Advice from the Masters: Fairfax Cone

Apr 9, 2014 | Better Writing

Fairfax Cone was one of the great 20th Century copywriters. Two others that I’ve included on the masters list so far are Claude Hopkins and David Ogilvy. They mostly came from what we now call “direct response,” that part of advertising that knows to the penny what works and what doesn’t. If you’re writing web pages or marketing copy, these are the people to pay attention to.

They all thought of writing copy as “salesmanship in print.” Fairfax Cone, in fact, said that advertising was what you did when you couldn’t go see someone.

Today I want to point you to another one of Fairfax Cone’s quotes. This one is good advice whether you’re writing a blog or a book or web page.

“Good advertising is written from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone.”

Pick a person to write to. Make it a real person with a social security number and bad habits. Get to know that person. Then write to that person.

Want more? Check out the complete list of Advice from the Masters posts.