Joe Sugarman s Recommended Books on Advertising and Copywriting

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1 Joe Sugarman s Recommended Books on Advertising and Copywriting Reading a number of books on a variety of subjects prepares you to become a good direct marketer and helps you avoid many of the mistakes others have made. By reading other perspectives on advertising and copywriting, you can further your education and avoid costly errors that many before you have made. I wish I had read many of them earlier in my career. How to Sell Anything to Anybody, Joe Girard. The world s greatest salesman shares his secrets on how he made a fortune selling cars in Detroit. The book details how he eventually was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having sold the most cars in one year. An interesting read and some valuable insights from a friend and powerful salesman. ISBN Warner Books. 192 pages. Sales Magic, Steve Bryant. Bryant is one of QVC s top show hosts and a master at selling. Here he talks about his proven techniques for selling that will give you new insights on what works and why. Here s your chance to increase your sales dramatically through many of the techniques this popular and effective salesman shares with you. I ve personally seen him use many of these techniques on QVC in the sale of BluBlocker sunglasses. ISBN Amherst Media. 152 pages. My First 65 Years in Advertising, Maxwell Sackheim. One of the former deans of direct mail advertising shows you how to attract attention, create interest, carry conviction, and get action. Sackheim shows you how to write a good ad and a selling headline and then gives you many firsthand experiences. One of the true pioneers in the business, he is often quoted by others. ISBN Tab Books. 200 pages. The Do-It-Yourself Direct Mail Handbook, Murray Raphel and Ken Erdman. This is a complete how-to-do-it source on how to increase your sales and profits through direct marketing. Both authors use great examples. No matter what the size of your company or the size of your ad budget, the authors show you how to capitalize on the powerful magic in direct marketing. ISBN Raphel Publishing. 200 pages. Commonsense Direct Marketing, Drayton Bird. Hailed as the authoritative textbook on direct marketing, this book is packed with global case histories of how companies using Bird s ideas have managed to grow and prosper. His writing is witty and practical but never boring. A great book to read and 1

2 reread and one that I wished I had read a lot earlier in my career. ISBN Kogan Page, London. 375 pages. Elephants in Your Mailbox, Roger Horchow. A classic book on the experiences of one of the nation s top catalog entrepreneurs and the 25 mistakes he made in building his company. Filled with insights on what really goes on in an upscale catalog house, this very honest and disarming book is a must-read for any catalog entrepreneur. ISBN Times Books. 250 pages. To Catch a Mouse, Lewis Kornfeld. Take somebody who was responsible for spending in excess of $600 million in advertising over his career at Radio Shack and add his 65 rules of marketing, and you ve got the mix that makes this book a great read. Kornfeld is intimate, witty and tells you how to do it better, cheaper, quicker, with less hocus and more focus, with or without an ad agency. ISBN Prentice-Hall. 360 pages. Selling the Invisible, Harry Beckwith. This is a field guide to modern marketing with many of the principles applying to direct marketing. A really down-to-earth, practical guide on how markets work and how prospects think. Beckwith presents hundreds of quick, practical and easy-to-read strategies with most no more than a page long. An eye- opener to new ideas in the critical area of marketing. ISBN Warner Books. 252 pages. Breakthrough Advertising, Eugene M. Schwartz. One of the really creative marketing and copywriting geniuses of his time. A compendium of his philosophies. He shows how to develop an entirely new market for a new or old product in a number of clearly defined steps. Schwartz takes you through those steps and shows you how to write effective copy in the process. ISBN Boardroom Reports. 240 pages. MaxiMarketing, Stan Rapp and Tom Collins. Rapp and Collins take you in a new and exciting direction in promotion, advertising and marketing strategy. Reading almost like a novel, this wonderful book challenges you to seek your own applications of its principles and ideas to get your juices flowing and to open your eyes to what advertising and, in particular, direct marketing will be like in the future. Many of their predictions have already come true. ISBN McGraw-Hill Book Company. 280 pages. Direct Marketing, Edward Nash. One of the most complete books on direct marketing available. This step-by-step tells you everything you need to succeed in every aspect of direct marketing from writing a basic marketing plan to writing direct mail copy. Nash guides you through planning an offer to planning a layout and even designing the product. You ll discover the analytical methods for forecasting and you ll get a good dose of list selection. Even infomercials are discussed. A great reference book you ll refer to often. ISBN McGraw-Hill. 480 pages. The Golden Mailbox, Ted Nicholas. Here s some great advice on how to write ads, evaluate copywriting and layout and systematically test your ads and 2

