1.The Building Blocks Of Ad Creation.
You and I go into business to make a profit. We want to sell a product or a service to a customer or client at a higher price than we paid for it. This is the basis for profit making. To sell our products or services we need to let people know they are for sale, know that they will fulfil a business or human need and further that they are a fine quality product or service and even further more that if they buy them now, or in the next 7 days, for example, or if they buy them from us, we will give them some extra benefit! ,
There are only two types of advertisements. Ads that are designed to get a response - immediately, or within a short time. And ads that designed to create an awareness of a product or service with no call to respond.
It is obvious that ads, which call on the reader, or viewer, to act, to get more information on the product or service or to go ahead and buy it, are what leads to sales. Certainly in the short term.
To create successful ads, ads that make us money and that attract "prospects" who actually become customers or clients is the sole purpose of all our ads.
There are a number of "building blocks" involved in creating successful response ads and response sales letters.
(And by the way learning to create a powerful, "pulling" sales letter is probably the one single most important skill you'll even need to develop to be successful in business.)
These building blocks are:-
The development of a USP -- A Unique Selling Proposition
Learning to sell BENEFITS not FEATURES
Creating Powerful Attention Grabbing Benefit Oriented HEADLINES
Understanding how to write you not me/us copy
The use of BENEFIT subheadings
Correctly illustrating your product or service
The development of a strong, easily recognised LOGO or corporate image
The correct use of attention-getting devices
Correct Layout, typography and design
Customer service promises
Satisfaction guarantees/money-back guarantees
Command copy
Calls to action
Clear-cut instructions on what you want your prospect to do
Understanding and using integrated marketing
2. "Coke...Its the real thing!"
"Avis...We try harder"
"Nike... Just do it"
"Kentucky Fried Chicken...its finger lickin' good"
"The burgers are better at Hungary Jacks"
"Mars... helps you work rest and play"
"Benson & Hedges.... when only the best will do"
We've seen and heard them a thousand times. The USPs of household brand name companies. But no matter how small or how large your company/business you also need a USP or Unique Selling Proposition. When repeatedly used in all your promotional efforts it will become as recognised as your logo and your brand name.
An excellent USP is important. It is vital to your business success. You need to know how to adopt a USP and how to implement it powerfully. You need to "position" your business to take optimum advantage of marketing niches. And your USP can help you quickly do this.
Your Unique Selling Proposition is that distinct, appealing idea that sets your business apart from every other "me too" competitor!
Your entire marketing and operational success is built upon your Unique Selling Proposition. Your USP may touch any part of the marketing gamut - price, service, quality or exclusivity.
There are many kinds of USP successes. Depending on internal and external factors. That I'll discuss in a moment. However you might decide to take the high road, or the low road - or perhaps the self inspired middle road.
- Some companies position themselves as having the best selection or broadest array of buying options. Their USP is obviously "broad choice."
- Other companies offer may offer more limited selection, but their USO is "low price" or "low markup."
- Another company may decide they don't want to be known for just price or selection, so instead they offer the finest quality at a higher, but still reasonable price. Quality or exclusivity -- even snob appeal -- is its USP.
- Still, another firm may offer a respectable selection at reasonable prices. Then their distinct selling appeal is that they offer more expert service, assistance, or installation help than anyone else at, (or near) the same price as everyone else. Some of the Internet service providers are doing this at them moment.
The possibilities for building your USP are unlimited. You'll find it best however, to adopt a USP that dynamically addresses an obvious void in the marketplace that you can honestly fill. Beware though: it’s actually counterproductive to adopt a USP if you cannot fulfil the promise.
How You Go About Formulating
Your USP
Before recommending some USP's, let me describe a curious and pathetic phenomenon -- pathetic, that is, if you have any compassion for the dissipation of capital, energy, effort, and time -- or even reverse leverage.
I am referring to what happens when you ask a business owner to articulate clearly and concisely in one paragraph or less, his or her USP. Most business owners have no answer. Why? Because they have never even thought of or thought through what is involved in offering their prospective customers or clients a Unique Selling Proposition!!!
