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project 03 :: Internet Marketing :: Advertising and PR 01
How to Write Adverts that Forces People to Respond
If you have even a passing interest in
the topic of articles,marketing and sales letters, then you should take
a look at the following information. This enlightening article presents
some of the latest news on the subject of articles,marketing and sales
letters.
Think for a moment some day and consider the kind of
advertising you see in your post box, on the TV, on your computer, on
the radio, etc. Then ask yourself this question, "Would I buy this or
not?" If you say "No," then ask yourself why. If you say "Yes," then
ask yourself why.
Consider what is it that makes this advert attractive or what is it
that this person’s offer is deemed to be unattractive. By carrying out
this exercise regularly you will be surprising yourself with what you
will notice about advertising.
Most advertising you see today is written poorly. It confuses the
potential customer, it does not paint a desired picture in their mind,
it does not give him or her a good reason to order the product now and,
it focuses on features rather than the benefits of products/services.
Many businesses failures can be tracked back to poor advertising
although it should be mentioned that there are many other reasons for
failure.
If you want to stay in business, you must learn how to advertise
effectively and how to produce orders NOW! The aim of this article is
to help whoever operates a business to improve his or her advertising
technique.
No matter what business you do whether it is as: a shopkeeper, a
sandwich bar operator, a business consultant, a window cleaner, or a
mail order business, you must learn to create advertising that gets
results. If you don’t, your business will be painful and short-lived.
Exposure:
First of all, let us look at one main reason for advertising. This
reason is called exposure. Most television commercials and many
newspaper and magazine adverts are made for this purpose. The
advertiser wants their name exposed to the public and for the potential
customer to think of them next time they are ready to make a purchase.
Large companies are the ones who will do this kind of advertising. They
have an advertising budget for the purpose of constantly exposing their
name to the public and wait for their orders to come as people become
more used to them and their advertising. Typical examples of this type
of adverts are those by Coca Cola and Nescafe.
Direct response advertising:
The type of advertising the man/woman in the street is interested
in is completely different. It is called direct response advertising.
In other words, we are advertising and are motivating our readers to
order now, to call an order telephone number and order, to mail a
coupon (though this is not so common in Cyprus) and order, or to fax in
an order.
We advertise a product and service and seek for people to make
purchases now. As a small business, a quick way not to succeed is to
place full page adverts costing hundreds of pounds without asking for
an order NOW! You must cause the person to order today if you want to
stay in business in any type of display advertising or direct mail.
Classifieds adverts are of a little different nature, but they work
on the same premise. You don’t ask for a sale right from the classified
(Which would be a large mistake because there just isn’t enough room in
a classified to make sales).
Even asking for one pound in a classified advert reduces your
response greatly. You will have them call your telephone number or your
e-mail address in which they will receive an offer and a chance to
order NOW! In all advertising it is important to ask for the order NOW.
Many people have contacted me and said, "I know that I have a
wonderful product, but I just can’t figure out why I am not getting any
orders." You may be the same way. The simple reality is that it does
not matter how fantastic your product line is. What matters is if your
advertising for the product causes people to see themselves using it
and that it will benefit them significantly.
Your advertising, not your product in many cases, will determine
the success or failure of your business. Whilst it is true that your
product needs to be very effective (or else you will experience a large
number of returns and a short-lived business) your advertising will
make or break your business.
Before we spend too much time detailing why you should create
effective adverts, one can simplify the process by assuming that you
want your business to make money. Hence one must write money-grabbing
adverts!
Now, Let us reveal some of the major advertising secrets you will need to know and begin using in every advert you must create:
1) Test your adverts
In all advertising and mail order, the biggest key of long-term success is testing everything. Test your adverts. Test your sales letters. Test your products. Test the publications. Test everything.
Learn to key all of your order forms and phone numbers to make sure
you know which adverts and publication is doing what. Don’t ever leave
anything to chance. Test everything. Great advertisers and mail order
millionaires are people who have tested everything and have found what
works. Your testing period will NEVER end!
