Pushing your business; a book of practical advice on advertising, for banks, trust companies, investment brokers, real estate dealers, and all interested in promoting their business by judicious advertising

Introduction

ADVERTISING, once looked upon by some business men as an expense, is now quite generally regarded in its proper light— as an investment.

The primary purpose of most advertising is to increase business.

Some advertising is done with other objects in view, but in most cases now-a-days every dollar spent in advertising is expected to come back, sooner or later, bringing many others with it.

Advertising is by no means a fixed science. There are no set rules the observance of which will insure success to the advertiser.

But experience is a good teacher, and it need not all be your own experience. In the past few years there has been a wonderful advance in advertising knowledge and progress has been made in the facilities for the preparation and distribution of advertising matter to such an extent that advertising means much more than it did even a decade ago.

The fundamental principles involved in financial advertising do not differ from those of advertising in general. However, there are some things in financial publicity that require special emphasis. Hence this book.

All advertising should be confidence inspiring, but, more than any other class of advertising, that of financial or investment institutions must have this quality.

When a man turns over his money to the care of another and in return gets for the time being nothing more tangible than a promise to return it with interest at some future time, he needs the strongest kind of assurance concerning the integrity and business ability of the men who make such a proposition to him.

A good deal has been said about the necessity for dignity in financial advertising. It is right, there should be dignity, and the chief reason is because that helps to inspire confidence.

At the same time the advertising must not be so dignified that it lacks in human interest, persuasiveness and the power of conviction. In short, the problem is how to combine the right amount of dignity with the requisite "pulling power."

It is to help solve this problem that this book has been written and is placed in the hands of those upon whom falls the responsibility of promoting the business of financial and investment institutions by advertising.

The value of advertising is not to be measured only by the direct returns from advertisements.

Honest, continuous advertising and making good on promises helps to create for advertisers good will — an asset of intangible but very real value.

There are many other things that go to create and maintain prestige or good will for a business, but the right kind of advertising is the principal means to that end.

While it cannot be measured by the yard stick nor expressed in dollars and cents, good will has an acknowledged value. A recent court decision placed a valuation of $1,000,000 upon the trademark of a certain very large advertiser. A considerable expenditure for general advertising, continued over a period of years, gave that trademark its great value.

It will work just the same in your business if you are a persistent advertiser and everybody connected with your institution uses his best efforts to carry out the promises of courteous and considerate treatment made in the advertising. All employes must have a proper conception of the importance of each customer's good will and a sincere desire to gain it.

There is such a thing as the cumulative effect of continuous advertising. The first time a person reads your advertisement he may not be in a position to act favorably upon the suggestion you make. In fact, he may not be ready for months, but if you have kept your name before the public and used your advertising space to good advantage by filling it with interesting, informing, convincing copy, frequently changed, you have held that man's attention and when he is prepared to do as you suggest you are very likely to get his business.

There is a secondarjr advertising of much value that comes to the regular and steady advertiser. It arises from the daily talk of the community when the name of your institution or company has become a household word through persistent publicity. When you have reached a point where the people take up your advertising and voluntarily help to make your business better known, you are fortunate indeed.

It is the hope of the author that in setting down in this book some of the results of wide experience and observation in the field of financial advertising from the standpoint of advertiser, agent and publisher — he has done something which will prove of lasting value to others in this field.

T. D. MacGregor.

New York, March, 1908.

CHAPTER I. The Technical Foundation

A STUDY of "copy" and the actual preparation of advertising matter naturally precedes the consideration of the broader subject of methods and the complete campaign.

So we begin with a few suggestions on how to write an advertisement.

No matter how large the space or the circulation you pay for or how favorable the rates you secure, you are not getting your money's worth if the copy (i. e. the text matter of the advertisement) is weak or defective in any way.

Copy must do more than fill space. It must "jduIL," bring results.

Good copy is not mechanical. It cannot be ground out of a hopper. If it could, there would be no need to study the problem of salesmanship on paper. You could just buy good copy as easily as you can printing.

Financial advertising copy can not be too strong, concise and original. It is not enough for the writer to know the inside facts about his particular proposition.

Indeed, strange as it may seem, you may be too close to your own business to realize its strongest advertising points.

That is the trouble with a good many bankers and other business men when it comes to handling their own advertising.

They do not see themselves and their business -is others see them.

They are so immersed in the inside details of their institution's activities that it is hard for them to look at things from the broader standpoint of the disinterested outsider.

