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The following letter is part of our “Notes on Giants” collection, in which we explore the thoughts and lives of humanity’s greatest minds.
🏷️ Categories: Attention, Writing.
David Ogilvy was perhaps the greatest advertising man of the 20th century.
In the 1950s, he was already astonishing the business world by selling whatever he wanted, to whoever he wanted, using nothing but the power of his words. He transformed advertising into a science and built a worldwide empire. He was an exceptional writer: his texts captured the attention of millions of people and convinced them to buy in a market that was already beginning to become saturated.
How was it possible that his words were so powerful?
Ogilvy believed there was no need for empty wording. All you needed was to understand human psychology, extract the essence of the message, and communicate it clearly in the tone that attracts your target audience. Those same principles still apply today to writing on the internet. In an environment overflowing with stimuli, the scarcest resource is attention. Breaking through is almost impossible… unless you understand the rules of the game.
These are Ogilvy’s 5 keys to mastering writing on the internet:
One message, one idea
Research the background
Express your point of view
Write the way people speak
The headline is 80%
Let’s dive deeper.
1. One message, one idea
“If your advertising does not contain a big idea, it will pass you by like a ship in the night.” — David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising.
We are overwhelmed by stimuli in today’s world, so trying to say everything in a single message while making it appealing is impossible. To capture attention, you need to be like a dart: precise and fast. Don’t overwhelm your audience with multiple points that dilute the central focus. If you deliver a single idea, you make it as easy as possible for people to understand the message in the moment and remember it afterwards.
Think about Substack.
You are competing in your subscriber’s inbox with hundreds of other emails. Here, distraction is deadly. If your newsletter tries to solve three different problems at once, the reader won’t understand what the email is about at a glance. Every issue should revolve around one powerful concept that is easy to summarize.
In the email subject line: Instead of a generic “Marketing strategies, AI tools, and how to organize your week,” go for a clear statement like: “Why your marketing strategy is failing (and how to fix it today).”
In the structure of the post: If you are going to talk about productivity, don’t wander into software, sleep habits, and nutrition. Focus on one idea (for example, the two-minute rule) and develop it deeply.
One message, one idea. That’s the formula.
2. Research the background
“Your next task is to find out what kind of advertising your competitors have been doing for similar products and with what success. This will give you an idea of where to start. Then comes consumer research. Find out how they think about your type of product, what language they use when they talk about the subject, what attributes matter to them, and what promise is most likely to make them buy your brand.” — David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising.
You cannot reach your readers if you are shooting blindly in unfamiliar territory.
Before launching any message, you must study the playing field: analyze what your competitors are doing so you know where you stand, and understand your reader deeply. Listen to how they speak and what matters to them. Only when you understand their needs can you write in a way that appeals to them. The modern writer must write, but must also do research and analyze data.
On Substack, this is simple. The platform itself gives you tools to understand your performance, and you can easily see what others are doing.
Analyze the leaders: Review the most-read newsletters in your niche. Look at which questions appear repeatedly, which posts get the most likes, and what information gaps they are leaving that you can fill by improving what already exists.
Use Notes: Before writing a long essay, publish a Note that summarizes the core idea. These kinds of tests will show you general interest in the topic before you invest time writing full articles.
Research first, success follows.
3. Express your point of view
“If you and your competitors make excellent products, don’t try to imply that your product is better. Simply explain what is good about your product, and do it in a clearer, more honest, and more informative way. Sales will lean toward the seller who best creates confidence that their product is truly good.” — David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising.
The same applies to writing.
On the internet, parity is absolute: anyone can access the same data and write about the same topic as you. The difference is not what you say, but how you say it. Readers are not only looking for cold facts — that’s what Wikipedia is for. They are looking for a voice, a unique view of reality through the eyes of an expert or someone with a special understanding, perhaps a community that provides that extra value. The challenge is to transform common information into a unique experience, elevating your writing into something more than just words.
On Substack, people are willing to pay for your expert judgment, your analytical ability, or information that is difficult to access and that you have because of your unique position.
You are not just “selling” text — you are selling your perspective on that topic.
That is your differentiator.
4. Write the way people speak
“Some copywriters write misleading headlines: double meanings, wordplay, and other ambiguities. This is counterproductive. In an average newspaper, your headline has to compete with 350 others. Readers move quickly through this jungle. Your headline must clearly communicate what you mean.” — David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising.
You don’t need to sound intelligent. You need to be the clearest.
Complex wordplay and double meanings only slow comprehension and tire the reader faster. In a world where attention is the scarcest resource of all, absolute clarity is your competitive advantage. If you write poetry, novels, or other formats, it is different, but if you are writing online — especially headlines — remove the unnecessary decoration and speak directly.
Avoid cryptic headlines: A title like “Walking Through the Storm of the Algorithm” confuses readers in their inbox. It is much more effective to write: “How to Survive the Algorithm in 2026 as an Online Writer.”
Speak as you are, write as you speak.
5. The headline is 80% of the text
“On average, five times as many people read the headline as the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have already spent eighty cents of your dollar.” — David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising.
The headline accounts for 80% of your text’s success. That is the harsh reality. If it fails, nobody will read the rest, because we tend to judge books, articles, food, and everything else by the cover — by the first impression. That’s why it is essential to push yourself until you have written twenty or thirty different versions of the same headline.
Optimize the headline + subtitle combination: On Substack, the subtitle appears as the preview text in the email. Use it as support.
Example:
Headline: The End of Average Writers.
Subtitle: Why AI won’t take your job, but a writer who researches might.
Treat your headline with the same care as the rest of your writing.
At first glance, these ideas may seem basic, but that is exactly why they last.
They are the foundations. Ogilvy didn’t invent anything; he simply structured psychological processes and the way language works in a clear way to gain an advantage over the rest of the market. Nothing more.
On a screen, we are still looking for the same things we looked for in newspapers, radio, and television.
Changing paper for a Substack inbox, a social media profile, or any other medium does not change the rules. Environments change, people do not.
Use these 5 principles and you will notice the difference immediately.
Want to learn more? Here are 3 related ideas to go deeper:
I wrote 300 articles in 500 days: 7 keys to instantly improve your writing
4 ways to differentiate your writing: You need to be different, not better
✍️ Your turn: How much time do you spend researching your writing category and getting to know your readers compared to the time you spend writing?
💭 Quote of the day: “Never write an advertisement you wouldn’t want your own family to read. You wouldn’t lie to your wife. Don’t lie to mine. Treat others as you would like to be treated.” — David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man.
See you next time! 👋
References 📚
Ogilvy, D. (1963). Confessions of an Advertising Man.
Ogilvy, D. (1983). Ogilvy on Advertising.