Posted by: Troy White
March 18, 2010
Issue #887

Your Country Guide Formula That Connects With Buyers

Fellow Business-Builder,

I found a goldmine in a farmer’s field!

Ok, more like a goldmine of old ads from 1939 in a Farmers newspaper, but close enough.

Country Guide is an incredible little newspaper/magazine that was distributed 70+ years ago and has more than enough lessons for today’s marketer.

The first thing that becomes glaringly obvious in looking at a few of these ads I pulled out?

Advertising today has become illiterate

The common advertisement you see in a magazine or newspaper has pretty pictures and little to no descriptive text.

Almost every single ad in this publication uses long copy and many of them also use direct response tools like coupons as well.

Go figure, you actually get to know what the product is about… rather than trying to guess what kind of a product or service they are talking about in today’s assortment of creative ads that say nothing and do nothing.

Look at this contest advertisement

Preheads, strong headlines, subheads, even strong deck copy and the signature of the writer… look familiar?  Maybe to you and I… we LOVE direct response.  And we use these same tools in our own promotions.

But remember, this is a general magazine – barely an image/branding ad to be seen.

Way back when, marketers knew this worked and were willing to risk the ugliness of this type of advertising in trade for profits.

The majority of advertisers today would rather give up the profits, just so they can look good in front of their friends and family.

And you can’t say it is all about our ADD society.

Things like Facebook have proven that theory wrong.  People spend hours and hours every single day on there reading, chatting, mingling with their friends and friendly strangers.

Advertisers today are wimps

Scared of offending anyone.

Worried about their friends not liking the prettiness of their advertising.

Any time I have tested some kind of bizarre advertorial style ad… it kicks butt.  The challenge is getting them to test it… once they do, they are sold.

Or this one, hitting the objections right up front

Note that something like an ad for roofing even includes an offer for a free booklet that educates them.

Strong Headline 70 Years Ago - still being used today

This ad sells a money-making opportunity for women… and does a good job at it too.

Note the testimonial right up at the very top of the ad.

The reason I am showing you all these ads is that they are packed with solid techniques for getting better results in your advertising.

No matter what you sell, these ads have some ideas you can use.

Selling Products that Have a Disadvantage

This long copy ad is selling a kerosene lantern in the day of electricity. Note how they turn their disadvantages into unique selling points.

Note the Tractor headline underneath the lantern ad.

What a fantastic way to begin your copy.  Talk about a customer that refused to buy a very expensive product unless yours was added on as part of the sale.

Does your product compliment others?  Do you use that in your marketing? Think of the joint venture possibilities with this approach.

Long Copy To Sell Toothpaste!

Rather than just a cutesy saying that advertisers use today, this ad goes in depth about how to brush your teeth and gums properly, and how you will feel after using their product for a few weeks.

Do you give them enough ideas so they can actually put themselves into the future after enjoying your product or service for a few weeks or months?

You should.

You should also liken your product or service
to some form of ____ insurance, like this ad does

Buying our farm equipment is just like buying crop insurance.  Love it.

Note this copy and how descriptive it is for their ideal client: “The John Deer Damming System is a completely tillage and seeding practice designed especially for profitable copy production in the semi-arid or so-called "dry-farming" regions.”

Rather than saying “this is for everyone with a farm” they say exactly what type of farm this is meant for.  There are no questions left in the readers mind if they farm on this type of soil or not.

Are you leaving your target market too wide open and confused?

Test narrowing your focus on a VERY specific type of usage and see what happens to your response.

Throw Down The Gauntlet

This does a brilliant job of challenging the reader to test something out.

“Accept this challenge for your next 30 breakfasts”

This is an approach not used enough anymore… asking people to try their old way, test out your way, then report back the differences they experience.

Can you think of any product or service this wouldn’t work for?

Reason why copy in a tightly condense ad

Not all the uses of “because” here.  Telling the reader exactly why this is important to him, rather than just assuming they can figure it out on their own.

Novel idea.

Maybe, just maybe some use of this in your marketing?

I realize there weren’t a ton of lessons I gave in today’s post… I think the ads speak for themselves.

70 years ago ads like these are what built empires.

• Longer copy
• Educational
• Entertaining
• Challenging
• Story telling
• Reason why copy

All areas that are still very well received by today’s buyers… just not used often enough.

