David Ogilvy's 10 marketing rules are still effective today

Make research a top priority. An advertiser who does not do research is as dangerous as a military commander who does not decrypt enemy intelligence.

■ The only way to break through the clutter is to be concise.

■ 99% of marketing efforts fail to sell anything. To be among the 1% that sell something, you must know what you are selling and whether you are selling it right.

■ The most important decision for good marketing is how to position the product. The soul of a commercial product is "personality".

■ While keeping up with trends is important, the key to successful and coordinated advertising and marketing lies in execution.

■ The most effective marketing methods are: knowledge, vision, and experience. ”

David Ogilvy can be described as a unique godfather in the advertising industry. His book " Ogilvy on Advertising" defined the connotation and extension of the entire advertising industry. Even after thirty years, the content of the book is still closely related to current trends.

During the economic boom after World War II, Ogilvy had already begun to demonstrate his marketing skills. Until now, his classic principles are still applicable in the industry, his sales suggestions are still effective, and his words are still incisive and thought-provoking.

We have summarized 10 marketing secrets from David Ogilvy's career, which can help you improve your performance whether you use them in advertisements or landing pages.

Research first

The importance of research to marketing cannot be overstated. Ogilvy once said: "An advertiser who does not do research is as dangerous as a commander-in-chief who does not decrypt enemy intelligence."

But many times, if you want to create a sensational headline with 100,000+ views, you don’t need to consider the marketing background or make any adjustments. Just use classic advertising sentences and you’re done.

So here comes the question. Most companies will create their own "buyer personas" before marketing and analyze what their target customer groups think. But the effectiveness of such advertising is questionable because they have not actually delved into the demographic characteristics of consumers.

Beforehand, you usually make a form like this, listing the basic information of the customer:

But when you want to stimulate their desire to buy, but you don’t know what their shopping motivation is, the empty customer information above becomes a piece of waste paper.

At this time, the "psychographic" method that was popular in the 1960s came in handy. Marketers design questionnaires to investigate consumers' psychological characteristics and find out the differences in products in terms of customer personality, values, attitudes, interests, life attitudes and other variables, so as to find more effective marketing strategies. The survey results are summarized as follows:

This makes it clear what problems people are trying to solve and what methods motivate them to consume.

Only after answering these key questions, including what the company's goals are, what the consumers' pain points are, what they hate, and how you can help them solve them, can you start designing advertisements.

Ogilvy summarized the importance of research as follows:

"If you want to persuade people to do something or buy something, you should communicate with them in their language, the language they use and think in every day. We have to try to make the promotional words colloquial."

Many years ago, Joanna Wiebe, a master copywriter who wrote the book Copyhacker, mastered this secret. At the time, she was working in a rehabilitation center, which was not a treatment center for the disabled, but a drug rehabilitation center.

In order to understand the psychology of drug addicts, she went to Amazon's website and clicked on the pages of six best-selling books on drug rehabilitation. She read 500 reviews every two or three hours. She copied the words used by drug addicts and compiled a picture like this:

This process was laborious and tedious, but Joanna studied the reviews and analyzed the background information before deciding on the title of the login screen and the value proposition she would use:

What is the result?

400% increase in the number of people clicking on the call to action button

The number of potential customers increased by 20%

Such dazzling results are simply because Joanna directly uses customers' common expressions as a means to attract customers. So, take action and do your research!

Write a clear title

Ogilvy wrote in his book: "On average, people read the headline five times more than the body copy. By the time you have written the headline, you have spent 80% of your energy on it."

This is still true today because it is how our world is constructed.

"Media" as a business category may be in decline, but the scale of the media industry has reached an unprecedented level. We have never experienced such an intense bombardment of information, and the quality of information is uneven, some good and some bad.

Technology companies, in their infinite wisdom (sarcasm here), help us weed through the clutter by simplifying things and getting to the point. For example, Twitter has limited the number of characters in tweets, and email subject lines are getting shorter and shorter.

Now you have a winning formula: use five to ten words to express your meaning, send it out quickly, and grab the audience's attention before they shift their attention.

What’s the only way to break through the clutter? It's simplicity. There is no harm in using a few short, powerful words.

Ogilvy said: "Never use a headline that is gimmicky or irrelevant... People read too fast to analyze what you are trying to say."

Ogilvy once said something that I like very much and also emphasizes the importance of simplicity: "There are many idiots in our industry, and they always try to bluff people with pretentious jargon."

Let’s stop talking nonsense and take a look at the human brain analysis diagram to understand that this is where the legendary “neuromarketing” comes from:

If the description is too complex and difficult for others to understand, express it in a few simple words. Don't use "100GB bandwidth". If the audience doesn’t know what you are expressing, they naturally won’t pay attention to you or click on the link.

