Words of wisdom on advertising from David Ogilvy

1. 10 David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising That Can Change Your Online Business
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10 David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising That Can
Change Your Online Business
by Mary Wang
Advertising legend David Ogilvy is known as the “Father of Advertising.” In 1962, Time
Magazine called him “the most sought-after wizard in today’s advertising industry.” He
found Ogilvy and Mather in 1948. Now Ogilvy and Mather is one of the leading
companies in advertising, marketing and public relations in the world.
As more and more online marketers turn to paid advertising such as PPC, banner ads and
solo ads to promote their products and services, it is vitally important to study David
Ogilvy’s words of wisdom on advertising.
In this blog, I have collected my 10 favorite David Ogilvy quotes on advertising that
can change your online business.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #1:
Advertising is a business of words, but advertising
agencies are infested with men and women who cannot
write. They cannot write advertisements. And they cannot
write plans. They are helpless as deaf mutes on the stage
of the metropolitan opera.
It may sound harsh, but it is true that many online
marketers know nothing about advertising and some even
don’t know how to write. The good news is that success is
a learnable skill. You can always learn from the best people in the advertising
industry. So don’t be discouraged, keep reading . . .
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #2:
There isn’t any significant difference between the various brands of whiskey, or
cigarettes or beer. They are all about the same. And so are the cake mixes and the
detergents, and the margarines… The manufacturer who dedicates his advertising to
building the most sharply defined personality for his brand will get the largest share of
the market at the highest profit.
“How to differentiate your product and service from your competitors” is a question to
every online marketer. David Ogilvy suggested that you need to build a sharply defined
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2. 10 David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising That Can Change Your Online Business
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personality that tells the market who you are and what you do. In other words, you need
to carefully define your unique selling proposition. Do you have a unique selling
proposition for your product and service? If not, think about it.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #3:
On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When
you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.
Ogilvy once pointed out that the purpose of your headline is to get people to read your
first line. The purpose of your opening line is to get people to read the next one. It is an
on-going process to sharpen your skill of writing compelling headlines that sell. Have a
marketer’s eye and start to collect headlines that catch your attention.
Here are 8 Proven Headline Formulas That Grab People’s Attention and 100 Great
Classical Advertising Headlines Compiled by Victor Schwab.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #4:
The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
Before people making a buying decision, they have many questions. For example, why
they should buy from you, why your product is better than other similar products, why
they should trust you, and why they should buy it now, etc.
If you can answer these questions in your ad, your ad is informative and persuasive. It
will help people to make a buying decision quicker and easier because you have
answered their questions in advance.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #5:
If you’re trying to persuade people to do something, or buy something, it seems to me
you should use their language, the language they use every day, the language in which
they think. We try to write in the vernacular.
This has been proved to be effective by many top online marketers such as Eben Pagan
and Jeff Walker. You should use your prospects’ language in your landing page
headlines, sales letter, and emails, etc. If you know your prospects’ pain and dream even
better than they do, they will buy from you for sure.
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3. 10 David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising That Can Change Your Online Business
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David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #6:
I have a theory that the best ads come from personal experience. Some of the good ones I
have done have really come out of the real experience of my life, and somehow this has
come over as true and valid and persuasive.
People love to read stories. They like to know you as a real person who has your struggle,
pain, success and failure, etc. One well-known example is Jared Fogle’s weight loss
story which made millions of dollars for Subway. Start to collect your stories from today
and use them in your ad campaigns.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #7:
Never write an advertisement which you wouldn’t want your family to read. You
wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife. Don’t tell them to mine.
As a common Chinese saying goes, “Don’t do to others what you don’t like to be done
to you.” Tell the truth in your ad copy and only promote products that you believe
in. This is a very important rule for people marketing affiliate products.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #8:
Do not address your readers as though they were gathered together in a stadium. When
people read your copy, they are alone. Pretend you are writing to each of them a letter on
behalf of your client.
I am sure everyone wants to be treated as a special individual. Pretending you are writing
to one person helps you better connect with your readers.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #9:
Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.
Testing was used in advertising decades ago. The internet has made testing so easy that
every online marketer can use it to improve advertising results. Google content
experiment is a free tool for you to do split testing.
David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising #10:
If you ever have the good fortune to create a great advertising campaign, you will soon
see another agency steal it. This is irritating, but don’t let it worry you; nobody has ever
built a brand by imitating somebody else’s advertising.
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4. 10 David Ogilvy Quotes On Advertising That Can Change Your Online Business
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If you get upset by other people stealing your advertising ideas or content, I hope you feel
better at David Ogilvy’s words of wisdom. So focus your energy on creating more
brilliant ideas and engaging content to build a solid online business.
Though David Ogilvy’s quotes on advertising are decades old, they are still relevant to
today’s marketers. Join our mailing list for more articles like this.
About The Author: Mary Wang
Thank you for reading my article. I hope you enjoy it. I am the founder of
GoldenVisionTraining.com and the creator of Double Your Income Online
Blueprint. I have helped entrepreneurs, small business owners and people who want to
achieve financial freedom to double their sales and income online since 2010. I am
passionate about financial education and personal development.
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