Marketing Lessons Older Than AI, eight lessons from marketers who figured this out long before AI, and how I use each one in my business now.
You spent two hours on your newsletter and about two minutes on the subject line. I've done it too. But the subject line is the only part of your email that every single person on your list sees, and for most of them, it's the only part they'll ever read.
David Ogilvy built one of the biggest ad agencies in the world partly on that one idea.
How old is this lesson?
It's 63 years old. Ogilvy published Confessions of an Advertising Man in 1963, and he repeated the same headline advice in Ogilvy on Advertising twenty years later.
He had one of the strangest paths into advertising you'll ever hear. He worked as a cook in a hotel kitchen in Paris, then sold Aga cooking stoves door to door in Scotland. He was so good at selling stoves that the company asked him to write a sales guide for the other salespeople. Later he did audience research for George Gallup and was a farmer in Pennsylvania Amish country before he opened his agency.
All of that selling face to face taught him that people decide in a few seconds whether they're going to listen to you. A headline is that first few seconds.
The lesson, in plain words
Ogilvy said that on average, about five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. So when you write your headline, you've spent most of your money. If the headline doesn't tell people what they're getting, the rest of the ad is wasted on everyone who scrolled past.
His advice for good headlines was pretty simple. Promise the reader something they want, be specific, and use the words your reader would use. He also liked putting news and numbers in headlines because they make people stop.
Five times as many people read the headline as the body copy.
David Ogilvy, paraphrased from Confessions of an Advertising ManWhat that means for your inbox
Your subject line is your headline, and your preview text is the line right under it. Together they decide if someone opens your email or not. Your blog title works the same way on Google and in AI search, and so does the first line of a social post.
How I use it in my business
When I look back at my subject lines from this fall, most of them lead with a specific number or a plain promise. I don't get cute with them, because I want people to know exactly what's inside before they open it.
When I emailed my affiliates for the AI Newsletter Summit, the subject line was "$23.50 a pass, and 1 in 10 are buying." It told them exactly what they'd earn on each sale and how often people were buying, which is the only thing an affiliate really wants to know.
For the Hand It to Claude guide, one of my subject lines was "From 16 hours of planning to 1 or 2." That's a before and after in seven words, and it tells people what the guide will do for them before they read anything else.
And when the VIP price for the summit was about to go up, the subject line was "The $47 VIP price ends at 9am." It's plain, and nobody has to guess what that email is about.
Headlines matter most in the Engage stage of the Creator Growth Flywheel. Engagement starts with someone deciding to open, click or read, and the headline is what gets them to do it.
How to use it this week
Write the subject line first
Before you write your next email, write the subject line. If you can't say what the email is about in a few words, the email probably isn't clear yet either.
Add one specific detail
Look for a number, a price, a time or a name you can put in the subject line. "How I plan promotions" is fine, and "From 16 hours of planning to 1 or 2" gives people a reason to open.
Use your reader's words
Look at replies, comments and survey answers and notice how your audience describes their problem. Use their words in your headline instead of yours.
Make the preview text finish the thought
Your preview text should add something new to the subject line. Treat it like the second half of your headline instead of a repeat of it.
Mistakes I see creators make with this
- Leaving the subject line for last. When the subject line is an afterthought, it usually ends up vague. Write it first and let it shape the rest of the email.
- Being clever at the expense of clear. A pun or an inside joke might make you smile, but if your reader can't tell what the email is about, a lot of them won't open it.
- Repeating the subject line in the preview text. Your preview text is free space to add one more reason to open. Use it to finish the thought or add a detail the subject line didn't have room for.
Why this feels harder than it is
A lot of creators worry that a plain subject line is boring. But clear subject lines get opened by the people who want what's inside, and those are the people who click and buy.
The other worry is that you'll run out of ideas. That's where AI really helps. Give it your email and ask for ten subject lines that each lead with a specific detail from the email, then pick two and test them like Claude Hopkins would.
What Ogilvy would tell you about AI
Ogilvy was famous for doing his homework before he wrote anything. He'd read everything about a product before writing a single headline, because the best headlines came from a specific fact he dug up.
AI can write headlines all day, but it can only use the facts you give it. So give it your real numbers, your real results and your reader's real words. The headlines get a lot better when the facts behind them are true and specific to you.
Keep reading the series.
This post is one of eight. Start with the full series overview, or jump to another lesson:
- Claude Hopkins: test everything and let the numbers decide
- Eugene Schwartz: sell to people based on how aware they already are
- Theodore Levitt: people buy the result, the product is how they get it
- Robert Cialdini: give first and people want to give back
- Ries and Trout: own one clear spot in your buyer's head
- John Caples: story headlines that make people want to read on
- Gary Halbert: find a starving crowd before you pick an offer
See where people are dropping off in your business
A great headline gets attention, but the free Creator Growth Flywheel scorecard shows you what happens after that and where to fix it.
Take the free scorecard →Frequently asked.
What did David Ogilvy say about headlines?
Ogilvy said that on average five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. His advice was to make the headline promise something the reader wants, be specific, and use language the reader would use.
How do I write better email subject lines?
Lead with one specific detail like a number, a price or a time. Use the words your audience uses, and make your preview text add something new to the subject line instead of repeating it.
Should subject lines be clever or clear?
Clear subject lines tell the right people what they're getting, so the people who open are the ones who care about the topic. Test a clear version against a clever one on your own list to see what your readers prefer.
What books did David Ogilvy write?
His best known books are Confessions of an Advertising Man from 1963 and Ogilvy on Advertising from 1983. Both are still easy to find and quick to read.
Dr. Destini Copp helps digital product creators build sustainable, systems-based businesses through the Creator Growth Flywheel framework. She's the founder of Creator's MBA and HobbyScool, and has been teaching online business strategy for over a decade. Learn more →
