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LYNN SUMNER'S TEN COMMANDMENTS
1. Leam all about your proposition before you write anything about it.
2. Organize your material. Get it down in order, from the viewpoint of the buyer's interest —
not yours.
3. Decide to whom you are writing. Remember, it is a person, not a circulation or a list. You
are writing a letter, not a speech.
4. When you are ready to write, keep it simple. That does not mean writing down to any
body. Avoid high-flown phrases.
5. Use meaningful words and phrases — words that stir the emotions, make the mouth
water, make the heart beat faster
6. Don't try to be funny. To try and fail is tragic. Few people can write humorous copy, few
products lend themselves to it. Remember, the most serious of all operations is separating
a man from his money.
7. Make your copy specific — names, places, what happens to whom.
8. Write to inspire confidence. Prove your points.
9. Make your copy long enough to tell your story — and quit. No copy is too long if it holds
the reader's interest. One sentence can be too long if it doesn't.
10. Give your reader something to do and make it easy for him to do it. Tell him where to get
what you have to sell, how much it costs, and why he should do it now. You've written the
copy — cash in on it!
THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS
Almost as numerous as "The Ten Commandments" are the multitude of "Seven Deadly Sins"
checklists. One of my favorites is the best guide for evaluating business-to-business advertising
I've yet seen. It was prepared by the late Howard G. "Scotty" Sawyer. While written to guide
industrial advertisers, this checklist applies equally well to other types of advertising.
1. The sin of being a braggart. A lot of industrial advertising is like the blow-hard — the man
who interminably insists that he's better than the next guy. Claiming superiority, in itself,
is not necessarily wrong unless little or nothing is done to substantiate the claim in a
friendly, persuasive, and convincing manner.
2. The sin of talking to yourself instead of thinking of the other fellow. The most creative indus
trial advertising is that which directs its remarks to the interests of the readers — not the
company doing the talking.
3. The sin of preaching. Faced with white paper to fill, some advertisers get a compulsion to
lecture. Looking down upon the reader from the high altitude of their superiority, they tell
the reader — rather than invite him — to do what they want him to do.
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