Good Advertising…Good Business

A Rapid stream ran by the writer’s boyhood home. The stream turned a
wooden wheel and the wheel ran a mill. Under that primitive method, all
but a fraction of the stream’s potentiality went to waste.

Then someone applied scientific methods to that stream–put in a turbine
and dynamos. Now, with no more water, no more power, it runs a large
manufacturing plant.

We think of that stream when we see wasted advertising power. And we see
it everywhere–hundreds of examples. Enormous potentialities–millions
of circulation–used to turn a mill-wheel. While others use that same
power with manifold effect.

We see countless ads running year after year which we know to be
unprofitable. Men spending five dollars to do what one dollar might do.
Men getting back 30 per cent of their cost when they might get 150 per
cent. And the facts could be easily proved.

We see wasted space, frivolity, clever conceits, entertainment. Costly
pages filled with palaver which, if employed by a salesman, would
reflect on his sanity. But those ads are always unkeyed. The money is
spent blindly, merely to satisfy some advertising whim.

Not new advertisers only. Many an old advertiser has little or no idea
of his advertising results. The business is growing through many efforts
combined, and advertising is given its share of the credit.

An advertiser of many years’ standing, spending as high as $700,000 per
year, told the writer he did not know whether his advertising was worth
anything or not. Sometimes he thought that his business would be just as
large without it.

The writer replied, “I do know. Your advertising is utterly
unprofitable, and I could prove it to you in one week. End an ad with an
offer to pay five dollars to anyone who writes you that he read the ad
through. The scarcity of replies will amaze you.”

Think what a confession–that millions of dollars are being spent
without knowledge of results. Such a policy applied to all factors in a
business would bring ruin in short order.

You see other ads which you may not like as well. They may seem crowded
or verbose. They are not attractive to you, for you are seeking
something to admire, something to entertain. But you will note that
those ads are keyed. The advertiser knows that they pay. The probability
is that out of scores of traced ads the type which you see has paid
best.

Many other ads which are not keyed now were keyed at the beginning. They
are based on known statistics. They won on a small scale before they
ever ran on a large scale. Those advertisers are utilizing their
enormous powers in full.

Advertising is prima facie evidence that the man who pays believes that
advertising is good. It has brought great results to others, it must be
good for him. So he takes it like some secret tonic which others have
endorsed. If the business thrives, the tonic gets the credit. Otherwise,
the failure is due to fate.

That seems almost unbelievable. Even a storekeeper who inserts a
twenty-dollar ad knows whether it pays or not. Every line of a big
store’s ad is charged to the proper department. And every inch used must
the next day justify its cost.

Yet most national advertising is done without justification. It is
merely presumed to pay. A little test might show a way to multiply
returns. Such methods, still so prevalent, are not very far from their
end. The advertising men who practice them see the writing on the wall.
The time is fast coming when men who spend money are going to know what
they get. Good business and efficiency will be applied to advertising.
Men and methods will be measured by the known returns, and only
competent men can survive.

Only one hour ago an old advertising man said to the writer, “The day
for our type is done. Bunk has lost its power. Sophistry is being
displaced by actuality. And I tremble at the trend.”

So do hundreds tremble. Enormous advertising is being done along
scientific lines. Its success is common knowledge. Advertisers along
other lines will not much longer be content.

We who can meet the test welcome these changed conditions. Advertisers
will multiply when they see that advertising can be safe and sure. Small
expenditures made on a guess will grow to big ones on a certainty. Our
line of business will be finer, cleaner, when the gamble is removed. And
we shall be prouder of it when we are judged on merit.

~~~~~~~~~~

This is the last chapter of Scientific Advertising. I hope you enjoyed reading all 21 chapters.

Thanks,

John Martin

This Chapter of Scientific Advertising was brought to you by
The Wealthy Affiliate

 

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