Scientific Advertising for Funeral Homes: Recent Episodes
Robin Heppell, CFSP
Hi this is Robin Heppell. Thank you for your interest in learning more about advertising and marketing for your funeral home or cemetery. I am a lifelong student and since you have taken the time to listen to this recording I can only imagine that you have the same desire for self improvement and increasing the profit of your business. The Marketing Masters like Hopkins never get studied by those who are looking for the quick fix or the so called silver bullet, but you will realize quite quickly after listening to Hopkins work, that applying his principles is a sure bet, and over time you will continue to increase your odds – or returns with your marketing efforts. Fly-by-nighters, don’t have the patience – or probably the intelligence – to study the Masters because this is heavy stuff and not for the faint of heart. You cannot skim his book, and almost every line needs to be digested and analyzed.
Hi this is Robin Heppell. Thank you for your interest in learning more about advertising and marketing for your funeral home or cemetery. I am a lifelong student and since you have taken the time to listen to this recording I can only imagine that you have the same desire for self improvement and increasing […]
The post Introduction to Scientific Advertising for Funeral Homes appeared first on Funeral Marketing Blueprint.
Chapter 1 – How Advertising Laws Are Established This chapter sets the stage for the book as Hopkins establishes a paradigm shift from advertising being a gamble – or guess work, and stating and proving that it can be and should looked at as a science because of the ability to test and track advertisements. […]
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Chapter 5 – Headlines Headlines are the most important part of your ad whether it is a salesletter, print ad, yellow page ad, or even a Google AdWords ad – the headline is the ad for the ad. If it doesn’t get the attention of the reader, then it doesn’t matter how good the rest […]
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Chapter 11 – Information This chapter builds off of the Tell Your Full Story chapter. Hopkins is a huge believer in gathering as much information as possible before writing your ad. Even though this could be more directed to advertising agencies getting to know their clients product, this fact finding process can be used by […]
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Chapter 16 – Leaning On Dealers This chapter is just for information only. But be a student of marketing and see how you are being used by your vendors, because you are their dealers. Chapter 17 – Individuality As stated about Chapter 2, ads should not be written to the masses – they should be […]
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The time has come when advertising has in some hands reached the status of a science. It is based on fixed principles and is reasonably exact. The causes and effects have been analyzed until they are well understood. The correct method of procedure have been proved and established. We know what is most effective, and […]
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To properly understand advertising or to learn even its rudiments one must start with the right conception. Advertising is salesmanship. Its principles are the principles of salesmanship. Successes and failures in both lines are due to like causes. Thus every advertising question should be answered by the salesman’s standards. Let us emphasize that point. The […]
The post Scientific Advertising – Chapter 2: Just Salesmanship appeared first on Funeral Marketing Blueprint.
Remember the people you address are selfish, as we all are. They care nothing about your interests or profit. They seek service for themselves. Ignoring this fact is a common mistake and a costly mistake in advertising. Ads say in effect, “Buy my brand. Give me the trade you give to others. Let me have […]
The post Scientific Advertising – Chapter 3: Offer Service appeared first on Funeral Marketing Blueprint.
The severest test of an advertising man is in selling goods by mail. But that is a school from which he must graduate before he can hope for success. There cost and result are immediately apparent. False theories melt away like snowflakes in the sun. The advertising is profitable or it is not, clearly on […]
The post Scientific Advertising – Chapter 4: Mail Order Advertising: What It Teaches appeared first on Funeral Marketing Blueprint.
The difference between advertising and personal salesmanship lies largely in personal contact. The salesman is there to demand attention. He cannot be ignored. The advertisement can be ignored. But the salesman wastes much of his time on prospects whom he can never hope to interest. He cannot pick them out. The advertisement is read only […]
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The competent advertising man must understand psychology. The more he knows about it the better. He must learn that certain effects lead to certain reactions, and use that knowledge to increase results and avoid mistakes. Human nature is perpetual. In most respects it is the same today as in the time of Caesar. So the […]
The post Scientific Advertising – Chapter 6: Psychology appeared first on Funeral Marketing Blueprint.
Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever. To say, “Best in the world,” “Lowest price in existence,” etc. are at best simply claiming the expected. But superlatives of that sort are usually damaging. They suggest looseness of expression, a tendency to exaggerate, a careless […]
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Whatever claim you use to gain attention, the advertisement should tell a story reasonably complete. If you watch returns, you will find that certain claims appeal far more than others. But in usual lines a number of claims appeal to a large percentage. Then present those claims in every ad for their effect on that […]
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Pictures in advertising are very expensive. Not in cost of good art work alone, but in the cost of space. From one-third to one-half of an advertising campaign is often staked on the power of the pictures. Anything expensive must be effective, else it involves much waste. So art in advertising is a study of […]
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Many things are possible in advertising which are too costly to attempt. That is another reason why every project and method should be weighed and determined by a known scale of cost and result. Changing people’s habits is very expensive. A project which involves that must be seriously considered. To sell shaving soap to the […]
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An ad-writer, to have a chance at success, must gain full information on his subject. The library of an ad agency should have books on every line that calls for research. A painstaking advertising man will often read for weeks on some problem which comes up. Perhaps in many volumes he will find few facts […]
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Advertising is much like war, minus the venom. Or much, if you prefer, like a game of chess. We are usually out to capture others’ citadels or garner others’ trade. We must have skill and knowledge. We must have training and experience, also right equipment. We must have proper ammunition, and enough. We dare not […]
The post Scientific Advertising – Chapter 12: Strategy appeared first on Funeral Marketing Blueprint.
The product itself should be its own best salesman. Not the product alone, but the product plus a mental impression, and atmosphere, which you place around it. That being so, samples are of prime importance. However expensive, they usually form the cheapest selling method. A salesman might as well go out without his sample case […]
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Most advertisers are confronted with the problem of getting distribution. National advertising is unthinkable without that. A venture cannot be profitable if nine in ten of the converts fail to find the goods. To force dealers to stock by bringing repeated demands may be enormously expensive. To cover the country with a selling force is […]
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Almost any questions can be answered, cheaply, quickly and finally, by a test campaign. And that’s the way to answer them – not by arguments around a table. Go to the court of last resort – the buyers of your product. On every new project there comes up the question of selling that article profitably. […]
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We cannot depend much in most lines on the active help of jobbers or of dealers. They are busy. They have many lines to consider. The profit on advertised lines is not generally large. And an advertised article is apt to be sold at cut prices. The average dealer does what you would do. He […]
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A person who desires to make an impression must stand out in some way from the masses and in a pleasing way. Being eccentric, being abnormal is not distinction to covet. But doing admirable things in a different way gives one a great advantage. So with salesmen, in person or in print. There is uniqueness […]
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To attack a rival is never good advertising. Don’t point out others’ faults. It is not permitted in the best mediums. It is never good policy. The selfish purpose is apparent. It looks unfair, not sporty. If you abhor knockers, always appear a good fellow. Show a bright side, the happy and attractive side, not […]
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This is another phase of advertising which all of us have to consider. It enters, or should enter, into all campaigns. Every business man receives a large number of circular letters. Most of them go direct to the waste basket. But he acts on others, and others are filed for reference. Analyze those letters. The […]
The post Scientific Advertising – Chapter 19: Letter Writing appeared first on Funeral Marketing Blueprint.
There is great advantage in a name that tells a story. The name is usually prominently displayed. To justify the space it occupies, it should aid the advertising. Some such names are almost complete advertisements in themselves. May Breath is such a name. Cream of Wheat is another. That name alone has been worth a […]
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A rapid stream ran by the writer’s boyhood home. The stream turned a wooden wheel and the wheel ran a mill. Under that primitive method, all but a fraction of the streams potentiality went to waste. Then someone applied scientific methods to that stream – put in a turbine and dynamos. Now, with no more […]
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