What customers really care about is: "Is there anything that suits my taste?"

That is, they want to know what they will get if they buy your product. Conversely, they want to know what good opportunities they will miss if they don’t read your content, click on your links, or buy your products.

Many decisions to buy or not buy are made subconsciously, not always based on rational reasoning or on a spur of the moment. Don’t underestimate how quickly people make decisions; by the time they click on a link, it may be too late.

Emphasis on the role of pictures

Sometimes, your images that get rejected on Facebook ads have a higher chance of being accepted than your images that get accepted.

When posting advertisements, in addition to basic forbidden areas, a series of sensitive topics and restrictive content are also included in the filter list, ranging from general prohibited content to "bad content" such as infringement of intellectual property rights, mapping of violence, and public dating. Even some content that was not very relevant was labeled as "suggestive" and had to be deleted.

As a result, the content, which is already subject to word limit, will be cut by 20%.

In this case, how can we effectively convey information and catch people's attention with charming pictures within a few milliseconds?

Let's go back a few decades and see what Ogilvy said:

"Many readers look at the image first. If you put the image in the middle of the page, the reader will start from the middle. Then his/her eyes will definitely move up to read the title, which is not very effective because people are used to scanning from top to bottom. Even if some readers look at the image below and read the title above, you have to force them to read the text below and look at the image again, which is very anti-human."

Then you definitely need to adjust it again.

The first thing people notice is the picture. You need to present the image first, then the title, and then add some context to explain the information that the picture does not express.

Let’s look at how this principle applies to Facebook ads. Here’s a simple example:

Look, the models in the advertisements have hot bodies, charming looks, and are wearing sexy lingerie. It’s easy to get fascinated by them at first sight.

The title added background information and explained why they were performing the "lingerie temptation", which attracted a lot of clicks.

It’s not difficult to display products, especially if you invite good-looking models to pose in underwear, which makes it easier to attract customers.

Here is another example:

Although this ad looks a bit low-brow, the color contrast is good, and the addition of the word "conquering" does make it clearer.

This picture, symbolizing the hero's ascent to the summit, combined with some explanatory text, can convey the complete message.

Trial and error

If your Facebook ads aren’t working, maybe it’s because you don’t understand how they work. As long as you put in a little more effort, you will see the results.

Unlike Google Adwords, Facebook ads are not designed to convert a single visit. This is not common and there are no similar examples found elsewhere. This is why marketing conversion rate and sales revenue are actually not equal.

In other words, you need to understand how people shop, when they buy, what channels they use, and then piece these clues together to make decisions.

These findings are then used to adjust Facebook's promotional strategy.

So why does this process seem so complicated? Why do so many people who fail blame Facebook for their problems?

There are no guidebooks for advertising, no “Step 1, Step 2, Step 3” instructions that you can just apply.

The only way is to keep repeating and trying, not just changing the action button, but working hard on the entire marketing campaign, audience, and creativity, focusing more on the macro situation rather than just approaching the problem from a micro perspective.

This practice of trial and error and adjustment is not a new method. It is one of the essential skills in the industry. As Ogilvy said many years ago:

"In the dictionary of the marketing industry, the most important word is 'testing'. What are you testing? Testing your promise to consumers, testing the media, testing the headlines and illustrations, testing the size and frequency of the ads, and testing your spending and ads. Keep trying, and the quality of your marketing will continue to improve."

So, what should we do at the beginning?

Ogilvy said: "If you can work with consumers in advance to test the performance of the product and the effectiveness of the advertising, you will definitely be able to make a big hit in the market."

Yes, the audience is the most important thing. You should always pay attention to the following indicators:

Once you have a large enough audience and have exhausted all targeted marketing strategies, just start selling. If you think the data is too complicated, you might as well organize all the records into a worksheet.

After using these tricks, people are still unwilling to buy things? Maybe you need to work harder to strengthen your connection with your audience, make them trust you more, re-engage them, and do targeted marketing. Constantly browse the hottest product advertisements at the moment, sort out the process of automated marketing, and know what consumers have seen, checked, and dug up.

Still not working? Then expand the audience of publicity.

The frequency of your campaign, or how many times you repeat your ad, is not an issue. In this era of information explosion, it is common for consumers to see thousands of promotional messages for similar products at the same time.

Most of the problems related to consumer communication can be solved by expanding the publicity, as long as more people are aware that they need such products.

In short, constantly repeating and testing these steps is the only way to find problems, identify causes, and come up with solutions.

See the effect first and then make a decision

Simple design can often create touching copy. Try to avoid using rhetoric such as alliteration.

Isla McKetta and Ronnell Smith of Moz, a marketing software company, offer their advice on how to write good ads and landing pages:

Write an introduction that describes what you want to say in your article (this is similar to the title)

Think about what the reader can get first from this article.

