Advertising genius and copywriter, Clyde Bedell, helped many of the largest businesses in America survive the Great Depression era. How? By systematizing the basic, results-proven, time-tested selling principles that he learned through his sales success-and then applying them over and over again.
He not only studied and practiced “professional” sales and advertising-but taught it!
His short course, published decades ago called, “How to Convert White Space Into Advertising That Sells“, teaches some of his time-tested sales and advertising principles that have been proven to increase customer response over many decades.
Here are the Six Foundational Truths that Clyde impressed upon his students and implemented as part of the principles he used to create and write successful marketing pieces for the businesses that hired him:
Foundation Truth No. 1: All Good Selling is Serving
Serve your prospects well with copy messages that are worth taking the time to read.
SERVING your prospects is the strong foundation on which to build the rest of these truths.
Foundation Truth No. 2: People Buy Only to Get Benefits
You can’t ignore WHY people buy… it is to get benefits. They want a slimmer figure, more profit, better health, more time, security, beauty, etc. Don’t make the mistake of NOT telling your prospect what he will get if he takes action.
Foundation Truth No. 3: Benefits Must Be Supported by Features
Always support benefits with features… otherwise a benefit is nothing more than an empty claim. Although SAFETY is a benefit, it means nothing until it is attached to a feature…
“Because this car’s new braking system gives you more square inches of braking surface than any other car on the road blah blah blah… so your safety is assured.”
Foundation Truth No. 4: Prospects Will Read any Amount of Copy… (if it’s customer-focused)
The prospects who are truly your potential customers of any given product or service, will give your sales copy their full attention if it serves their needs. You must realize that they want you to give them helpful information about your product or service.
Foundation Truth No. 5: Planning is a Must for Successful Marketing
Marketing and advertising should be planned out, created and based on a set of sound sales principles and standards, done in a deliberate way-not just put together quickly and thrown out to the prospect. Good marketing is always the result of research, preparation, and planning.
Foundation Truth No. 6: Those in Charge (the Bosses)-Must Understand, Believe, and Enforce these Truths
If your job is to create or write marketing and sales messages that sell-it’s difficult to be successful if the people at the top aren’t behind you.
When the people “in charge” don’t understand what good sales and marketing messages require-the effectiveness of the marketing efforts inevitably sink to a low level.
… when those “in charge” DO understand the profit leverage of effective sales and marketing messages-they will stand behind their marketing staff’s efforts because there’s no faster way to increase profits!