Claude Hopkins

“Albert Lasker read the book, told Claude Hopkins, absolutely not. You are not publishing this book. This is giving away all of our secrets. You have to wait until I'm done making all this money. Albert Lasker put the book into a safe for 20 years.”

“Once you have an ad that works, stick to it. Stop changing it. Stop jumping around. They say this over and over again. You see people, modern day people make this mistake over and over again.”

“A good product Is its own best salesman. It is uphill work to sell goods without samples.”

“And David Overby said, essentially, like, he built the foundation for his giant advertising agency that he founded, just on the work alone of Claude Hopkins.”

“People will do anything to cure a trouble, but little to prevent it. Countless advertising ideas have been wrecked by not understanding that phase of human nature. Prevention offers slight appeal to humanity in general.”

“If an offer is limited to a certain class of people, it is far more effective than a general offer. For instance, an offer limited to veterans of the war or to members of a lodge or to executives, those who are entitled to any seemingly advantage advantage by …”

“A mediocre salesman may affect a small part of your business. Mediocre advertising affects it all.”

“That 13,000 for that, those shares, it paid him 200,000 dollars of dividends. And then he also sold that, that 13,000 many years later for 500 grand.”

“Schlitz jumped from fifth place to neck and neck with first place in a few months.”

“We are too apt to regard people in the mass. We must get down to individuals. We must treat people in advertising as we treat them in person.”

“The identical ad run with various headlines differs tremendously in its returns. It's not uncommon for a change in headlines to multiply returns from five to 10 times over.”

“He's arguably the greatest copywriter in history. And he spent more time doing that than anybody else.”

“The big salaries are paid to the salesman, to the men who bought in orders are to the men in the factory who reduce costs. They could increase profits, and if you can show profits, then you can command a reasonable share of those profits.”

“No argument in the world. Can ever compare with one dramatic demonstration.”

“We must never judge humanity by ourselves. The things we want, the things we like, may appeal to a small minority. The losses occasioned in advertising by venturing on personal preference would easily pay the national debt. There are divided opinions, and so i…”

“The best ads ask no one to buy. The ads are based entirely on service. They offer wanted information. They cite advantages to users.”

“Products handed out without asking lose respect. It is different when you force people to make an effort.”

“Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They have no impression whatsoever to say best in the world, lowest prices, et cetera, are all at best simply claiming the expected. A definitive statement is usually accepted…”

“Again and again, I have told simple facts common to all makers in that industry, too common to be told, but they have been given the product first allied with them an exclusive and lasting prestige.”

“Your main appeal should lie in your headline. Whatever promise, the best promise that you have, which is the actual benefit that the customer gets from using your product, make sure it's in the headline.”