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# Kelford Labs Daily: All there is to it
- URL: https://kelfordinc.com/kelford-labs-daily-all-there-is-to-it/
- Published: 2023-11-27T11:27:55.000Z
- Updated: 2026-01-27T17:22:55.000Z
- Description: The simple truth of advertising.
- Author: Joel Kelly
- Tags: Daily Labs, writing, truth, focus, tradeoff, customers, messaging, books, attention

*“The first thing one must do to succeed in advertising is to have the attention of the reader. That means to be interesting. The next thing is to stick to the truth, and that means rectifying whatever’s wrong in the merchant’s business. If the truth isn’t tellable, fix it so it is. That is about all there is to it.” — Early 20th century advertiser John E. Powers, as quoted in Stephen Fox’s* The Mirror Makers

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**Struggling to write your latest social media post, blog, newsletter, or ad?**

First, think of what’s most interesting to your *reader*. What do they need, in *their words*?

Then, think of something that’s undeniably *true* about your business that you know your best customers care about. What *tradeoffs* have you made to be uniquely useful to them?

*Fix* anything about your service offering that your best customers *don’t value* or don’t like. *Focus*, don’t expand.

And then tell them the truth about your tradeoffs, using their language, in an interesting way.

It’s that simple, and that difficult. 

**But when you pay more attention to what your best customers need to *hear*, and less on what you want to *say*, you’ll find your marketing gets much easier.**

And that’s about all there is to it.

🧠

This post contains 100% organic content, no generative AI was used in its creation.