Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1913-03-14
| ADVERTISING !
II TALKS
SECURING GREATER
AID EFFICIENCY
Put Your Copy in Simple Words
But Cover Ihe Main Selling
Point.

Retail advertising is often weak. 1t
isn't interesting -not convincing.
That's too bad, when It's SO easy
to write strong, Interesting, convinc-
ing, selling copy. No matter how
profitable your advertising is now. you
owe 1t to yourself to increase its
earning pe~sr You can. It's easy.
There are just two rules to follow:
First Make 1t interesting. Second
Make it look Interesting.
Put facts in your ads. Fill them
up with information. Make them
worth reading. You know more about
hardware, or clothes, or hats, or
pianos than your customer does. Take
the hardware dealer. He sells saws.
A carpenter uses saws, but he couldn't
make one; he buys two or three in a
lifetime. The dealer buys hundreds
or thousands year. II you're hard
ware dealer you can tell the carpenter
many interesting things about saws
that he doesn't know.
And SO on right straight through the
hist You're the expert. Your GUS
toners look to you for information.
The facts that are an old story to you
are new to him. There is a world
OF advertising material in the every
day facts stored In the back of your
brain. Dig them up. Polish them off,
Put them in print You'll soon have
people asking you: Who's the adj
vertising expert you've hired?" Where
1t seems now as If there were moth
ing to write about" it will be q ques-
ton OF choosing among the many in
teresting things you'd like to put into
the ad. How to choose? Again there
are two simple rules: First-What
the article is: second, what it does.
Tell that and no more, and you have
good advertisement.
Take any article. Just what is it
about this saw, or stove. or hat, or
piano that made you choose it from
among all others saws, or stoves, or
hats, or pianos? And put 1t on sale.
There's always reason. Are the ma
terials chosen with special care? Is
the workmapship. of unusually high or
construction that makes the article
different? Does 1t cut, or cook, or
wear or sound better? Does 1t last
longer?
Find Main Selling Point.
When You write an ad first md
the main selling point. Usually 1t is
not the price. Taking nothing but
the price Is the lazy mans way of
advertising. Every article worth ad-
vertising has something more import
ant to talk about than price. Find
the important points. Talk values.
Show how the article is made or used
why it's good-what it is or does.
Tell the story in the language of
your reader. Talk to him-not at
him. This is important It's the only
hard part of advertising. You have
learned to talk the language of the
hardware business, and that is not
the language OF your reader. There
are two rules that will help you.
First, write the matter the easiest
way. Second, then go through and
substitute a short word for every long
word. Condense. Omit all the SEN
fences you can. Combine two SEN
fences into one. Probably you will
find that you have brought in more
points that you intended. Cut out the
extra ones. Stick to the one thing
you started to say Now rewrite the
whole thing. You'll find you will have
q prize piece.
People are attracted by well-bal-
anced' ads and repealed by badly
balanced ones. No use arguing about
that 1t has been proved. The science
Of advertising has reached stage
where this Is absolutely known to be
fact The retailer who writes his own
ads can not ignore it. Make your
ads balance" Every badly displayed
ad reduces the selling power of the
space you have bought, and at the
present rates for space you can not
afford to get less than you pay for.
An ad balances when the optical
center" is where it ought to be. This
is just above the actual center. Fill
the space with matter all set in one
size OF type, and the optical center
| Is not disarranged. But put black
heading on top and the optical center
is pulled upwards out of position.
The nd looks queer. because it is
top-heavy. 1t needs black signature
tnot too heavy at the bottom to pull
the optical center back into position
and make the ad balance. In exact
ly the same way dark cut at one side
OF the ad draws the optical center to
ward it, requiring a dark mass on the
other side to balance it. Simple. isn't
1T?
Two Principal Rules.
BY only little care you can dis
Iplay your ads properly and double
their effectiveness. The two rules to
follow are: First Gather the con-
tents OF the ad into a few masses.
Second Arrange these masses in sim
pie relations, with the balance AZ