It will pay you to cultivate that valuable "outside" attitude, the viewpoint of the disinterested man or woman — your prospective customer. Don't look at the proposition entirely from your standpoint. Put yourself in the other fellow's place.

Emphasize "you" and "your" in the copy, not "we" and "our."

Get the "you" habit in your advertising. It is polite, and it is good business, too.

The personal element is one of the most effective factors in advertising, but it must be used with good taste. •

It is all right to read the advertising matter of others for suggestions, but do not slavishly adapt ideas and phrases that seem to fit your case. It is better to be original. Have initiative. Explore your own proposition for new ideas. Then exjjress them brightly and with all the literary skill you can command.

Make your advertising interesting and educating.

THE ACTUAL PREPARATION.

As far as the actual preparation of an advertisement is concerned, no fixed rule can be laid down as to detail of method. There are as many different ways of doing it as there are successful advertisement writers.

Probably no two writers go about it in the same way when they sit down to prepare an advertisement. But experience has proved the wisdom of certain methods and has established some general principles.

Study every phase of your proposition thoroughly. Then set down in black and white all the talking points that occur to you.

Omit no fact or argument that might possibly be used to advantage.

With this list of talking points, you have your material ready. The next step is to outline a plan for the particular piece of advertising in hand, be it a series of newspaper advertisements, a circular or a booklet.

In a newspaper series the first thing to determine is the size of the space to be used. In deciding this point, remember that if you have not an appropriation large enough to warrant the continuous use of fairly large space, it is better to use a small space regularly and frequently than very large space at spasmodic intervals.

When it is planned to run a complete series, each individual advertisement should, if possible, emphasize a different point, although it is well sometimes to summarize other points, the theory being that there are always some readers who have not seen preceding advertisements and who may not see later ones.

In case of a pure type display advertisement, that is, one in which no drawing or design cut is used, the next important thing is to create a suitable heading for the advertisement.

There are very few persons who read through the copy of all the advertisements, but there are many who see all, or nearly all, of the heavy headlines. So the wise thing to do is 'o state your case clearly in the headlines.

"The meat at the top" is the rule for good headlines just as much in an advertisement as in a news article. By constant practice the advertisement writer can learn to tell his whole story in the headlines and thus get a bigger circulation for his announcement, the head at the top and the name of the advertiser at the bottom making in themselves a complete advertisement for the benefit of the nearsighted and cursory readers of the paper.

Here are some good headlines for advertisements:

BOND BARGAINS.

NOW IS TPIE INVESTOR'S OPPORTUNITY.

REGULAR INCOMES FROM NEW YORK REAL ESTATE.

WHEN YOU HAVE SAVED $100 GET A CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT.

IT IS EASY, SAFE AND PROFITABLE TO BANK BY MAIL.

Having chosen a suitable head, you have the subject of your advertisement. Pick out the talking point or points you wish to develop. Then sit down and write as fast as the ideas come to you. Never mind the length, drive your pencil as fast as it will go. Get your ideas down before they escape you.

Give real arguments and reasons, not just bald, unsupported statements. Be logical and consistent.

When you have written yourself out on that particular subject, rewrite your composition.

Cut out all unnecessary words. Condense. Boil it down, but not too much.

Rewrite your advertisement in the shortest, simplest, strongest words that come to you. If you have difficulty in choosing words have a synonym book at your elbow and use it.

It is better to use short, easy-reading paragraphs — like these.

There are several reasons why this wholesale pruning process is a good thing. It saves valuable space, makes easy reading and permits more effective display.

ABOUT ILLUSTRATIONS.

The use of a good illustration may add 50 per cent, to the "pulling" power of an advertisement.

In the first place, a good, strong illustration serves as an eyecatcher. Then it may present an argument in itself. It can be made so striking that it will hammer in a point indelibly and prove of more value than the rest of the advertisement.

For example, a real estate company could embellish its advertisement of some suburban residence property with such an attractive view of one of the homes that descriptive words or persuasive argument would be almost unnecessary.

A savings bank, by using a cut to show a page of a pass book, could illustrate graphically how savings grow.

A good illustration tells its story at a glance, 1 a story intelligible to young and old alike, to the educated and the illiterate. It can touch the feelings and lead to favorable action in the direction suggested — often more quickly than an appeal to reason, because most persons, men as well as women, act more upon impulse than they do as the result of cold logic.

There must always be a close connection between the idea brought out by the illustration and the thought expressed in the copy of the advertisement. Unless this rule is observed, there will be waste motion, so to speak, in the advertising. The picture of a pretty girl or of a beautiful piece of scenery probably will attract passing attention, but unless the illustration is tied up in some way with the copy, it will not help the advertisement. On the contrary, it is more likely to injure it by distracting attention from the main purpose of the announcement.

It is not necessary for the advertisement writer to be an artist, too, but he should have ideas and be able to sketch them up roughly so that an artist can readily see the point and carry it out effectively.

The regular use of a trademark cut in advertising is good because, besides serving to draw attention to the notice, it identifies the advertisement so that even if not always read, an unconscious influence is exerted upon the mind of the reading public. It helps build up a prestige, a good will, for the advertiser which may become one of his most valuable assets.

If you adopt and use continuously a certain distinctive style of type "set up" in your advertisements you will get some valuable secondary or indirect advertising. By creating a style of your own you get more than you pay for because in this way you get the full benefit of the cumulative effect of all your preceding publicity.

The emblems of some banks are so well known that if they appeared in the newspapers or the street cars without a word of type most of those who saw them would know what they stood for. That illustrates the cumulative effect of advertising.

However, we are not advocating the wisdom of any such course. It should be remembered that there is a new generation constantly growing up that must be educated in the way it should go and the best thing for the advertiser to do it is to keep hammering into the minds of the people, not only his name and emblem, but also interesting facts about his institution and the service it offers the public.

In short, our advice is — get a good emblem to represent you, make it known by advertising and then back up your advertising by making good on your promises and by courteous and prompt attention to the wants of your customers.

HARMONY IN STYLE.

Do not use several different styles of type in one advertisement, and always remember that there is great strength in simplicity.

Do not overlook the value of display obtained by the liberal use of white space.

It is always well in sending copy to the printer to make a "layout" similar to that shown on page 7. It helps the printer to carry out accurately the idea you have in your mind and insures a better looking advertisement. That is, in case you have studied the matter and know something about what you do want. Otherwise it is better to leave it to the judgment of the printer.

Always ask to see proof. Otherwise you may be made to say some embarrassing things in your advertisements, and mistakes will occur even then, if you are not very careful in reading proof.

PROOFREADER'S MARKS.

For your convenience in learning to read proof, the usual proofreading symbols and their meaning are reproduced here.

<j( Delete; take out or expunge.

/\ Left out; insert.

Q Colon.

$fc A space, or more space, between lines or letters.

^„y Less space between words or letters. '/ Hyphen. .

C Bring a word or words to the beginning of a line; also, make a new paragraph

/\ Directs attention to a broken or imperfect type.

Q Period.

\J Even spacing.

□ Indent.

G) Turn a reversed letter.

L Push down space.

^"^ No space between words or letters; close up.

% j Comma.

\/ Apostrophe.

/JJ One-em dash.

/-£/ Two-em dash. v/*/ Quotation.

/fy Straighten a crooked line or lines.

. j , Directs attention to a quadrat or space which improperly appears.

| | Sink or depress a letter, word, or character raised above the proper

level.

| "1 Carry a word farther to the left or to the right.

Elevate a letter, word or character, that is sunk below the proper n level.

| Shows that a portion of a paragraph projects laterally beyond the rest.

C| Make a new paragraph.

JO*

Y$EG-lN TO S/fiVEAfoW

A

S e^-y vty 7rv$t Co.

i

JC*t

Layout for an Advertisement

Put in italic; also change according to the mark in the margin, as from Italic to Roman or from Roman to Italic.

Put in small capitals.

£EE Put in amuH capitals.

.... Restore or retain words being crossed out, stet being usually written in the margin, meaning "Let it stand."

wf. Wrong font, used when a character is of wrong size or style.

tr. Transpose.

I.e. Lower case; that is, put in small or common letters a word that has been printed in capitals or small capitals.

s.caps Put in small capitals.

qy.or? Query; is this right?

out sc Words are omitted, or are wanting, see copy.

These are a few technical points that it would be well for you to master if you are planning to conduct your own advertising, and the knowledge will not come amiss if you delegate the actual details of preparation to somebody else. You are the one that has to pay the bills and cannot know too much about what you are paying for in promoting your business.

GETTING EXPERT HELP.

A good advertising agent or an expert advertising writer is worth more than he costs you, because he helps you to save and to make more money than you would without him.

To-day there are specialists in the preparation and handling of advertising just as there are in every other line. It pays to consult and to employ them even if your advertising appropriation is a small one. If your business is large enough to warrant it, you need an advertising expert of your own. But even in that case, the advertising preparation bureau and the agency that places advertising will be of the greatest service to you.

A knowledge of the results of the experience of many other financial advertisers on such important matters as copy, mediums and methods is placed at your instant command when you employ expert service of this kind.

Banks and investment houses that advertise nationally place their business through advertising agents because they are thus relieved of all detail work in connection with their publicity and pay nothing for the service, as the agent is reimbursed for his work by the commissions he receives from the publishers of the magazines and other mediums used.

For the convenience of readers and students not familiar with printing, publishing and advertising terminology, we print the following:

GLOSSARY OF TERMS COMMONLY USED IN ADVERTISING.

Advertising Agent. — One who handles advertising for another. Some agents are just "space brokers," getting their pay entirely in commissions from publications and those controlling advertising privileges. Others have copy and art departments and give their clients service in the preparation of advertising matter as well as in the mechanical details of an advertising campaign.

Agate Line. — A line of agate type. It is used as a measure of advertising space, fourteen agate lines being allowed to an inch, single column.

Antique Finish.— -Term used when paper is not calendered.

Appropriation. — An amount of money set aside for advertising expense.

Boldface or Blackface Type. — A type having a conspicuous or heavy face, like this— Boldface.

Border. — A rule or design used around an advertisement or plate.

Calendered Paper. — Paper that has been given a glazed, glossy or wavy appearance by an ironing machine consisting of two or more heated cylinders.

Campaign. — A complete plan of advertising. Also the carrying out of the plan in all its details.

Caps. — Capital letters.

Chase. — A rectangular iron frame in which pages or columns of type are imposed.

Checking Up. — Verifying insertions of advertisements before paying bills for the advertising.

Circulation. — The circulation of a publication means the total number of copies printed «nd distributed to readers. The circulation of billboards, street car advertising, etc., means the number of people who see the advertising.

Closing Date. — The date upon which a periodical locks up its forms preparatory to going to press. Every publication has a fixed time every month, week or day after which it is impossible to accept copy of advertisements for that issue.

Color Work. — Copy printed in more than one color, usually clone on a color press, and with several impressions.

Composition. — The setting up of type and arranging it for printing.

Compositor. — A typesetter.

Copy. — Manuscript (written or typewritten) or printed matter to be set up in type. Or, a photograph, drawing or other article of which a cut is to be made.

Cropping. — Cutting the edges of a negative or photograph so that a plate can be made with the desired proportionate reduction from the original copy,

Cut. — An engraved block or plate. Also the impression from such a plate.

Design. — The name given to the drawing or "art work" portion of an illustrated advertisement, or of the cover of a booklet.

Display. — The method used to make an advertisement stand out conspicuously. It can be done by large type, striking design, liberal use of white space or unusual arrangement.

Display Type. — Large type used for heads or lines in advertisements or other parts to be especially emphasized.

Dummy. — A working plan of a book, circular, etc., used to convey an idea of the size, form, stock and other particulars. It is used as a basis for cost estimates and to show how the completed work will look.

Electro, Electrotyping. — A duplicated copy of an engraving or type form, made by suspending a wax copy in a solution of copper sulphate together with a plate of copper. An electric current deposits the copper on the impression, which is backed with a stiff metal, trimmed and blocked ready for the press; a means of duplicating plates and type matter by a combined chemical and electrical process. Electros are more durable than some other printing plates.

E. O. D. — Every other day, meaning that an advertisement is to run alternate days in a daily paper.

E. O. W. — A mark meaning that an advertisement is to run every other week in a weekly publication.

Em. — The portion of a line formerly occupied by the letter m, then a square type, used as a unit by which to measure the amount of printed matter on a page; the square of the body of a type.

Enameled Paper. — This is produced by a coating of glue and China clay, which fills up the pores of the paper.

Etching. — Producing designs or figures on a metal plate by means of lines eaten in or corroded by means of a strong acid.

Face. — The style or cut of a type or font of type. The printing surface.

Follow Up. — Personal and form letters, circulars, mailing cards, personal visits, and, in short, the whole system by which inquiries are turned into orders, inquirers into customers. A very important part of modern advertising.

Fokt. — A complete assortment of printing type of one size, including a due proportion of all the letters in the alphabet, large and small, points, accents, and whatever else is necessary for printing with that variety of types.

Form. — The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase, ready for printing.

Forms Close. — See "Closing Date."

Form Letter. — A letter prepared in advance and kept in stock to be sent to inquirers or as part of a follow-up system. They are usually typewritten or printed in imitation of typewritten letters, space being left at the top to fill in the date and the address with the same color of ink as the body of the letter.

Halftone. — A copper plate upon which is reproduced any photograph, wash drawing, or steel engraving, which is to be printed on paper. It is made by obtaining, through a ruled glass screen, a negative which is then printed on the plate and etched to a suitable depth for printing. Halftones can be reproduced from wash or color drawings, oil paintings, and photographs. Solio or other brown photographs will give the best result. The finer the screen of a halftone, the cleaner the detail. Sixty-four screen is the proper mesh for newspaper printing. About 133 screen will give the best result on calendered paper. One hundred and fifty can be used on coated paper. (See Screen.)

Holdover. — Matter and copy held out of one issue of a publication for use in a later one.

Impression. — The imprint made by the pressure of the type or plate on the paper.

Inquiry. — A request for further information concerning something advertised.. It is the task of the advertiser to turn inquiries into orders or business.

Insertions. — Means the number of times an advertisement appears in a publication. For example, "three insertions a week" means that the advertisement appears three times during the week.

Key. — A means of telling how an advertisement or a medium pays the advertiser. Usually it is something in the address which differs in the various mediums used. For example: "Dept. A;" "Dept. B;" "Desk 5;" "Suite 105;" or "Send for booklet A," etc. A careful record of inquiries and sales or customers secured from each advertisement is kept by a great many advertisers. It is a wise thing to do, as it enables the advertiser to spend his advertising appropriation intelligently.

Layout. — An accurately drawn outline marked so that the printer may know exactly how to set up an advertisement, circular, etc. On it are indicated the exact space, the size of type, position of cuts and other information to enable the printer to carry out the ideas of the advertiser. (See illustration in this chapter.)

L. C. — Lower case, i. e., small letters.

Lead. — A thin strip of type metal used to separate lines of type in printing.

Leaded. — Matter with proper leads dividing it for printing. Double leaded matter is more likely to attract attention than single leaded.

Line Cut. — An engraving plate in which the effects are produced by lines of different width and closeness, cut upon copper, zinc or similar material.

Linotype. — A type setting machine, operated as a typewriter, which casts the words in lines from the molten type-metal.

Make Ready. — After the type matter and cuts are locked into the form, printing cannot be started until the form is "made ready" for the press. That is, if a cut is too high it must be lowered. If it is too low it must be raised. If a "quad" or a "slug" sticks up it must be hammered down. Everything to be printed must be "type-high," so that the form will print evenly.

Mat, Matrix. — See "Stereotype Plate."

Matter. — Written manuscript or anything to be set in type; copy; also type set up and ready to be used, or which has been used in printing.

Medium. — Any vehicle of advertising, as a magazine, newspaper, street car, billboard, calendar, novelty, etc.

Monotype. — A typesetting machine which sets each individual type separately and not by lines as on a linotype.

Mortise. — A portion of an engraved plate cut out so that type matter or another plate may be inserted.

Pica. — See "Point."

Plate. — A piece of metal upon which anything is engraved for the purposes of printing. Also the impression from it.

Point, the Point System. — The size of type is now measured by the point system based on the pica body, which is divided into twelfths, which are termed points. Type founders now cast type of a uniform size and height. Seventy-two points or six picas make one inch. This matter is set in eight point.

Preferred Position. — A location of an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper which gives it the advantage in getting the attention of readers. Usually a higher rate is charged for such position.

Press. — A machine which makes impressions of type matter and plates upon a printing surface. The smallest presses are operated by hand. A cylinder press is one in which the impression is produced by a revolving cylinder under which the form passes. Sometimes the stereotype plates are curved around a cylinder, instead of resting on a flat bed. All fast printing is done on cylinder presses.

Proof. — A trial impression from type or plate taken for correction or examination.

Proof-Reader. — One who reads proof and makes corrections thereon.

Pull. — A term used in speaking- of the results obtained from an advertisement, as "The ad. pulled well."

Pure Reading Matter.- — News or general articles in a newspaper or magazine. Position for an advertisement next to pure reading matter is desirable because in that location the announcement is more likely to be seen and read.

Quoin. — A metal wedge used to lock up a form within a chase.

Rate Card. — A printed list of prices for advertising space, with information as to discounts, special positions, etc.

Reading Notice. — An advertisement set so that it looks like a news or general article. The charge for such notices is higher than for the same space in display type.

Ream. — There are 500 sheets of paper to a ream, but the size of the sheet and the weight of a ream differ according to the kind of paper.