Net Advertising Group

ADVERTISING is just Salesmanship-on-paper.

It is a means of multiplying the work of the Salesman, who writes it, several thousand-fold.

With the salary paid to a single Salesman it is possible, through advertising, to reach a thousand customers for every one he could have reached orally.

It is also a means of discovering, and developing, new customers where they were not previously known to exist. These facts are mentioned here because few Business Men
have a correct idea of what true Advertising should consist of.

To start with the wrong point-of-view, on an advertising campaign, is to grope, experiment,
and speculate, with an appropriation which should have been invested as intelligently as in
merchandise.

True Advertising is just Salesmanship multiplied. When we multiply nothing by ten thousand we still have nothing as a result. When we multiply a pretty picture, or a catch-phrase, or the mere name of a firm, or article, a thousand times we have comparatively nothing as a result.

But when we multiply one thousand times a good, strong, clearly expressed Reason-why, a person should buy the article we want to sell, we then have impressed, through advertising, one thousand more people with that reason than if it had been told verbally to one personby the same salesman.

Of course, cold type usually lacks the personal influence of the Salesman and, because of
this, even Salesmanship-on-Paper needs to be stronger – more convincing and conclusive
than Salesmanship need be by word of mouth.

Besides, when we multiply anything a thousand fold, at a large expense for the mechanical
process of doing so, it is wisdom to see that the thing to be multiplied is as nearly perfect
as we can get it.

Nothing multiplied by one thousand costs just the same for the mechanical expense of
multiplying it, but the net result is nothing – less that expense. This is why so many
Advertising Campaigns fail. Because, the Good Folks who spend their money for Space
have no definite idea of what should occupy it.

When we clearly understand that Salesmanship alone should fill it, we all know, in a
general way, what that means, though each of us might go about it in a different way,
Salesmanship-on-Paper means convincing readers that they should buy the article we
want to sell.

Many good Salesmen find it impossible to do this convincing on Paper because the
customer does not stand before them, with his facial expression as an index to the line of
talk the Salesman should use in that particular case.

This is where the creative power of the Salesman-on-Paper becomes vitally necessary. He
must, first of all, analyse the proposition thoroughly – master the full details of the thing to
be sold, then lay out a strong logical line of argument upon it, “lime-lighting” the good
points, and subtly masking the bad ones out of the reader’s mental vision.

All this, however, is just what any good Salesman-on-the-Road, or Salesman-in-the-
Warehouse, could, should, and probably does, do. But, a glance at the Advertising pages
of current publications will show how comparatively few Advertisers adopt these first
principles of Salesmanship in their copy. However, it is after this that the true genius and
power of able Salesman-on-Paper must be exerted. That consists in the staging of the
arguments, to fit the audience

A given argument, presented in a certain form of thought and expression, will strike
responsively in the minds of a given number, among the class of people aimed at, in each
thousand.

If that per cent be high, it means large profit to the Advertiser – large returns. If that per
cent be low, it means that the advertisement has not convinced, has not struck
responsively upon the particular class for whom the article advertised is best adapted,
notwithstanding the sound argument used This peculiarly “Responsive” quality in an
advertisement may be called its Personality.

Observe that it need not be the Personality of the Writer at all, but the Personality which he
estimates will best fit the particular class of people who compose the largest field of sale for
the article advertised.

This intangible Personality feature may be likened to the keynote of a church, or of a music
hall.

It is well known that every such building will respond most fully (in sound) to some one
particular musical note of the scale, in proportion to the interior size and shape of the
structure. This, a note which sounds full, clear, and vibrant in one such edifice, will sound
thin, flat, and harsh in another. Because, it is not the Responsive chord of the second
building, as it is of the first.

The Musician who could look at the inside of a church, then declare its Responsive Chord,
from an estimate, would be in kindred position to the Advertising Writer who could most
profitably fit the Personality of his Reason-Why Salesmanship to the class he aims at.

To strike the Responsive Chord full and true, with that class, would mean 100 per cent in
possible results, from the arguments deduced. To strike a chord which sounded harsh,
uncongenial, or unfamiliar, to that class, would be to arouse latent antagonism or distrust.
Either of these would discount the effect of the same logic, from 25 to 50 per cent.

That is why the successful Salesman-on-Paper must possess Imagination, as well as logic.
He must be able to form a clear conception of the class he aims to convince. He must estimate how the average mind of that class is likely to work, under a certain argument,
and under a certain mode of expressing it.

Then, he must be able to create the Personality, in his mode of expression, which will strike
the most Responsive Chord with the greatest possible number.

Some few Advertisers possess this power of creating a personality which fits responsively
the mass of humanity – the great 85 per cent. And this ability to estimate the average
mentality, the Habit-of-Thought, of the Class aimed at, with the power to create a
personality in the copy which will fit it most agreeably and familiarly, is what the Reason-
Why Salesman-on-Paper must have, in addition to the logical arguments of the Salesman
in any other field.

The difference in Results between copy written by two equally bright men may be, and
often is, 80 per cent, though the same space be used in each case, to sell the selfsame
article. That difference consists, first of all, in the quality of argument, the “Reason-Why”
that each of the two lines of copy contains, and next in the Personality with which these
arguments have been invested, in either copy, so as to strike the most Responsive Chord
with the class of readers aimed at.

The faculty of taking the Mental Measure of a given class, and gauging their Habit-of-
Thought is a sort of Instinct, such as guides the Timber-Explorer, who travels a hundred
square miles of forest and estimates closely just how many thousand feet of timber are on
it, though he never counts a tree.

That sales of timber lands running into millions of dollars have been regularly made on this
instinctive knowledge of a single man, is evidence of the general accuracy, and reliability,
of such trained, and instinctive estimates. This same faculty has more to so with
successful Salesmanship-on-Paper than is generally recognized. And, it is rare enough to
be interesting.

 

----------------------------- Dennis Gartland is editing the works of some of the greatest advertising minds. Dennis is one of the foremost experts on search engine optimization, pay per click advertising and combining traditional and internet media. He is also CEO of Net Advertising Group. You can reach Dennis at 330-503-3108, www.netadvertisinggroup.com or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ----------------------------