Most of them have NO USP. Only a "me too" rudderless, nondescript, unappealing, parasitic business vaguery that feeds solely upon the sheer momentum of the marketplace. There's nothing unique. There's nothing distinct. They promise no great value, benefit, or service. Just "buy from us" for no justifiable, rational or even alluring reason!
3.You will get far greater response to your ad if you sell the BENEFITS rather than the FEATURES of your product or service. (Sometimes this is expressed by the saying that you need to sell the SIZZLE not the SAUSAGE!).
For example if I am selling a new model of a brand of car that has a new design of brakes I would be better in my advertisement not to talk about this fantastic new type of breaking system but rather spell out the benefit to the prospective buyer -- the fact that the car can now stop in half the distance it takes other cars without the new breaking system to stop. The benefit here being the distinct possibility that these new brakes could save the owners life in an emergency situation.
So how do you quickly and simply arrive at the BENEFITS of your product or service?
The easiest way is to: -
(i) list all its features
(ii) turn all these features into BENEFITS to the prospective buyer.
FOR EXAMPLE:
My product is a new dating service for mature age professional people (40 to 50 year-olds).
The features of this new service are:
1. Membership costs $250 per year
2. You get invitations to a minimum of26 social "events" during the year such as parties, bush walks, camping trips, group bookings to concerts and film premiers etc
3. There are already 300 active members (all professionals) with approximately equal numbers of men and women
4. Satisfaction guarantee or your money back.
Now turning these into user benefits:
1. The price is relatively cheap alongside other similar services so the user benefits in that he or she doesn't have to outlay a large amount of money. Savings= benefit.
2.The user knows that he or she will have the opportunity of attending at least 26 events where romantic friendships may develop. This is not a maybe the calendar of events already exists. The user knows that these events are going to take place. Benefit=certainty of "meeting" members of the other sex.
3. There are already 300 members/singles in the group. The benefit is that this group is up and running. Once again the benefits are certainty and the exclusivist of meeting a potential partner from the same sort of background. Benefit=compatibility of other members of the group.
4. The guarantee means that you risk nothing. If you are unhappy with the service you simply get your money back. Benefit = no risk financially.
ALWAYS PRESENT THE FEATURES OF YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE
IN TERMS OF USER BENEFITS.
Before starting to create your ad (space ad, radio, TV or Web ad) or a sales letter max an exhaustive list of your product or service's benefits for the user. Then carefully list them in descending order of importance - to the user. Not to you. From the start begin to think in the experiential reality of your target prospect/customer/client.
Get into their heads, try and live for the time in their "headspace." What makes them tick, how do they think, how do they "tick," what are their "hot buttons," what triggers their decisions, what are their beliefs and values, where do they live, who do they mix with (socially and professionally), what is important for them, their families, their friends. Try and think through what type of language do they use? What are their challenges and aspirations - at work, at leisure?
It is often a help to create a mental picture of the typical recipient of your ad. Build up a profile of this person you are trying to create a selling communication for. Somewhat like the identikit mug shot police create to try and find a suspect. Create, at least in your own mind, and preferably by way of a list of characteristic on paper, a picture of your "suspect." Sorry. "Prospect!"
The Importance of Coming Up With Exceptional BENEFIT Headlines
Are you writing the biggest, most powerful headlines in the game? Because you aren't you ought to be. You want only the best benefit giving, eye-catching headlines if you want to maximise the response to your ads.
All of us may need to stretch our imaginations a little when it comes to writing headlines for our ads. Headlines are used in ads, commercials, telemarketing calls, direct mail letters, web sites, sales presentation letters and more. Can you write great headlines? I've heard a lot of brilliant copy writers spell out the fact that if you've got ten hours to spend creating a marketing effort spend the first nine hours creating the headline. It’s the first impression you make, and often this is the only impression you make. The rest of your marketing piece will live or die by the quality of that headline
Don't think that just because you don't run print ads your headline is not important. Another way to think about a headline is to think of it as the first thing you say to prospects. Wise marketing people have said that you should picture yourself knocking on someone's door, which is then opened by a very busy person. You can say one thing before that person slams the door in your face or opens it widely and invites you in.