Mark out at least three facts that can support the main point (must be authoritative and supporting evidence)

Take notes to help you tell stories with facts

Spend a few days polishing the content of the article

If you don’t want to write a long and boring sales copy, you can win with concise words and sentences - this is the same as what we emphasized above.

Why are these steps so important? Ogilvy explained:

“Most headlines are too big to be readable in a magazine or newspaper. Make sure you see the ad printed in a magazine or newspaper before you make your final decision. If you just hang it on a billboard and think about it from 15 feet away, you will end up with a poster, not an ad.”

If you don’t check the results in advance, your ad could end up being a disaster:

This ad is a little better, but still pretty bad:

Let’s compare it with the good advertisement. This picture is good, but there are too many words. At first glance, the overall expression of the advertisement is not clear:

So let's simplify it:

"Our Super Sale...is here again!"

"Selling at bargain prices."

"I want to choose a hair accessory. There are two sizes for you to choose from."

“Exceptionally high quality!”

"Don't miss the opportunity..."

After deleting and subtracting, it finally becomes:

"Buy a set of bows for your girl, starting at 90 cents each! Lowest price in two years."

This looks much more pleasing to the eye.

Make the selling point clear

Ogilvy once said: "In modern business society, if you don't sell the products you invent, then no matter how creative you are or how much you create, it means nothing."

This point is actually very critical, and Ogilvy explains the reason in his book:

“99% of marketing doesn’t sell anything.”

Anyone who has worked in advertising knows that advertising is a means to sell products.

To be among the 1% that sell things, the key is to know what you are selling and whether you are selling it right.

Think of it this way:

This picture tells us that people don’t want to buy drill bits, but the finished products:

This means you have to give a reason in your ad. Why should anyone care about your software, insurance, or drill.

If you want to sell employee onboarding training software, you have to know that your customers don’t actually care about words like “onboarding” or “onboarding training software.” What businesses care about is how to keep the company running smoothly during the development period so that they don’t spend too much money on hiring people or hire bad people.

If you write a longer headline with more detailed information like the one below, you can integrate your value proposition into your ad and increase your ad’s click-through rate by 400%:

Don’t promote “white papers” on your website. No one has the desire to download them. The word “white paper” itself is too common and unattractive. So it’s not enough to do this:

But if you change it to “Price Book”, your downloads will jump by 620.9%:

Accurate positioning

Ogilvy once said: "The most important decision in marketing is how to position the product."

This statement couldn't be more true. Marketing and sales are both about positioning.

Commercial sales mean a lack of positioning, which will make you share a very small market share with dozens or even hundreds of similar merchants because your marketing methods are the same and the selling prices are similar.

In other words, this is a "Red Ocean strategy" aimed at eliminating competitors, and a bloody market where everyone is competing against each other is emerging.

But if you adopt a broad-minded "Blue Ocean Strategy", you can create new markets and pave new paths, thereby capturing new market demands and preventing competition from disrupting your situation.

You can call these two strategies "specialization" or something else, but they are both very practical strategies. The same principle applies to how delicious yellowtail fish can turn a teetotaler into a drinker.

The famous Ringling Bar and Bros. Circus and Cirque du Soleil have different fates due to their different positioning. Just look at the picture below to understand. Ringling Bros. will disband in May this year and is currently on its final tour, while Cirque du Soleil's posters are all over major cities in the United States and hotels in Las Vegas.

Marketing is actually like opening up a new world. However, the design of your ads and login interface actually depends largely on how your widgets are placed.

If you set the target audience for your ads on Facebook, you may have this question: Chevrolet Volt ads can also attract Tesla owners, aren’t they all electric cars?

The answer is no, because the positioning of these two cars is completely different. Tesla's price is twice that of Chevrolet, and that makes the difference, and you have to understand that up front.

Individuality First

The following beer ad is quite unique, with a few words written provocatively: "You are not worthy":

They warn you point blank, “You might not like this beer.” But people still fall madly in love with it, and some can’t put it down.

Such a bold advertisement comes from Stone Brewing, one of the top ten craft breweries in the United States. Even the most picky beer geeks would rate its Stone Beer as "world-class" on review sites RateBeer and BeerAdvocate.

They dared to openly ridicule the beers produced by Bud, Coors and Miller as "fizzy yellow liquid but no taste", and they were also "bold" to make fun of the people who drank these beers.

This trick is actually very effective because people never like Stone at first sight just based on its appearance. There are too many similar beers, just like whether to choose Apple or Microsoft, whether to like Steve Jobs or Bill Gates.

Let’s take a look at this ad. The man showing off his muscles in a selfie is Noah Kagan, the founder of the website social tool SumoMe:

What is he doing? When you look at the picture, you might laugh out loud, or you might feel embarrassed and turn your head away.

