‘How to make your advertising make money.”

>> This book is priceless – but you needn’t read it.

Here’s something that will take you an hour or so a day – but make you more money forever.

“How to make your advertising make money” was a book by John Caples who formalised the art and science of testing.

Testing makes the difference between you making money every day and wasting money every day… until one day you go broke.

Most advertisers don’t do any testing. So they don’t make as much money as they should. And many do indeed go broke.

Serves them right.

But just because they’re idiots doesn’t mean you must be.

His ad still works

Caples wrote the most famous ad ever. “They laughed when I sat down at the piano…” about a hundred years ago.

That headline is often copied or adapted to this day. And it still works.

I can tell you that because we used it for a client a year or so ago.

Caples defined ways to discover what works and what doesn’t.

By “works “I mean by the only measure that matters – whether people replied and went on to buy (or not).

Hardly any advertisers look at these clues. This is because hardly any advertisers have the sense to do so.

But if you want to practice what Caples preached and make money instead of giving it away to the media (digital or otherwise) it’s simpler than you think.

Very few firms insist on their advertising paying off. The idiots think it’s just something you have to do. Make people aware that you exist.

Many advertisers actually conceal what is being sold. They think they’re in the entertainment business. Clowns.

Do this every day

Go through a newspaper or magazine – any medium, really – and take note of the advertisers that are with a view to selling something.

When you’ve found a few publications here’s what to look for.

Ignore all ads that don’t ask for people to reply or buy immediately or as a result of you continuing contact with them.

Another important point: most firms send one or two or three follow ups and give up.

But your prospects buy when they want to buy – not when you want to sell. Over half your sales will be made after the first two or three contacts. The average sale to businesses takes place after two years.

So you must continue to try.

Once you’ve found an advertisement that actually sells… look for the key.

It will have a key by which they can compare their responses.

Then, after some time doing this you will be able to identify which companies reuse their advertisements.

Do you see the same ad, week after week in a particular medium?

Make a note of it, and how the ad is put together.

The problem with most people’s business is they never actually bother to find out anything about the success rates of the ads they run.

Make a list of those ads you find, note down what they contain.

Do they have a format? A picture? An illustration? A caption? What does their copy say?

You will start to see patterns, and then you can copy them.

Don’t fall for the idea that you must be original, unusual, or startling.

The chances of you getting it right are slim, and people don’t care about clever headlines or jokes.

Watch this video about how layout can affect your copy.