| For thousands of years humans have been telling | | | | Hopkins then made an ad for Schlitz Brewery that |
| stories. From the drawings on cave walls, from the | | | | explained the step-by-step process that goes into |
| story in The Epic of Gilgamesh (2,000 BC), to | | | | making a bottle of Schlitz beer. Six months later, |
| different religious texts that circle the Earth. The | | | | Schlitz went from being ranked fifteenth in terms of |
| story is so central to the human experience that one | | | | sales, to become the #1 selling beer in the country. |
| can not separate the story from what it means to | | | | Hopkins gave this wonderful example to the world of |
| be human. | | | | the power of the story. If Claude Hopkins was alive |
| When it comes to marketing, one of the huge | | | | today, he would literally dominate Internet marketing. |
| benefits of telling a story is that people can | | | | This example shows you how marketing is opposite |
| remember stories better than any other form of | | | | to what you would think works. The newbie |
| marketing. Marketers call this "sticky": it sticks in | | | | marketer thinks that most people don't have the |
| peoples minds long after they read or hear it. If you | | | | time to read a long sales letter and so it is best to |
| subscribe to the Christian faith, then you know that | | | | use a short sales letter. Who really has the time to |
| Jesus used storytelling with his parables for he knew | | | | read all this?--is what most new marketers think. |
| that these stories would be remembered long after | | | | Many marketing tests have been done on this |
| he was gone. | | | | subject and have proven that the belief that |
| Claude Hopkins, the father of marketing, in 1919, was | | | | someone does not have the time to read a long |
| hired by Schlitz beer to create an ad that would save | | | | sales letter is a false belief. Hopkins did marketing |
| the company. Schlitz beer was on the verge of | | | | research on this very topic, he writes: |
| bankruptcy as was ranked a pathetic fifteenth in | | | | Mail order advertising tells a complete story if the |
| terms of beer sales. | | | | purpose is to make an immediate sale. You see no |
| Hopkins made a trip to Wisconsin to visit the | | | | limitations there on amount of copy. The motto |
| brewery. He knew that he needed to know more | | | | there is, "The more you tell the more you sell." And it |
| about how their beer was actually made. Claude | | | | has never failed to prove out so in any test we |
| Hopkins knew that it was nearly impossible to create | | | | know. |
| a profitable ad without learning more about the | | | | The great 21st century marketer Ben Hart has done |
| product. | | | | research that shows his two page sales letters do |
| The people at the Wisconsin brewery showed | | | | better than his one page sales letters, and his four |
| Hopkins the entire brewing process. They showed | | | | page sales letters do better than his two page sales |
| him how deep they had drilled their wells to find the | | | | letters. Ben Hart has even written 12 page sales |
| purest water. They showed him the glass enclosed | | | | letters! |
| rooms that kept any contaminates from leeching into | | | | I am reminded of a client I had who felt that the |
| the pure water, the kind of yeast they used and | | | | sales letter I created for him was just too long to |
| where they got it. They explained to Claude Hopkins | | | | post on his landing page. He did not include large |
| where the bottles were cleaned, re-cleaned, and | | | | sections of my sales letter and then uploaded a |
| sanitized a dozen times. | | | | shorter version to his website. |
| "My God," Hopkins said, "Why don't you tell people in | | | | After several months, I contacted him to learn how |
| your advertising about all these steps you are taking | | | | his sales were doing. He said that they were doing |
| to brew your beer?" | | | | alright but that really he had hoped for more. I |
| We can't do that, answered the Schlitz executives, | | | | recommended that he put the longer sales copy that |
| "all companies brew their beer about the same way." | | | | I wrote for him up. He did as I suggested and his |
| "Yes," Hopkins countered, "but the first one to tell | | | | sales increased by an additional 40% over the next |
| the public about this process will gain a big | | | | few weeks. He is now a believer when it comes to |
| advantage." | | | | using a longer sales letter to tell a story. |
