Call it advertising, call it promotion, call it marketing, but whatever you call it, every business and organization depends on words with impact. You need to grab the attention of potential customers, clients, or supporters and call them to action. Few among us are born talented copywriters, that rare combination of both facile wordsmiths and natural salespeople. Most of us need some help, and even naturals can improve by studying the best. Victor O. Schwab was one of the greats. Considered a marketing master during his 44-year career, he was the copywriter who propelled Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People into a mega-seller. How to Write a Good Advertisement, Schwab's classic guide, has stood the test of time. In just over 200 pages, this book clearly explains the core elements of an effective advertisement. Schwab shows us how to How to Write a Good Advertisement gets you quickly up to speed with examples of powerful profitable headlines (with explanations of why those headlines work so well), and quick lesson reviews that help you turn what you've read into skills you own. Schwab provides us shortcuts without sacrificing long-term understanding. Fifty years after publication this book is still the standard bearer, sought after by a new generation of copy-writers and businesspeople. Read it, apply it, and watch your sales soar.
Victor Opper Schwab was born on March 13, 1898 in Hoboken, New Jersey. Son of Albert James and Letitia (Irvine) Schwab. At the age of 19 he enrolled as a night student at Columbia University where he met Max Sackheim, then copy chief for a leading mail order ad agency, Ruthrauff & Ryan. Sackheim hired Schwab as his private secretary because he could take shorthand. However, his contributions to mail order ads, especially for the Dale Carnegie book, “How To Win Friends and Influence People” helped make it a best seller in the 1930s. That got Schwab promoted to copywriter where he became a research pioneer by using coded coupon ads to split test headlines, appeals, copy length, layouts and call to actions. He worked on the Charles Atlas and Sherwin Cody’s English Classics Course in addition to the Dale Carnegie book and others.
In 1926 he and a partner, Robert Beatty bought out Ruthrauff & Ryan and renamed it Schwab and Beatty where they went on to build the Book-of-the-Month Club into a giant in the book subscription industry.
It's good enough book about copywriting. But, for some reason, I have found it really boring. It's not easy to grasp through these chapters like with other similar books. It took me a long time to finally read it completely, and I did it only because Gary Halbert suggested it in his Hands on Experience blog post.
If you really need it for some reason read it. If you just want to quickly learn some theory in this area feel free to take some of those books published in the last 20 years and you are set to start writing your first copy.
My favorite of the "classics" of copywriting. Some of the other books that come up again and again in discussions of copywriting can sometimes feel a little too theoretical to be actionable. Not How to Write a Good Advertisement. It's written in a really engaging style, it's chock full of useful examples with great commentary by the author, and it lays out the process of writing an ad step-by-step.
Are you a copywriter? Then you've got to read this book. Like...mandatory. It's basically a text book but it reads well. Trust me, you'll get a lot from it. Only if you like being good at what you do.
The advice in this book is great, I also like the questions at the end of each chapter. However he talks typewriters and "copy men" and the book is really about writing magazine ads and direct mail. Significantly out of date, but I think some of the info is useful. Its such a joke seeing a computer on the front cover (I guess for the print edition) :-)
I expected it to have a tad more revelations. It was interesting to hear about how long copy doesn't necessarily deter people but I have to say, the copy on that was so long that I couldn't recap WHY exactly. The list of good headlines was interesting but outdated. It's a book written in the 60s that naturally has objective truths and cultural truths more representative of the time than ALL TIME. It's not terribly relevant to SEO-friendly copy and AI writing of course. It's not a good sign that I read it but struggle to remember WHAT I even read. I wish I gleaned more insights from it! I can't tell if it's my mood or the book itself so I'll blame both!
One of the best books on copywriting and advertising mentality I've ever read. Straight advice, humor, and lessons learned in the trenches give you the skills to improve.
A pretty dated book on advertising that still provides good value to anyone who wants to learn a new copywriting framework and rehash the same old yet effective techniques everyone knows.
Discovered this book through John Carlton's recommendation. It is an excellent classic book on the art of writing advertising copy. Don't let the references to newspaper advertising and direct mail put you off. The principles of testing, headlines and more all still apply. I've highlighted quite a few passages and plan to return to it later. If you read "Scientific Advertising" and want to find another classic text from decades ago, this one is for you (along with the Robert Collier Letter Book).
Its psychology on human behavior is as timely. Its methods are proven. The examples may be old, but don't get lazy reading between the lines. You'll definitely learn something. Want to get past AIDA, this is going to be a fresh approach for you? Lots of names and books referenced. You'll want to find those old books! You'll read expert advise from a person who has done it.
You can't take my word for it. You just owe it to yourself to read it. Go ahead, you might just learn something different. Grab a copy now.
A lot to take from this book, but again like many great copy books, so much is dated in the internet age. I would love to see a similar format updated for today's society. I.e., breakdown analyses of specific print mailings versus general magazine ads are useful in principle to learn how to think, but not so practically useful anymore...what about email list mailings, which are essentially free? That changes the game significantly...
Helpful information. Somewhat outdated and verbose. Lots of “as so and so said” for examples. I will be tested on this information, so the quizzes at the end of each chapter will be my study review.