Cashvertising Book Summary - Cashvertising Book explained in key points

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Cashvertising summary

Name: Cashvertising
Rating: 4.5 (51 reviews)
Author: Drew Eric Whitman

Drew Eric Whitman

How to Use More Than 100 Secrets of Ad-Agency Psychology to Make BIG MONEY Selling Anything to Anyone

4.5 (51 ratings)

23 mins

What is Cashvertising about?

Cashvertising (2009) shows how you don’t need a million dollar ad campaign to bring in the customers. All you need to know is how and why we make buying decisions. Full of instantly actionable tips, this book tells you everything you need to know about how to turn your ads into profits.

Table of Contents

Cashvertising
summarized in 10 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 10

What’s in it for me? Find out how to sell porn to the Pope.

Sometimes you open a magazine, so eager to read the cover story that you ignore all distractions. But then, as you search for the story, an ad catches your eye and completely draws you in. Every copywriter wants to write an ad like that – and yet, few do. So what’s the secret of these happy few?

The good news is that you don’t need outstanding creativity or superb writing skills to produce marvelous ads. Instead, there are effective tricks everyone can learn. These blinks, for instance, will explain how to write an irresistible headline in just three steps and where to place your ad for maximum effect.

The most important thing to know, however, is what actually drives people to buy. So what’s the psychology behind highly successful ads? That’s the main focus of these blinks.

If you read on, you’ll learn

why fear is the best friend of every copywriter;
why long copies won’t scare away your clients; and
how to sell a mouse smoothie.

The key to great advertising is to appeal to your customers’ core desires.

Imagine that someone has invented a cucumber and mouse smoothie for cats, and you’re the lucky person who gets to write the ad. How in the world will you sell this weird concoction to millions of picky cat companions?

The secret: setting off the right triggers. But what are they?

Every person is wired with eight desires that marketers would be foolish to ignore. These desires, the Life-Force 8 (LF8), helped us survive in the past, and they’re still hard-wired into our brains.

We wouldn’t make it through the week without the first three desires: to stay alive; to enjoy foods and beverages; and to be safe and free of pain.

Naturally, we also yearn for sexual companionship and comfortable living conditions.

Finally, we’re social beings, which is why we desire to protect our loved ones, long for the approval of those around us and strive to excel at what we do.

Good marketers are able to transform these desires into money. In fact, consumer researchers have found that these eight basic desires drive more sales than all other human wants combined. But why?

Desire is a form of tension that compels you to act if a need is left unmet. For example, if you’re hungry, you feel a tension that drives your desire for food. This in turn leads to actions that satisfy your desire. Our actions always follow this pattern: tension leads to desire leads to action.

Marketers can benefit from this simple biological process by understanding and appealing to the L8 in a clever way.

So how do you sell that cucumber and mouse smoothie? Appeal to the cat owner’s desire to protect her cat. Tell her how the smoothie will protect the cat from going blind due to its high amounts of taurine – a substance that cats really need but can’t produce themselves.

Now you understand these basic triggers; our following blinks reveal how marketers use them to sell you their products.

Fear-inducing ads have four simple ingredients.

Let’s start out with a freaky fact: it doesn’t matter how often you wash your sheets; they’re still the perfect breeding ground for hideous dust mites who lay their eggs in your pillows and mattresses. Imagine how they crawl over your skin while you sleep, nibbling at your skin flakes and perhaps crawling up your nose, inducing a nasty allergy attack.

Scary, isn’t it? Not to mention gross.

People buy to satisfy their egos, something marketers can easily exploit.

When was the last time you bought something in the hopes that it would make you look better? We all do that from time to time.

That’s because we want to showcase whatever traits we have that are regarded by society as desirable. Remember: according to the LF8, we all want to be appreciated by those around us.

Authority boosts your ad’s credibility.

How can you convince people that your products are better than your competitors’? You may say it a thousand times in your ads, but will potential customers actually believe you? Getting them to believe means earning their trust, and that requires authority.

One way to create authority is to transfer it from other people or institutions to your products. There are certain institutions – the church, the scientific community, national agencies – that people have learned to trust. If you can get one of these institutions to publicly support your product or service, then their authority is effectively transferred to you.

Different kinds of products require different kinds of ads.

Why do real estate ads look so different from ads for ice cream or cosmetics? The answer lies in our psychology.

Social psychologists have discovered that we don’t make all buying decisions the same way. Rather, the more relevant a decision is for our personal lives, the more likely we are to ponder our options.

Create the perfect headline in just three steps.

60 percent of all people who read ads skip over everything but the headline. Thus, the words you begin with are critical for your ad’s success. Luckily, there are some tricks you can use to entice people into reading on.

First, put the biggest benefits in the headline – the things that add value to your prospects’ lives. The one thing your prospects care about is: What will this product do for me? Consequently, benefits are the most convincing argument for your product, and you should mention them first.

Use images in your ads – but not just any images!

Images can make or break an ad. Look at the ads in your favorite magazine. Do you notice many faces?

It’s no coincidence that many ads use pictures of the human face, and there are several good reasons to use them in your ads.

The right colors can make all the difference.

There are more flavors of ice cream than we can reasonably count, and yet, most of us prefer the same few varieties. Same goes for colors: we can discern several million hues, and yet most of us prefer the same colors and color combinations.

Many experiments have been conducted on the subject, and researchers have learned enough to rank our generally preferred colors. Most people prefer the color blue, followed by red and then green.

Don’t be afraid of longer copy. It won’t scare your clients away.

People today seem busier and less patient than ever before. For that reason, many marketers believe that no one has the time or inclination to read long copy. Instead, they would advise you to keep your copy short. While this sounds totally reasonable, it’s not actually true. But why?

Long copy, as long as it’s well written, satisfies all kinds of readers. If people are really interested in your product, they’ll likely want to learn more about it. The more information you provide in your copy, the more likely you are to convince them to take action.

There is a science behind the right ad placement.

People spend lots of time thinking about where to place their ads. Will it get more attention on the top of the page, on the left side or on the right, or at the bottom? Don’t worry: recent studies have found all the answers.

While marketers may have very strong opinions about where to place your ads, the truth is, it doesn’t matter much. In fact, Starch and the National Magazine, among other researchers, have all concluded that it is the ad itself that matters most.

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Best quote from Cashvertising

When you create an advertising appeal based on any of the LF8, you tap into the power of Mother Nature herself.

—Drew Eric Whitman

About the Author

Drew Eric Whitman has worked for the direct marketing division of the largest ad agency in Philadelphia, and is now a consultant and teacher on the psychology behind consumer behavior. His work has been used by huge organizations, such as the Advertising Specialty Institute, American Legion and Texaco.

Who should read Cashvertising?

Businesspeople who want to know more about consumer marketing
Anyone interested in the psychological secrets behind advertising
Professionals eager to become savvier marketers

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