The Million

Dollar Ad
Secret



HRISHIKESH JOBANPUTRA

The Greatest Advertising

1 Discovery and The
Winning Ad Formula
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Table of Content
A 100 Year Old Advertising Breakthrough 4
Identify the Who 12
How to Create a Strong Headline 14
Irresistible Offers 16
From Free Offer to the Main Offer 19
Let’s Summarize 20
Next Step 21
About 22

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 A 100 Year Old
Advertising Breakthrough

I am about to reveal a million dollar Ad secret. In fact, it is

exactly double - a Two million dollar Ad secret. The moment
you know this secret, and grasp it, you will be a notch above in
your marketing and advertising.

So, sit tight, because this entire learning is going to take less
than 20 minutes. And if you grasp it well, you will be well on
your way to make your own million.

It’s the year 1920. Albert Pelton, a young book salesman

struggled to make a living.

A book that didn’t sell

That year, a new book on self-improvement called “Power of
Will” was published. The publisher (where Albert used to work)
tried really hard to sell the book. Inspire of all the glorious
advertising money spent, the sales didn’t pick up. Ultimately,
the publisher gave up and archived that book on a special shelf
called the “dead shelf”. A place where no book wants to go.

A light bulb went on

Albert had a novel idea to sell the book. He borrowed $300
from his friend. First, he purchased marketing rights for the
book from the publisher by paying $150. Then he wrote an Ad
and invested the remaining $150 in advertising in a magazine
called “Review of the Reviews”. This was Albert’s one and only
chance to turnaround his career.

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 The gamble paid off handsomely.
To Albert’s surprise, the Ad brought some good response. In
total he generated $2000 from the Ad.

Albert didn’t stop there.

He promptly re-invested the money and bought a half page
Ad in the same magazine. From this Ad, he generated $4,000.
Again, the money was promptly invested in more Ads. In this
fashion, Albert continued to invest in the SAME Ad for 10 years.

At the end of 10 years, that one Ad made Albert a

mind boggling two million dollars.

And that was still 1930.

Albert was a rich man with just one Ad. [Take a look at the
Ad in the next page].

So, now the question worth asking is - what is so

good about this Ad that it continued to work for 10
years?

Let’s analyze the Ad for a minute.

Ad Format
First, the format of the Ad wasn’t like the typical Ad you see
today. Instead, it just looked like a newspaper article.

Headline
The Ad didn’t mention product first. Instead it began with a
headline the reader would be interested in -
“How would you like Earn $300 next week?”

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Exhibit 1: The Albert Pelton Ad which Produced
a Two Million Dollars by 1930

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 The headline is systematically crafted to generate curiosity
by mentioning the problem and a hidden benefit. In this case
problem is “income” and hidden benefit is “earning $300 next
week”.

The sub-headline.
Right below the headline he wrote a sub-headline - an
overview of information inside the Ad. The sub-headline acts as
the bridge between the headline and the Ad copy.

Photograph
The Ad has Albert’s photo right in the beginning. The photo
creates a feeling of a real person talking to the reader. It brings
out his personality. It builds a deep sense of trust and
relationship with the reader.

Offer
Finally, the article ends with an extremely low risk offer -
“Order this book for a 7 days free trial. If you like it you can
keep it. “

The offer is a no-brainer and completely eliminates risk on

readers part.

Let’s summarize the key points we observed in the

Ad:

1. Headline: The Ad had a headline which grabbed reader’s

attention through a problem and a hidden benefit
2. Sub-headline: The sub-headline quickly summarized and
removed skepticism people might have after reading the
headline.
3. Personality: The photo captured personality and built
relationship.

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4. Story and Social Proof: Most of the body text begins with
a personal story and then loads of social proof. Essentially
more success stories of people who used the principles in
the book.
5. Offer: Finally, the Ad ends with an irresistible offer. Try the
book for 7 days.

Albert knew one thing for a fact.

People aren’t interested in the book. They are interested in
themselves and anything which can help them achieve their
goals.

The Ad answered a universal question every person

has “What’s in it for me?”

Did you notice something?

There is no branding, graphics, attractive logo and all the
fancy stuff you see in a majority Ads today.

This Ad is based on the principles of Customer

Oriented Advertising.
In market oriented advertising, instead of focussing on the
brand or the product, the focus is on the customer. It speaks to
the hidden desires and wants of the customer. It answers to
their ongoing question - “What’s in it for me?”.

Let’s look at few more examples of Customer

Oriented Advertising.

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Exhibit 2: The Dale Carnegie Ad which Sold Millions of Copies
of his Book

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Exhibit 3: The David Ogilvy Ad which made it the largest Ad
agency in the world

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 What’s common between these Ads?
Each of these Ads has a strong MESSAGE, directed towards
a specific target MARKET through a specific MEDIA.

A majority of Advertising today is like a business card -

product, price, feature, benefits. They don’t carry an interesting
message.

Lack of a strong marketing message oriented

towards a specific target market is the biggest
reason why Advertising Fails.

The missing link between the product and the customer is

the message.