It opens up opportunities for us, and leaves our competitors in the dark.

Sometimes the best lessons are from long past.

Hopefully these ads gave you some new ideas on copy approaches, story ideas, challenge ideas, or just some good reading.

To your success,

Troy White
Editor, Small Business Mastery
Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE

Looking for resources related to this article? Try some of these.

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Looking for past issues of The Total Package? Click here for our archives.

A Final Note:

If you have specific subjects you would like addressed, or have any comments on what you have seen here, please submit a comment below and I will see how I can help.

"Now is the time to fix the next 10 years" — Jim Rohn

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8 Comments »

1. Comment by Brian Ridgway — March 18, 2010 @ 9:59 am

   Troy, Once again, you rock! Great article!

2. Comment by Shanika Journey — March 18, 2010 @ 11:25 am

   Wow!

   That is so cool to see an older magazine filled with these incredible ads.

   And you’re right — there isn’t alot of advertising written like this anymore.

   I really enjoyed seeing this. That was motivation for my writing for today.
   Kudos.

3. Comment by Troy White — March 18, 2010 @ 11:35 am

   Thanks for the comments. I do find this fascinating that the most powerful advertisements have (for the most part) disappeared from mainstream media.

   Open the typical magazine or newspaper and you will be hardpressed to find a decent longer-copy, direct response type ad. But 70 years ago, they were almost ALL direct response ads.

   People today are far too wrapped up in looking pretty than actually getting a decent response from their ads.

   Which is why it is so critical for all of us to invest the time and get damn good fast at persuasive writing.

   Much less competition now.

   Which is something we all want.

   The clutter is there - but this can help you stand out from the clutter.

   Thanks again, Troy

4. Comment by Frank — March 18, 2010 @ 11:44 am

   Amazing article Troy.

   It’s funny how far the big advertising companies have gotten from the time tested proven methods discussed here. I guess that is “good” for the few that know the secrets.

5. Comment by Walter Daniels — March 18, 2010 @ 7:46 pm

   The truth is that we have gotten away from real “advertising.” I think it can be argued not that they understood it better, but they weren’t wrapped up in impressing each other. As you point out, Advertising is supposed to tell us a story.
   The story it tells is how the product broadly fits into our needs. If I need tools, advertising tells me where I can find tools. I don’t care about how fancy the store is, or where the tools are made. I care about whether or not it has the tools I want. If I need blacksmith tools, talking about jewelry tools does me no good. Neither does how pretty your tools are. Today, the idea of such simple information being of primary importance, has been lost.
   In fact, the difference between Advertising, and Marketing, has been so blurred, it has been almost completely lost. The idea of presenting everything as “The Newest,” or “The Best,” has become the ideal. Hype is king, not the idea of giving information that they can use, to people.
   As Mr. Lewis has pointed out, we need to remember that if we are going to do a proper job, of what copywriting is about. Getting lost in how fancy the transport is, or how fast it goes, does not tell us if the destination is close or far away, or even if it’s the one we want.

6. Comment by Merrill Clark — March 19, 2010 @ 8:32 am

   Hey Troy,

   You’ve provided platinum qaulity information yet again!

   I do have to disagree with you though, when you said you didn’t provide a ton of lessons.

   After studying these these ads for a few minutes, there are MORE than a ton of lessons here. But like you and some otheres have said, they’re often forgotten and unused today.

   Thanks for the lessons!

   Merrill Clark

7. Comment by Merrill Clark — March 19, 2010 @ 8:33 am

   Oops… nobody said I could spell qaulity (I mean quality)right. Sigh…

8. Comment by Troy White — March 19, 2010 @ 12:36 pm

   Thanks all. Some great feedback you have here. Glad there were some good lessons here - and the ads themselves are full of nuggets that we should all be taking lessons from.

   Very true Walter - most ads these days are trying far too hard to impress people with their creative slogans, rather than impressing their potential customers with valuable information that is targeted at their exact needs.

   I definitely see a trend towards more graphical elements in direct response copy - just finished a fantastic book on the subject called Convergence Marketing.

   But the graphics should never take away from the purpose of the copy - to generate a direct lead or sale.

   Most ads don’t care about getting a lead or sale… its more of a hope and pray strategy that someone, someday will seek them out and buy, or not.

   Have a great weekend. Troy