The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1913-05-23
SECURING GREATER
AID EFFICIENCY
Put Your Copy in Simple Words
But Cover the Main Selling
Point.
BY ERNEST X. EDIE.

| to write strong, interesting, convinc-
ing, selling copy No matter how
profitable your advertising is now, you
owe 1t to yourself to increase it's
earning power. You can. It's easy
There are just two rules to follow;
Ffrst-Make it 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.
carpenter uses saws, but he couldn't
make one; he buys two or three In a
lifetime. The dealer buys hundreds
or thousands year. If 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
list. 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 ad-
vertising expert you've hired?" Where
IT seems now as If there were moth.
ing to write about" 1t will be a cues
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 Isl second, what it does.
Tell that and no more, and you have a
good advertisement.
Take any article. Just what is 1t
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 workmanship OF unusually high or
der? Is there some little knack of
construction that makes the article
different? Does it cut, or cook. or
wear or sound better? Does it last
longer?
Find Main Selling Point.
Wnen you write an ad first and
the main selling point Usually II 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 1t 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 helm Won.
First, write the matter the easiest
way. Second, then 20 through and
substitute short word for every long
word. Condense. Omit all the SEN
fences you can. Combine two SEN
fences into one. Probably you will
nnd 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
a prize piece.
People are attracted by "weil-baI.
anced' ads and repealed by badly
balanced ones. No use arguing about
that. 1t has been proved The science
of advertising has reached a stage
where this is absolutely known to be a
tact' The retailer who writes his own
ADS can not ignore 1t. 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. FIJI
the space with matter all set in one
size OF type, and the optical center
Is not disarranged. But put a black
heading on top and the optical center
is pulled upwards out of position.
The ad looks queer" because It ia
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 aide
Of the ad draws the optical center to-
ward 1t, requiring dark mass on the
other side to balance 1t. Simple, liant
~
Two Principal Rules.
BY only a little care you can dis
play your ads properly and double
their effectiveness. The two rules to
follow are: First-Gather the con-
tents Of the ad into few masses.
Second-Arrange these masses In sim
pie relations. with the balance" at
The optical center. The retailer has
no business attempting complicated
displays Make every ad severely