2) Strong Headlines
The number two key to success is your headlines. You must
understand that the wording of your headline is more than 70% of the
effectiveness of your advertising. That means it is EXTREMELY VITAL
what your headline says. In mail order, it has been my experience that
negative headlines often out pull positive headlines. For example, one
of the most popular and effective headlines in network marketing has been " Have you fallen for an easy money scam. If so read on”.
Negative headlines force your prospect to identify with them
saying, "That sounds like me. The main purpose of the headline is to
GRAB their attention, so your headline must be attention grabbing and
the potential customer focused. What are their needs? What are their
desires? What are their fears? Pay attention. HEADLINES WILL MAKE OR
BREAK YOUR ADVERTISING CAREER!
3) Short Words, Short Sentences, Short Paragraphs
Forget what your grammar teacher taught you in high
school. When writing adverts, you must make your adverts simple: Simple
to understand & simple to order. Keep the level of writing at high
school English or lower. Use short words, short sentences, and short
paragraphs.
I know your literature teacher told you to not write paragraphs
with only two sentences in them, but how much money did he/she ever
make in advertising? The moment you confuse your potential customer
then their attention and the sale disappears!
4) Be Specific, Not General
Be specific in all of your advertising. For example do not say
"Fill Your post box with Cash." But instead say, "Receive up to £355 a
day in your post box daily." Do not say "Secrets to making money"
instead it is better to have a headline saying "63 Year old man tells
you his dirty secrets to making £578 a day!"
Being specific makes your advertising more believable. Being
general makes your potential customers say "He is just making this up."
Being specific makes them say, "He must have counted it. I also want to
make that much."
Never say in adverts "Distributors required." Instead it is much
better to say, "15 New Distributors needed in Larnaca." Do not ignore
the fact that being specific will beat being general every time. Go
over your advertising copy and edit it to become specific.
5) Use Your Background & Be Unique
So many adverts out there today are for just me-too products and
me-too advertising. When I say "me-too Advertising," I mean that these
adverts or products have been so over used that they just don’t sell
anymore.
People are tired of hearing about how your products are the best in the industry. They have heard that story before.
You need to become unique in your approach. Are you elderly? Are
you young? Are you deaf? Are you bald? Do you only have a high school
education? Put something of yourself into the advert. You need to
influence the potential customer that there is something different in
your product when compared to your competitors.
For example a teenager could write an advert saying, "17 year old
boy makes £1,500 per month via the Internet!" Be unique. Find something
about yourself that is unique and put it into your advertising. Let
people know who you are, then they will begin to trust you and trust
spells orders.
Conclusion:
With Cyprus closing in on EU membership and with the business
environment likely to become more competitive as a result of this
event, Cypriot businesses must know how to use advertising to their
benefit. The aim of this article is to give ideas to Cypriot
businessmen (large or small) as to how they can improve their
advertising effort.
©2004 by Andy George. All rights reserved
This article may be freely published so long as the author's resource box, by-lines, and copyright are included.
About The Author
Andy George is a qualified chartered accountant who was born in
Birmingham, England and who has had many years’ experience in public
practice, industry, and commerce and as a lecturer. Since 1991 he has
been based in the island of Cyprus. Andy was a financial correspondent
for eight years at the Cyprus Financial Mirror where he wrote articles on business and accounting related issues to a non-technical audience.
He is the author of eBooks: How to write and Publish Your Own With a Shoestring Budget http://www.budgetebook.com
http://www.budgetebook.com/cbmall
akgeorge@cytanet.com.cy
Now that wasn't hard at all, was it? And you've
earned a wealth of knowledge, just from taking some time to study an
expert's word on articles,marketing and sales letters.
We hope you found the information on this page useful and will return often to browse
the many articles throughout our site. We will be adding new material on an ongoing
basis in order to keep our visitors up to date on the latest promotion and marketing
information and tools that allow so many marketers to earn a full time living on the
internet.
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