Sensational Ads - 6 Simple Rules to Make Your Phone Ring
If advertising is appearing as an expense in your business you’ve got it all wrong. Advertising, and marketing in general, is meant to be an investment. That means that for every dollar you spend you get a greater return back. So here’s a few simple rules that you need to follow to stop your ads being a money pit and start them being a money machine.
1. Attract the RIGHT people. You’ve got to attract people to your ad. Not just any people, you need to attract your target market. This term is bandied around too much without enough clarity. A simple way to get some clarity is think of who your ideal customer might be. You will get closer to your real target market with this approach than working on the premise that it is anyone with money.
2. Capture their attention. When you know your target market you must capture their attention by writing a headline that they are interested in. Not one you are interested in. Work out the reasons they want to buy and construct your attention grabbing headline around these reasons. Spend more time on your headline than any other part of your ad. You must get the right people reading your ad to have any chance of making a sale. The most common mistake people make is that they put their business name as the headline. STOP IT! The only person who cares is your mother. Think about your client.
3. Sell benefits not features. A feature is a fact, a benefit is what it does for the customer. For example: Feature – a camera has an automatic flash. Benefit – the camera does the thinking for you and puts the flash on when it’s needed, which means you will get more of your pictures turning out so your memories will be preserved. It’s benefits that should be appearing in your body copy, not simply the feature.
4. Make yourself stand out. Now you can talk about yourself, as long as you answer your customers need. What are the reasons to do business with you instead of someone else. Work out why you are different. Sometimes it might be You, as a person. That’s what I work on for myself. I have a proven track record, recognised within ActionCOACH through the awards I have won, such as ‘Best Client Results’. That makes me stand out (I hope). And you can always give a guarantee. Again, knock their socks off. One of my clients in the I.T. industry had this guarantee: “Computer workstations that never break down, and if one does we will be out to repair or replace it within hours, and if we can’t, we will not only repair or replace your workstation free of charge, we will give you your money back on the original purchase price.” WOW!
5. Tell people what to do. This is part of your call to action, but deserves attention in its own right. You can use this idea in a face to face sale and in a letter. In fact anytime you need someone to take action. Instead of “If you think you might like to find out more, please don’t hesitate to call,” how about “Call Mike now on 555 555 and we’ll get your order processed and on the way to you today.” Make it simple, make it clear and don’t give multiple choices. If you do you are just confusing people and they don’t know which option to take, so they don’t any option. One piece of research showed that including a map and times of opening increased uptake 800%.
6. Knock their socks off. Your call to action has to be strong enough to convince people who didn’t want to buy, or weren’t thinking of buying, that they do now want to buy. Imagine if your offer was that great. Be creative to think up what that might be. Even if you get halfway down that thought trail you will at least get the people who already wanted your product or service calling you instead of someone else.
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