You have the opportunity to tell your whole story in one or to say something so intriguing that the prospect will want to hear more. You have this opportunity in print ads to be sure, but also with the first lines of TV spots and radio commercials, with opening lines of letters and post cards, with first statements made by sales reps or telemarketers, in brochures and on web sites, in yellow pages ads and sales videos, in classified ads an infomercials, at trade shows and in catalogues.
People will decide to read or hear your messages or to ignore you completely. It all depends on your headline. If your headline is a loser, you are most definitely paddling a barbed wire canoe up that very brown creek. Lotsa luck!
All of us as committed marketers are delighted that technology now makes marketing easier than ever, that web sites enable us to market with more fervour, that new software lets us create dynamite marketing materials right in our own offices. But, we must never lose site of the fundamentals and never forget that headlines are the cornerstone of every ad we create. It’s your headline that dictates your positioning in your prospects' minds. And it’s your headlines that will either attract attention or apathy. Nothing you say to a prospect is more important.
In print you have one line to get that attention. On radio or TV you have just three seconds, and you have those same three seconds with any sales presentations or telemarketing calls. WIN attention and interest during that brief period or you won't win it later. There will be NO later!
Now you can see just how important your "headlines” are in any marketing context here are examples of hundreds of headlines from winning ads. Note:Traditional wisdom suggest that putting your headline in inverted commas ads impact.
Sample Headlines:
(1)
"This New Business-In-A-Box
Can Earn You Hundreds
Of Thousands of Dollars"
(While It Runs on full Auto-Pilot)
You just open the box...
Plug into the simple auto-pilot marketing...
And make deposits into your bank account!
(2)
Announcing -- The Mail Order Business-in-A-Box...
"Here's The Quickest & Easiest
Way For You To Succeed
In Mail Order"
(3)
How To Avoid The
Pain & Discomfort
Of Product Development"
...yet still be able to earn a good income as an Independent Publisher Of information and software.
(4)
“How To Turn All Your Ads
And Sales Letters into Powerful
Cash Generators - GUARANTEED”
...its Foolproof When You Use The Inside Secrets Of The World's Foremost Direct Marketing Experts
(5)
Those Four Days Altered My Entire Thought Process!
"I Was Held Hostage
For 4 Days By The Sharpest
Minds In Direct Mail"
"And when it was over, I didn't want to leave. I had learned the ultimate skill...how to make real money any time anywhere. All my fears about not knowing what to do where gone. By day four, I had the formula down; I knew how to do it right, and even before I got home from the seminar, i had started a direct mail project which may end up earning me $20,000 this month!"
(6)
“The Secret of Bowling Strikes”
(7)
If You Can Lick A Stamp-
You Can Lick Your Weight Problem
(8)
Is The Life Of A Child Worth $1 to You
(9)
“How To find Someone To Love”
(10)
“Can Your Child Read These Words”
(11)
“Are You Too Busy Earning
A LivingTo Make Any Money”
(12)
“The Secret Of Making People Like You”
(13)
“What Do Sex Money And Business
Have In Common...”
(14)
“How To Grow More Than $1,000 Worth
Of Food In Your Backyard Garden
This Spring”
(15)
Doctors Prove 2 Out Of 3 Women
Can Have More Beatuiful Skin
in Just 14 Days
(16)
“How To Use E-Mail
To Sell Your Products And Services
On The Internet”
(17)
Online Profit report For Small Business Owners...
"Here's How You Can Promote
Virtually Any Business, Product, Or
Services On The Internet!"
(18)
“Watch Your Weight
And inches Disappear”
(19)
The Deaf Now hear Whispers
(20)
If You Read Music
You'll love Our Magazine
(21)
“Write Your Next Ad My Way
And I'll Guarantee Its Success”
(22)
Again She Orders...
"A Chicken Salad Please"
(23)
“Stocks, Gems, Collectables And
Real Estate Set To Boom”
(24)
No Office - No Phones - No Hassles
- Just Cold Hard Cash In The Mail!
