The Eight Great Rules of Marketing

Some of you may know I’m a big reader of Eugene Schwartz books and articles, so let’s start by telling you who Eugene Schwartz was. 

Eugene was a master copywriter; his sales copy and letters have generated millions of dollars for his customers over the years. 

In 1949 aged 22 he moved to New York to work for the advertising firm of Huber Hoge and Sons as a messenger boy and junior copywriter, by 1954 he was president of his own million-dollar mail order firm. 

In 1966 he wrote ‘Breakthrough Advertising’ which is considered a mail order classic, it is one of the most stolen books from public libraries because of its rarity and high market value. 

Eugene passed away in 1995.

“The person who is the best prepared and the most knowledgeable makes the most money” – Eugene Schwartz.

Here are Eugene’s Eight Great Rules of Marketing and my take for the modern world.

1. Be the Best Listener you have Ever Met.

Business Mentors, Coaches, Copywriters, Marketers often tout the importance of knowing your target market, but it's not always easy to figure out what exactly it is that they're looking for.

One great way to figure it out. Listen! Listen to what your target market is saying, thinking, and feeling. Eugene Schwartz was a big believer in listening—he used to get into taxi cabs and interrogate the cab drivers, because he knew that they had one of the best birds-eye views on the world.

How do you do it? Read reviews, watch movies that reflect your target market's interests (even if you don't think you'll like them), and always keep your eye out for what people are talking about. It's great research, and it'll help you be a more effective marketer in the long run!

When you do that, you:

a) Write copy that directly targets their minds.

b) You are able to market your products more effectively because you know.

For me, listening and not just listening but hearing your target market is absolutely essential to become a marketer.

2. Work Extremely Intensely, in Spurts.

Work hard, then rest. That's the advice you'll find in every productivity blog and management book out there. But why? Why not just work hard all the time? And why is it so hard to do?

Well, the simple answer is that we're wired to do it this way. We focus intensely for a while because our brains are used to working in spurts—like hunter-gatherers would. Once we've accomplished something, we take a break to reflect on our accomplishment and enjoy a snack before moving on to the next project.

When you're trying to get a lot done, work intensely. Spend chunks of time focusing on one thing at a time — no multitasking! — then move on to the next thing once you've finished the first one. You'll be more productive than if you try to keep up a constant stream of mediocre effort on multiple things throughout the day—and your brain will thank you for it!

3. Never “Create”, know the Product to the Core and Combine the details in New Ways.

Let’s imagine that our product is a small, unassuming piece of paper. It’s just sitting there on the table, minding its own business. At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much—just a piece of paper. But if you grab it, and you hold onto it? If you turn it over in your hands and stare at it? If you close your eyes and feel its texture against your skin? If you do all these things, the piece of paper will start to reveal something to you. It will start to tell you it’s story.

Whether you're selling a product or service, the first thing to do is understand it intimately. Learn what makes it special and different from anything else out there; learn who it appeals to and why; learn what your customers love about it. That way, when you come to actually write about it, you will know exactly what will catch their attention and convince them to buy.

4. Write to the Chimpanzee Brain – Simply and Directly.

Don’t overcomplicate things and never make assumptions.

The chimpanzee brain is the most primitive part of the brain—so if you write in a way that’s too complicated, or if you make assumptions about your readers' understanding, you might be headed for trouble.

It's important to be as clear and concise as possible. Writing for the chimp brain means making sure your copy is easy to understand, because if someone has to work too hard to understand what you're saying, they probably won't bother.

You should also try to avoid making any assumptions about what your readers know. If they don't understand something, they'll just switch off.

A bit of copywriting advice I learnt from my qualification, when it comes to written communication, your writing should be at a Flesch Kincaid level of 10 or below. This is important in making sure readers don’t get bored and stop reading. If you need help writing this way, just run a readability statistics report on your document using Microsoft Word (or similar).

5. Channel Demand – Never Sell.

To get them to purchase your product or service, you need to do more than convince them that it's the best choice. You need to find a way in, a way to make them believe that your product will transform their lives. That they'll be happier, healthier, or wealthier as a result of using it. Because when you find that in, that connection between your product and the customer's life, then you're on the path toward success. Remember your customers are looking for ‘Transformation.’

You don't create desire for your product or service in the market. What you do is look at what people already want and turn that into what your products do for them. You make it so that when people see your product or service, they think about all the things it can help them achieve, better relationships, better health, and more wealth.

That's where you start—from there, it's up to you and your marketing strategy to convince customers to buy from you instead of someone else who has solved the same problem or provided the same solution for them.

6. Think about what your Product “Does”, not “Is” – and Demonstrate this.

Talk about the benefits and talk even more about the emotional benefits.

As I’ve written in Rule No.5, people are looking for transformation and they buy on emotion. Connect on an emotional level (e.g.: a pain) and solve the problem, let features take a back seat.

7. Make Gratification Instantaneous.

One of the most important aspects of all, prospects need to feel like they are getting gratification.

In other words, the copy or marketing itself must make them feel like they’re getting something from you or your product. This is where you help the prospect solve their problems or relieve their pain.

This is where you begin to build a bridge between where they are and where they want to be. (Transformation)

We’re not going to solve all their problems in our copy – that would take too long. But if you can show how your product/service solves some small part of their problem, they feel like they’re getting something out of reading it.

Sometimes, this is as simple as addressing a pain point in your headline, and then going on to say how you’ll help alleviate that pain in your copy or marketing message.

8. Failing often, and Testing Big Differences, show you are Trying Hard!