopkins, is keeping an eye on trends, and offering the right product just as a trend is taking off. Then we are not trying to change people, but going with the direction they are already heading. For example, offering a new and unique type of toothpaste, made with organic ingredients.

To writing effective ad copy, it greatly helps to understand human psychology. It’s about strategically leveraging natural human desires—like curiosity, perceived value, personalization, and limited offers. And most of all, we’re just channeling existing mass desires onto our product, not trying to create new desires.

1. Create a ‘scientific’ advertising test. (This step applies if you already have some kind of business website.) There are many apps and tools available now that make it easy for us to test one type of sales page against another, one type of email against another, one type of popup against another. These are often called “A/B” or “split” testing tools. For example, here’s a list of 10 plugins that do this for WordPress, the most popular website software.
2. Write for ONE person. When you write your sales message, imagine you’re talking to just ONE potential customer. This makes your writing clear and direct. Picture what a good salesperson would say to them about your product in person and then write that down, avoiding any pointless slogans, entertainment, or fluff.
3. Offer free samples or trials. What can you give potential customers, that has genuine value and helps them experience the value of your product? This strategy may appear to cost money, but it often does the opposite by lowering our advertising costs and removing friction from the buying process. That’s why free samples were an essential part of so many of Hopkins’ campaigns.