So, when you glanced at it, what caught your eye and made you click to take a look? What else would make you look down upon it?

The question is: what is it that really attracts you? This point is actually the soul of commercial products, that is, "personality".

As Ogilvy puts it in his book:

“There is little difference between brands of whiskey, cigarettes, or beer, or cake mix, detergent, or margarine. The seller who can create the most distinctive brand personality will be able to capture the largest share of profits in the market.”

Respond to changes with constancy

American technology geeks love to keep up with the latest news. For example, new platforms, new channels, new codes, new advertising options, etc. When social networks were first emerging, large companies began to test the waters, with an average of 178 social media accounts per company.

While keeping up with trends is important, the key to successful and consistent advertising and marketing lies in execution, which requires discipline to supervise.

Orwell explained:

"If a company wants to launch new products every six months, it will definitely face various pressures. It takes extraordinary courage to remain unchanged in the face of these pressures. It is easy to change, but to succeed, marketers need to consciously create a unified and continuous image and have the determination to maintain it for a long time."

Just like Nike, which has always used the slogan "Just Doin' It", the DOS EQUIS beer launched by a Mexican beer company has been running the same advertisement for 10 years - "The Most Interesting Man in the Universe".

Why? Because creativity is actually a myth, its formula is the same, but everyone can handle it flexibly.

Ogilvy put the secret into words:

"Shakespeare wrote his sonnets in a regular way, iambic pentameter in three quatrains and a couplet. Are his sonnets boring? Mozart wrote his sonatas, which are lively and lively, but also follow strict rules, with each part presented, developed, and reproduced meticulously. Are their works boring?"

This metaphor proposed by an advertiser is actually quite appropriate.

Here is a good example:

If you look around, you’ll see more similar slogans. The sentence pattern used is "no need/no need to..."

Email Marketing: "Professional Email Marketing - No Specialized Skills Required":

In advertisements that help reduce tax burdens, we can also see this universal statement: "Hire a tax expert - avoid high legal fees":

Want to advertise for a local business? That's even easier. You can just use "location + keywords", such as "Rodeo doctor plastic surgery":

These words are used because they are tried and tested and can attract people. With more clicks, you can sell more, and your profits will increase rapidly.

Emphasis on employee capabilities

2007 is a good year for online marketing. Search engine optimization is easy to do. Maybe you can just spend 20-30 minutes a day writing a 300-word blog post.

But now things have changed.

This year, the time spent writing each blog post has increased by 26% compared to the previous year. An article that used to take 2 hours and 35 minutes to write now takes 3 hours and 16 minutes.

Simply put, such changes are due to "competition". To be more specific, the requirements for writing are rising rapidly like building a skyscraper.

A few years ago, each article only needed 500 words, but now the average is 2,000 words, and a picture must be inserted for every 150 words, so the writing requirements are higher. Once the standards for writing are raised, there are no shortcuts.

We spend most of our time focusing on writing skills, which are important. But no matter how important they are, they are not as important as copywriters.

Ogilvy gave an analogy:

"In most organizations, there are twice as many account managers as copywriters. But if you were a dairy farmer, would you hire twice as many milkers as cows?"

To put it more bluntly:

“Marketing is about words, but there are a lot of people in marketing agencies who can’t write. They’re like the deaf-mute on the Metropolitan Opera stage, and they’re not very helpful to the industry.”

The winds of technology change rapidly. You can get on the job smoothly at one moment, and have to deal with new problems with your bare hands the next moment. Things often happen before people are prepared or able to deal with them.

Ogilvy said:

"Training shouldn't be limited to new hires. It should be an ongoing process that involves all employees in the organization. The more people learn, the more helpful it is to clients."

AdWords and SEO that were used 10 years ago are now outdated. Now, you can make a product popular by just writing an article on a blog.

Nowadays, the most effective marketing methods are: knowledge, vision and experience.

Ogilvy wrote in his book:

"I have a friend who was the surgeon to King George VI of England. One day I asked him how to be a good doctor. He replied: 'The difference between a good doctor and an ordinary doctor is his knowledge. He/she knows more than other doctors. During the operation, he/she can find unexpected situations, realize its seriousness, and know how to deal with it.' This is actually the same as marketing. Excellent people are a group of people with more knowledge. How can you become knowledgeable? Read more books about advertising, hire more people who are more knowledgeable than you, learn knowledge from communication and display, and draw nourishment from experience."

As time goes by, consumer behavior continues to change, but consumers themselves have not changed much. It’s just that our industry has more goals to achieve and we want to do it faster and better.

If you have tried the above tricks and still have no luck, you may want to borrow some wisdom from Ogilvy, and you will soon see the light:

"Many people, myself included, write better after a little wine. If I drink two or three bottles of brandy, I can write a lot."

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