3 analyze the results. Nicholas is a direct marketing practitioner who has been on the firing line for the past 25 years. His advice comes from having been through the trenches and knowing what works and what doesn t. The author of 14 books and a catalyst in the starting of several companies, Nicholas is the entrepreneur s Entrepreneur. Learn from an experienced practitioner. ISBN Enterprise Dearborn. 215 pages. But Would Saks Fifth Avenue Do It, Murray Raphel. A collection of the best columns of Ideas for Retailers taken from the pages of Direct Marketing magazine from 1961 to 1981 when Raphel was a contributor. This collection holds a lot of good advice for retailers how to use direct marketing to add sparkle and excitement to your promotions. The conclusion he reaches: Dollar for dollar, nothing produces results like direct mail. Self-published by Murray Raphel, Gordon s Alley, Atlantic City, NJ pages. Direct Mail Copy That Sells! Herschell Gordon Lewis. One of the most prolific copywriters in the industry has put together a book with his step-by-step formulas on how to write effective direct mail copy. If you want a different perspective on ad copy written in Lewis s light, humorous and often witty style, pick up a copy. It contains a lot of plain truth and good common sense. ISBN Prentice-Hall. 260 pages. Tested Advertising Methods, John Caples. One of the true bibles of the direct marketing industry, this commonsense book on direct marketing talks about everything from writing effective copy and the power of words to testing and the effectiveness of the right concept. Caples was also famous for many of his successful ad campaigns, among which was the classic They laughed at me when I sat down at the piano. If you had to read just one book on direct marketing, this is the one to read cover to cover. ISBN Prentice-Hall. 300 pages. My Life in Advertising and Scientific Advertising, Claude C. Hopkins. He was the founding father of modern advertising and these two reprinted classics together in one paperback book are a must-read for any advertising practitioner. Hopkins covers all of the scientific approaches he utilized in the 20s when he wrote these books approaches that are still used today in direct marketing. This book will be an essential and vital guidepost for present and future generations of advertising professionals. ISBN NTC Business Books. 320 pages. The Lazy Man s Way to Riches, Richard G. Nixon. One of the classic books originally written by Joe Karbo, the mail order legend, whose ad we featured in Chapter 24 of this book. This completely revised edition covers the spiritual and motivational aspects involved in making a success of yourself and starting a successful business. Using a commonsense approach, this book combines motivational exercises to build self-esteem with worksheets to define your goals. Then it gives you a moneymaking guide to success in mail order. Very well done and a help to any beginner in the direct marketing business, or any business for that matter. ISBN Penguin Books. 115 pages. 3

4 Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini, Ph.D. A great book for understanding the tools of influence at work in today s marketplace. Cialdini takes us through a journey exploring some of the very subtle ways to influence a customer, a loved one or even the mass market with many of the techniques he s tested and personally used. As a consultant to many of the Fortune 500 companies, Cialdini s wisdom and insights will help amplify your marketing knowledge. ISBN Quill. 325 pages. Confessions of an Advertising Man, David Ogilvy. I read this classic when I first started my career in advertising in the 60s and it has been an influence ever since. Ogilvy strongly believed in the disciplines direct marketers utilized to ply their craft. Much of his knowledge and wisdom was acquired from being a student of direct marketing. As a brilliant adman he created great advertising for such clients as Rolls Royce, Sears, Campbell s Soup and IBM. He was also responsible for creating campaigns for the governments of Britain, France and the United States. ISBN Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind, Al Ries and Jack Trout. The concept sparked a revolution in advertising and it is also very important in direct marketing. You ve got to find that unique selling proposition that big idea that will position your product or service to outclass and outsmart the competition. Ries and Trout show you how with many lessons that relate to direct marketing. ISBN Warner Books. 220 pages. Magic Words That Bring You Riches, Ted Nicholas. This is a book that covers the gamut on how to use effective words in a multitude of situations. It covers the words that will get you the best table at a restaurant. The best words to use when making a business sale. Several examples are used in direct marketing situations, and there are many other everyday insights on the power of words. ISBN Nicholas Direct. 325 pages. Marketing Secrets of a Mail Order Maverick, Joseph Sugarman. A good compliment to this book in that it takes you into the next phase of becoming a direct marketer. Filled with insightful stories, examples and strategy, you ll learn how to find a product, protect it, create a mail order ad and then test the ad in a magazine or newspaper. You ll learn some of the tricks in buying media and running a mail order operation. Rich with examples and stories, it reads more like a marketing novel than the textbook it really is. ISBN DelStar Books. 300 pages. Marketing Secrets for Television Selling, Joseph Sugarman. A comprehensive review told in story form of what it is like selling your product or service through a home shopping channel, an infomercial or spot TV advertising. Many helpful insights not found anywhere else. Learn how to determine if your product is suited for TV, what margins you ll need, the importance of various elements in a commercial and helpful tips for breaking into this, the most rewarding of the direct marketing disciplines. ISBN DelStar Books. 270 pages. 4

5 Success Forces, Joseph Sugarman. A book I wrote in 1980 about those forces that drive you closer to success and those that draw you towards failure. Knowing the forces and controlling them is the goal of any successful person and this book describes how to do it. 5