Today I read a clever little ad, which famed copywriter Gary Bencivenga wrote to promote his own marketing agency.
True to Gary’s philosophy of advertising, this ad is full of value — useful info that keeps you reading whether you plan on hiring Gary’s agency or not. On page 7, there is a caption that reads:
“THE DUCK FOR SALE” PRINCIPLE. When you have a product with immediate, apparent appeal, present it straightforwardly. For example, if you are trying to sell a duck, don’t beat about the bush with a headline such as, “Announcing a special opportunity to buy a white-feathered flying object.”
You’ll get much better results with, “DUCK FOR SALE.”
I liked this a lot. And I think this “duck for sale” principle applies more broadly than just to products with immediate, apparent appeal.
I’m not saying all ads should trumpet the product in the headline. But I personally often overthink advertising. I try to get clever. Tricky. I want to work in that copywriting mystique sold by copywriting gurus.
But based on what I’ve seen after sending hundreds of emails to peddle truckloads of ecomm gimcracks… all the successful copy I’ve written satisfied the “duck for sale” principle in a way. It was direct, at least about the problem it was solving. It was simple to understand. And it was close to what was on the prospect’s mind.
Gary Bencievenga apparently likes a little book called Obvious Adams. It’s about an unremarkable man who becomes a remarkable marketing success. He gets there by doing something similar to what I’m talking about here:
“How many of us have sense to see and do the obvious thing? And how many have persistence enough in following our ideas of what is obvious? The more I thought of it, the more convinced I became that in our organization there ought to be some place for a lad who had enough sense to see the obvious thing to do and then to go about it directly, without any fuss or fireworks, and do it!”