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If You Feel You Are
Making All The Money Possible From Your Written Ads, Then This
Section Is Not For You
It has been said that advertising costs the
same whether it is used intelligently or foolishly. An ad in the
newspaper costs you the same amount whether it generates one new
customer or 100 new customers. A mailer costs you the same whether
it brings in $10 of business or $10,000. Your degree of skill in
marketing and advertising can obviously have a profound impact on
your business.
Few Small Business Owners Really
Understand How To Advertise
Intelligently
Small businesses must
demand maximum performance from every marketing dollar spent. Ad
campaigns that are cute and/or silly attempt only to build name
recognition or merely say, "Here it is, come get it" must be
avoided.
Small businesses cannot afford to spend a lot of
money on advertising where the main purpose is to build name
recognition. Advertising must lead prospects to act in some
measurable, specific way - send in a coupon, call a number, write a
check, go to the store, etc. - all in an effort to make a
sale.
Headlines:
Simply stated, the headline is the
ad for the ad. Its purpose is to pick people out of a crowd of
readers/listeners who may be responsive to your general offer and
give them a reason to continue reading or listening to the
ad.
You will usually want to incorporate your Articulate
Sales Argument (ASA) into your headline. Your ASA is the singular,
unique benefit your customers will receive by doing business with
your firm, stated in an easily embraceable way. It's the one thing
that really distinguishes you from your competition.
People
who have interest in your proposition will read the headline and
decide to keep reading. Those who aren't interested in your headline
won't keep reading - but you shouldn't care because they aren't
qualified prospects. On the other hand, if you use a cute, ambiguous
headline to attract attention, chances are you will lose people who
are qualified. Remember: you are only interested in selling to
qualified, interested prospects!
Being
Specific:
Claude Hopkins, the father of direct response
advertising, said "Platitudes and generalities roll off the human
understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression
whatever." To say "Low Prices, Biggest Selection or Highest Quality"
is useless. People tend to be skeptical. They need to be
convinced.
Instead, try using specific, graphically
illustrative words and phrases that quantify your statement. "We
Always Have at Least 1745 Tuxedos in No Less Than 22 Different
Styles, 72 Varying Sizes, and 10 Desirable Colors, And in Price
Ranges From $25 to $125." This is more definite and more
believable than the usual generic "Large Selection."
Since
people are skeptical, they tend to discount (or flat out ignore) any
generalized statements you make. But they know that you wouldn't
tell a bold-faced lie. When you make a specific statement about your
product, they give it 100% credibility. Changing general statements
to specific ones will double the effectiveness of any advertisement.
No extra cost. Try it.
Long vs. Short
Copy:
Interesting short copy is better than boring long copy.
But remember who you are trying to sell your products to:
interested, qualified prospects - the people who are hungry for
information about the product in question.
Think in terms of
salesman-like advertising. You certainly wouldn't send a salesman to
see an interested, qualified prospect and have him merely hand the
prospect a photograph of your product and say, "Ours is higher
quality and we have better service," and then leave. But that is
exactly what 90% of all advertising says! If you don't believe me,
just look in your local newspaper or yellow pages
directory.
The More You Tell,
The More You Sell
A rule of thumb is to use as much space as it
takes to present a fairly complete argument for your product or
service. Drew Kaplan of DAK consumer electronics fame has earned
hundreds of millions of dollars describing in exacting, painstaking
detail every feature, benefit, and advantage of what seem to be very
common products. You should see his 32-page mini-magazine that sells
one product - a desktop publishing software package. Since I
was an interested, qualified prospect, I read the entire magazine
twice in one sitting and then placed my
order.
W.I.I.F.M.:
What's In It For Me? Every ad
must address this important question. Surprisingly, most
advertisements only breeze over WIIFM. They would rather tell you
that they've been in business for 200 years or that they have 44
expert tailors on site.
If this sounds familiar, that's
because it is. Your ASA should tell people what's in it for them -
and state that reason in clear, graphically illustrative terms.
Here's another formula for you to remember when you're describing
your products or services: FAB.
FAB stands for Features,
Advantages, and Benefits. While most ads focus on features, your ads
should focus on advantages and benefits.
Risk
Reversal:
In almost every business relationship, one party is
always asking the other - whether implicitly or explicitly - to bear
the burden of risk on the transaction.
If your product or
service can truly perform, then you should not hesitate to offer it
to interested, qualified prospects at zero risk. If your product
cannot perform, or if you're trying to sell it to the wrong target,
you have no business being in business. Don't make your prospect
take the risk.
Marketing consulting is a perfect example of
risk reversal. Even though most of my clients come to me on a
referral basis, they don't really know if I can help them out in
their situation. People hesitate to pay me in advance to write an
advertisement if they've never worked with me before.
But
since I know my services will exceed their expectations (I can't go
wrong because I hedge by testing), I don't mind "giving" the service
away. Depending on the relationship with the client, I might or
might not ask for a good faith deposit. But I never accept any money
if something doesn't work.
Now, contrast that to my
competition - advertising agencies. They demand payment in advance -
and I guarantee that they will refuse to refund your money if their
$10,000 artwork didn't net you any new customers. They're funny that
way.
Like everything else I exhort, always state your
guarantee in readily embraceable terms. "Money Back Guarantee" does
not evoke the same response as saying "Your check will not be cashed
for two weeks and the sale isn't even considered binding until
you've taken your diamond to be appraised by at least two certified
gemologists of your choice."
Yes, you will have a higher
incidence of returns if you offer a guarantee. You might even have a
few people take advantage of you. But if emphasizing a performance
guarantee doubles or triples the response of an ad, the returns are
inconsequential. Again, the guarantee offers you an opportunity to
increase your bottom line without spending extra
money.
Chameleon Advertising:
In many cases, it
makes sense to disguise your advertisement. People tend to not pay
attention to advertisements, but they do tend to pay attention to
news or entertainment your advertisements are so often delivered
with.
Paul Harvey tells the whole world "The Rest of the
Story" three times a day. At least a couple of times a week, he
starts one of his news stories by talking about the consumer
satisfaction polls for new cars. Buick Park Avenue, the car Paul
himself drives, is always on top. It sounds just like a news clip.
It's an advertisement.
Some of the greatest print
advertisements of all times looked just like news articles. One I
like is frequently found in the sports section. The headline says,
"New, Hot Golf Ball Banned From Pro Tour - Flies Too Far." It
keeps running year after year; it must be working.
Call to
Action:
Just like a good salesman always tries to close the
deal, your advertisements should lead the prospect to do something.
Your objective will determine what that action is. If you're
generating leads, your ad needs to tell people to call, send a card,
bring in a coupon, write for more information or some other specific
reply. If you're trying to make sales, tell people to write a check
or call with their credit card ready.
People are silently
begging to be led. If your advertisement has built a solid case for
your product, all you have to do is ask for action and you will get
it.
In Conclusion:
There are several other aspects
of ad writing that haven't been covered here, like use of
testimonials, bonuses, postscripts, and such. Unless your product is
very simple to understand, it's a good idea to use advertising for
lead generating. There comes a point when it makes sense to sub a
real salesman to close the sale. But don't underestimate the
usefulness of employing a huge army of tiny salesmen to open doors
and pique interest. If your salesman-like ads are reaching
qualified, interested prospects, they will definitely have a
positive effect on your business.
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