Product <> Message <> Customer

In absence of a strong marketing message, the Ad is

fighting a lost battle.
A great message can create enough interest in readers mind
and when they are sufficiently involved, it presents them with
an irresistible offer.

So how do you craft a great messages that takes

control over your customers’ brain?

In the next section, you are going to learn a step by step

system to create marketing message which can dramatically
increase your marketing effectiveness. 


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 Identify the Who

Before you go on creating an truly Market Driven Ad,

ask yourself these questions:
•Who is this Ad for? (your target market)
•What will be of interest to them?
•What problem can this Ad solve immediately?
•What is the hidden benefit of what I offer to my customer?

If you can answer these questions right away, that’s great.

But if you cannot answer these questions or you are simply
making some assumptions, stop writing the Ad.

Talk to your customer or prospect at a cafe

I love coffee and I love cafe. Why, because that’s the place
where you can be relaxed and get to work. Yes, the best way to
drink coffee is to invite a client and have a deep conversation
about what is of interest to them. Remember, you don’t have to
chit chat. You have to be focused on one thing - out of
everything client says - what is that one problem which stands
out.
For instance, if you customer is a photography enthusiast
and looking for a digital camera, you would ask her all sorts of
questions such as -

Why digital camera are you considering to buy and why?

Where do you go for advice
What’s most important to you in a digital camera?

Of course you don’t have to stop with those questions. The

conversation will actually flow and you will notice that customer

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has actually enjoying that fact that someone is authentically
interested in them and their problems.

Now, don’t start writing the Ad. Your first task is to

articulate what client has said. What did she say about the
product or service in question? What are the key problems
client emphasized over. Jot down all those problem statements.
Now, pick one problem statement and create a headline.

For instance, while buying a digital camera, the amateur

photographer has a problem of photography in the night time -
which seems to be a problem in many camera. So, your problem
statement would look something like:
Which Camera captures the best photos in Dark?

Likewise you must writ down all the problem statements.

And now, you are read to create the first piece of your Ad -
The Headline.

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 How to Create a Strong
Headline

In Market Oriented Advertising, headlines rule. Strong

headlines directly speaks to the wants and desire of the target
market.

Strong headlines are problem oriented

A strong headline is problem oriented and causes an
emotional response. Means, it is a combination of a problem
and an emotion. Here are a few types of emotional response
caused by a strong headline.
• Anger
• Fear
• Admiration
• Curiosity
• Belonging
• Love
• Hate

Having said that, here is a simple formula to create a

winning headline.

In the Ad by Albert Pelton, he starts with a problem

statement- “How would like to earn $300 next week?”. The
problem in that statement is “income”.

The Second most powerful aspect of a headline is

the “biggest consumer benefit”.

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 In the examples above, we saw two blockbuster ads using
the power of a hidden benefit:

Headline 1: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Headline 2: How to Create Advertising that Sells

How to Identify the biggest consumer benefit of your

product or service?
Make a list of all features and then write an emotional benefit
associated with it.

For instance, this washing machine will wash and dry cloths
faster, so you can save time and go to office “on time”.

In any case, use the biggest consumer benefit in your headline.

When you use the biggest consumer benefit in your

headline, it becomes very powerful. The moment you
combine biggest benefit with a big problem you have
just created a super power Ad.

Once you create a headline, your next task is to create the offer.
An which is truly irresistible and compels the reader to respond.

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 Irresistible Offers

So far, we have come to understand the meaning of offer as

a discount or a freebie used during marketing promotions. In
Market oriented advertising, “Offers” have a different
meaning.

An offer means - “A Clear and Compelling Reason for

Customer to Respond Right Now”.

How I got attracted towards an

irresistible offer…
Many years ago, I wanted to learn cartooning. I saw an Ad in
the newspaper that said - “Become a Cartoonist - Order free
Cartooning Guide”. I immediately ordered the free guide
because I was interested in it and I had nothing to buy
immediately - there was no risk.

I received the free packet in about a weeks time and it

contained two cartooning lessons. I learned how to draw faces
and make a few facial expressions. I was hooked to the free
lesson. Now, I wanted to buy the entire course because I could
see it working.

What’s a low risk offer?

A low risk offer is something your customer can “get”
without making a big commitment of time or money. Such
offers are designed to do only one thing - build relationship with
customer after collecting their contact information.

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 In Albert Pelton’s Ad, the low risk offer was 7 days
free trial. However, your low risk offer doesn’t have to be trial
alone.

The low risk offer depends on the nature of your

product or service.

