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The Advertising Solution: Influence Prospects, Multiply Sales, and Promote Your Brand
Love it or hate it, advertising remains a key component in acquiring customers and nurturing brand engagement. Distilling the wisdom of the world’s greatest advertisers, direct marketing expert Craig Simpson delivers an education on how to create best-in-class direct marketing and advertising copy that creates brand awareness, sells products, and keeps customers engaged. He takes readers through basic principles and time-tested methods of creating effective ad copy that increases profits. Dissecting the principles of legendary marketers like Robert Collier, Claude Hopkins, John Caples, and David Ogilvy, the reader will find applications to modern digital marketing, direct marketing, and inspiration for headline writing and beyond.
- GenresBusiness
214 pages, Paperback
Published October 11, 2016
73 people are currently reading
212 people want to read
About the author
Craig Simpson
10 books3 followersCraig is the owner of Simpson Direct, Inc. based out of Grants Pass, Oregon. Since beginning his career in direct mail nearly 20 years ago, he has managed thousands of direct mail campaigns, helping to gross hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for his clients.
His direct marketing company sends out of almost 300 mailings per year for his private clients. He works in practically every industry, marketing everything from courses on the benefits of drinking water, to technical software, retail stores, real estate investment, financial services, health products, legal professionals, diet programs, insurance, and even wholesale clothing.
Craig's knowledge of list management and direct marketing techniques has earned Craig the title of the nations leading expert in direct mail marketing. He is regularly asked to speak at national events on his experience with direct mail.
He is married and has 3 kids.
His direct marketing company sends out of almost 300 mailings per year for his private clients. He works in practically every industry, marketing everything from courses on the benefits of drinking water, to technical software, retail stores, real estate investment, financial services, health products, legal professionals, diet programs, insurance, and even wholesale clothing.
Craig's knowledge of list management and direct marketing techniques has earned Craig the title of the nations leading expert in direct mail marketing. He is regularly asked to speak at national events on his experience with direct mail.
He is married and has 3 kids.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 23, 2018
Fluff words to pad the text in between examples from "the legends". And the quality of the text is about this:
> Most of our legends worked in the hot medium of their day—direct mail.
Meaning some of the legends did work in the hot medium of their day, but of somebody else's day. Which in itself is enough to qualify them as legends.
But how about today when the direct mail is an anachronism?
> Most of our legends worked in the hot medium of their day—direct mail.
Meaning some of the legends did work in the hot medium of their day, but of somebody else's day. Which in itself is enough to qualify them as legends.
But how about today when the direct mail is an anachronism?
November 8, 2016
A simple proposition: get educated about direct marketing and advertising copy (text) that can boost awareness of your brand, get sales and keep customers engaged, loyal and talkative.
So within the book the author takes the reader through various methods of creating effective copy, mixing in the principles of various gurus such as Robert Collier and David Ogilvy, and advising how a company can implement advertising to its benefit.
In some ways it felt as if this book was lacking a cohesive voice and goal, floating between subjects and providing a reasonable amount of knowledge in the process but still missing that certain extra something that transforms an average book to a super book.
Psychology, showmanship, secrets of sales letter writing and grabbing attention were all key areas for the book, but the space given felt somewhat restricted and led to a more superficial reading experience, leading you to want more. The bare bones of the book are well thought out, so you can see there is an entire process that includes test marketing, evaluation and redevelopment as necessary (something many books gloss over or ignore). Yet still it was not enough, it might reinforce and add new knowledge to those who have a grounding in this subject, but it is not enough for those who are relatively inexperienced in the arts or who need to know enough to manage a process.
Fortunately, this is not an expensive book, so it can be one of many in your armoury if you so choose. However, as a single “introductory” or “ground-breaking”-type book this is not to be.
To pick up an advertising analogy, maybe this book caught the reader’s attention but it didn’t convince them sufficiently to immediately buy the product. Maybe additional work is necessary to make a conversion.
Autamme.com
So within the book the author takes the reader through various methods of creating effective copy, mixing in the principles of various gurus such as Robert Collier and David Ogilvy, and advising how a company can implement advertising to its benefit.
In some ways it felt as if this book was lacking a cohesive voice and goal, floating between subjects and providing a reasonable amount of knowledge in the process but still missing that certain extra something that transforms an average book to a super book.
Psychology, showmanship, secrets of sales letter writing and grabbing attention were all key areas for the book, but the space given felt somewhat restricted and led to a more superficial reading experience, leading you to want more. The bare bones of the book are well thought out, so you can see there is an entire process that includes test marketing, evaluation and redevelopment as necessary (something many books gloss over or ignore). Yet still it was not enough, it might reinforce and add new knowledge to those who have a grounding in this subject, but it is not enough for those who are relatively inexperienced in the arts or who need to know enough to manage a process.
Fortunately, this is not an expensive book, so it can be one of many in your armoury if you so choose. However, as a single “introductory” or “ground-breaking”-type book this is not to be.
To pick up an advertising analogy, maybe this book caught the reader’s attention but it didn’t convince them sufficiently to immediately buy the product. Maybe additional work is necessary to make a conversion.
Autamme.com
January 5, 2017
Follow the bullet points and concentrate on the message in each chapter. Then go back and read the original books of the legends again. This will help you understand the concepts better.
September 18, 2019
A readable, useful distillation of basic advertising wisdom culled from some of the top marketers in history. The focus is on direct marketing, but really the suggestions apply to any kind of copywriting.
Some reviewers don't like the fact that it's based on pointers you can get directly from the sources, but that's not quite true, since the author also stands back and lists threads common to all six experts. Still, the book is built mostly on what has already been written by the marketing greats, and whether you'll find it useful may hinge on how much you already know and how much time you have on your hands to explore the original writings of the stellar six.
For many readers, it might make sense to start with this book to get a feel for the basic thinking behind the art of copywriting and then use that knowledge to guide the search for more detailed and more recent work.
Some reviewers don't like the fact that it's based on pointers you can get directly from the sources, but that's not quite true, since the author also stands back and lists threads common to all six experts. Still, the book is built mostly on what has already been written by the marketing greats, and whether you'll find it useful may hinge on how much you already know and how much time you have on your hands to explore the original writings of the stellar six.
For many readers, it might make sense to start with this book to get a feel for the basic thinking behind the art of copywriting and then use that knowledge to guide the search for more detailed and more recent work.
August 20, 2018
Not worth reading.
This book is a compilation of 6 other authors works in the field of advertising/marketing, and offers almost no original insights of its own.
Tip: Read the original books written by the 6 authors extensively quoted. Those books are very well written and the majority of what they wrote can be applied to modern advertising and marketing.
Here’s the list of authors:
Robert Collier
Claude Hopkins
David Ogilvy
John Caples
Gary Halbert
Eugene Schwartz
This book is a compilation of 6 other authors works in the field of advertising/marketing, and offers almost no original insights of its own.
Tip: Read the original books written by the 6 authors extensively quoted. Those books are very well written and the majority of what they wrote can be applied to modern advertising and marketing.
Here’s the list of authors:
Robert Collier
Claude Hopkins
David Ogilvy
John Caples
Gary Halbert
Eugene Schwartz
May 24, 2017
Repetitive but covers the basics effectively
January 21, 2018
I felt this was a book report rather than any original content.
May 21, 2023
A good overview and easy to pick up refresher for direct marketing principles.
March 25, 2025
Good lessons. Poorly structured/written imo. A lot of fluff to make this a lead magnet.
October 27, 2016
Anyone looking to learn a thing or two about advertising through the eyes of some of the best copywriters of all time, look no further.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews