Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz

Eugene Schwartz is commonly referred to as the best copywriter who ever lived. He’s also the author of what’s widely considered the No. 1 marketing & advertising book of all time – Breakthrough Advertising.

If I had to recommend just one book for the interested marketer to read, Breakthrough Advertising would be that book. Sure, the book was written over 60 years ago, however it’ll be just as relevant 200 years from now. Why? It’s a book about human behavior and psychology, and those things will never change. If Eugene Schwartz was the best copywriter who ever lived, that also means he may be the most careful with how he uses each and every word, when and in what order.

So with that, there’s no better way to first learn about Breakthrough Advertising than to experience the first Book Title followed by the first Chapter name followed by the first Paragraph.

BREAKTHROUGH ADVERTISING

MASS DESIRE: THE FORCE THAT MAKES ADVERTISING WORK — AND HOW TO FOCUS IT ONTO YOUR PRODUCT

Let’s get right down to the heart of the matter. The power, the force, the overwhelming urge to own that makes advertising work, comes from the market itself, and not from the copy. Copy cannot create desire for a product. It can only take the hopes, dreams, fears and desires that already exist in the hearts of millions of people, and focus those already- existing desires onto a particular product. This is the copy writer’s task: not to create this mass desire—but to channel and direct it.

What others could write and entire book about Schwartz can distill into one single paragraph. Schwartz’s perspective is very much a behavioral psychology one, and a keen one at that. He had an innate understanding of other humans. One of his strategies in writing effective copy was to assume the mental world of the prospect with such lucidity that he could describe the incredibly specific wants, fears, desires and frustrations better than the prospect could themselves.

Schwartz’s benchmark in determining whether he succeeded or not was to, after much research and analysis, ask the client a gambit question – and if answered question he would move into the writing phase, which took just a small amount of time in comparison to his research and analysis. Schwartz had an uncanny ability to assume the world of the prospect that he was writing directly to. As if a method actor was assuming their role entirely – yet Schwartz assumed both roles simultaneously, and bridged the two through the currency of the mind – language.