Here are a few types of low risk offers you can have
depending on the nature of your product or services:

• Free Trial - If you are offering a membership or selling a

subscription of some kind, a free trial is a great pre-sell.
Once someone gets into your free trial, you can send them
high quality content and material to get them hooked for a
paid subscription.
• Free Sample - If you are selling a high value product that
requires some evaluation from customer’s end, you can send
them a free sample. In most cases, cost of free sample
becomes negligible compared to the dramatic increase in
sales as a result of the free sample.
• Free Report/Information Kit - People love information
related to products or service they consume. For instance, I
recently shopped for organic food and I wanted to know as
much as possible about it. Information that seems very
obvious to you can be of very high value to your customers.
You can distribute information in various forms such as -
PDF guide, physical book, free report, audio CD, newsletter
etc. Choose your mode of distribution depending on your
target audience affinity towards a particular medium.
• Free Coupon - If you are selling a consumer product that
requires only a little push to get started, Free Discount
Coupon might just do the job. A word of caution - Free
coupons are very common these days. Hence, they must be
accompanied by a strong marketing message for it to be

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 really effective. The Free coupon must have an element of
exclusivity, excitement and interest to your customers.

Her is an examples off an irresistible offer:

Announcing: “The New Secret Formula that Whitens

your Teeth Without Paying the High Hollywood
Fees,” Call our Toll Free Number 000-000-0000 to
Receive Your Free Information Kit. No Cost, No
Obligations.

According to top direct response copywriter, John Carlton-

“Imagine your prospective customer or client as a gigantic
somnambulant sloth, spread out on the couch, loathe to move
his sleeping bulk, phone just out of reach. Your offer must force
or compel him to move now.”

Remember, the ultimate goal of an offer is to get

immediate response. A plain vanilla offer won’t do the
job.

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 From Free Offer to the
Main Offer

The free offer has done something magical for you.

It has built a bridge, a relationship which has turned a stranger
into a potential buyer.

You haven’t sold anything yet but you have built a

great foundation for selling.

In case of the cartooning course

Apart from the free cartooning lesson, they provided
detailed information on what to expect from the full course. It
had frequently asked questions which I reviewed, showed to my
parents. In short, I was fully engaged with what they had to
offer. I felt empowered in making the decision. I had enough
clarity to order the full course.

And this isn’t just limited to a book or course. The low risk
offer strategy has been used in every imaginable industry. When
you educate your customers something magical happens. They
can clearly see the transformation ahead of them.

The job of selling becomes a whole lot easier.

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 Let’s Summarize

Let’s summarize what we covered in this report so

far:

1. In traditional advertising, the focus is on brand or the

product. A majority of traditional advertising fails because it
doesn’t speak to the desire and wants of the reader.
2. Market oriented advertising is different - it is geared
towards the the needs, desires and aspirations of your
customer.
3. The three foundational principles of market oriented
advertising are - The message (what you say), The market
(who you say it to) and The media (the medium you choose
to convey your message). When your message, market and
media are aligned, it results in great marketing.
4. Great headlines can grab your customers attention, make
people notice the offer. Without a great headline, even a the
best offer is pointless because nobody is going to reach that
far.
5. Irresistible offers are quite different from ordinary offers.
An irresistible offer means - A compelling reason for
your customer to respond to your message right
now. It allows your customer to to take an immediate
action and move one step further towards you.

We are coming to a close. Congratulations for coming this

far. Applying these advertising principles can bring immediate
advantage to your marketing and advertising. If you just read
this ebook for the first time, I recommend it to read it twice or
thrice. What you will discover in the second and third reading
will be lot more valuable.


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 Next Step

In a oversupplied world, your business faces stiff

competition. Traditional marketing methods are dying.
Consumers can find anything on Google in less than 5 seconds.
Your challenge as a small business owner is monumental
because you have to constantly fight with better funded and
more established players in your market. The only chance you
have is in this hyper competitive environment is to become a
great marketer of your business.

And I have some good news for you. There is a great

marketer inside you - already. That marketer needs to be
uncovered.

The Breakthrough Marketing Workshop

Ultimately, what you will discover in our workshops is the
unfolding of your amazing potential as a marketer.

• Breakthrough Marketing - In this brand new workshop,

you’ll discover how to cut through the clutter, overcome
competition and create a unique position in your market.
So, your customers can never compare you with the
competitors and you can grow your business with certainty.
• Irresistible Offers - In this one day workshop, you will
learn how to craft irresistible offers to attract more
customers, raise your profitability and eliminate marketing
waste. You will be on your way to craft winning offers which
can be used in your flyers, brochures, Advertisements and
website landing pages.

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 About

At Breakthrough Marketing, we are on a mission to save

small business owners from mediocre advertising and
ineffective marketing. We are here to super charge your
marketing - to make it effective, interesting and result oriented.

So that, your customers don’t choose you randomly or because

you came first. Instead, they choose you willingly because they
felt lucky to have found you.

About the Author

Hrishikesh Jobanputra is a serial

entrepreneur, author and marketing
advisor to forward thinking business
owners. He is also the co-founder and
chief marketing strategist at
eComNation. During the past 15
years, Hrishi has helped turnaround
marketing for small and big
organizations using the power of
direct marketing and effective
advertising. After a visit to the
Colorado Mountains, United States in
September 2015, Hrishikesh created a
unique mission for himself. To save 6,000 business owners
from mediocre marketing. He can be reached at:
hrishikesh1@gmail.com

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Typos or spelling mistakes? Got feedback? Nothing is too big or
too small. Drop me a message at: hrishikesh1@gmail.com

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