(25)
How To Get A FREE Esspresso
Coffee Maker In Your Own office
(26)
“Now...Discover Your
Passport To Riches”
(27)
Have You Ever Taken A Practice
Golf Swing At A Dandelion
(28)
Thousands Have This Priceless Gift
But Never Discover It
(29)
“The Most Expensive Mistake
Of Your Life”
(30)
How Too Develop A Silver Tongue,
A Golden Touch And A Mind
Like A Steel Trap
(31)
“Get Started For Just
$50 Dollars”
(32)
“Just $50
Gets You Started”
(33)
$80,000 In Prizes! Help Us Find
The Name For These New Kitchens
(34)
“161 New Ways To A Man's Heart
- In This Fascinating Book For Cooks”
(35)
11 Stocks You Should Dunp Right Away
(36)
“26 Days That Have Changed
Thousands Of Lives”
(37)
38 Fun And Easy Ways To Earn
$500 Next Weekend
(38)
67 Reasons Why It Would Have
Paid You To Answer Our Ad
A Few Months Ago
(39)
7 Steps To Freedom
(40)
7 Ways To Collect
Your Unpaid Bills
(41)
A Wonderful Two year's Trip
At Full Pay - But Only Men
With imagination Can Make It
(42)
Advice To Wives Whose
Husbands Don't Save
Money - By A Wife
(43)
“Alive With Pleasure”
(44)
Amazing New Titanic Commemorative
Is Mint Perfect And Even Bigger
Than A Silver Dollar
(45)
Australian Woman, Say hello
To your Next Boss. You.
(46)
An Amazing Business You
Can Carry In Your Pocket
(47)
Are You Ever Tongue-Tied
At A Party
(48)
Attention sharemarket investors
Are You Looking For Small Companies
With Bigh Futures
(49)
Are You Ready To Use Self-Hypnotism
To Make Life Give You What You Want
(50)
At Last Someone Has Unlocked
The Secret Of Getting People To Fall
In Love With You
(51)
Banking Secrets That
Banks Don't Want Published
(52)
“Can You Pass this Money Test”
(53)
“Check The Kind Of Body You Want”
(53)
Dare To Be Rich
(54)
Desperate Woman Loses 7 Kilos
With Amazing Diet Secret
(55)
Do You Sincerely Want To Be Rich
(56)
How To Write Your Own Incredibly
Readable Best Seller
(57)
Stop Wasting Money on Ads
That Don't Pay
(58)
How You Can Start Living
The Life Of A Successful Writer
Within Just One Year
(59)
“Earn $50,000 A year With Your
Own Mail-Order Book Business”
(60)
Earn $4,000 A Month From Your
Home With A Computer
(61)
Ex-Truck Driver Gets $21,000
A Month Doing What You Aren't
(62)
Earn $90,000 A Year Repairing
Cracked Windshields
(63)
For The Woman Who Is Older
Than She Looks
(64)
Fountain Of Youth Discovered
By Little Known Civilization
Over 2300 Years Ago
(64)
Free Book Tells You 12 Secrets
Of Better Share market Investing
(65)
“How To Meet Attractive Single
Women Easily”
(66)
You Can Make $2,000 a Day In This
Direct Mail Business
(67)
Try This Lucrative Home Based
Business For A Month Without
Paying Me A Single Cent
(68)
Sit Back And Watch the Money
Come Rolling In...Up To
$10,000 A Day
(69)
NOW... A Simple Training Method To
Stop Your Child Stuttering
(70)
The 7 Secrets Of Successful
Share market Investing
(71)
New Wonder Conditioner For
Dry Hair -Your First Bottle FREE
4. Sensational headlines are usually built around your product or service's primary benefit.
SO, NOW WHAT HEADLINE WOULD GRASP THE ATTENTION OF THIS PROSPECT - THIS TYPICAL POTENTIAL
BUYER FOR YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE.
Think: What headline would rip his/her eyeballs out of their sockets and glue them to the start of your ad?
Or imagining that your headline is your shop window display, what item would compel them to come into your shop
and have them already reaching into their wallet to buy.
You have to have a headline that will do this.
You must get their attention in about a two second period of time. otherwise they will have turned the page, changed the
channel, clicked onto another Web site or done a thousand and one other things than actually read, listen to or look at your ad.
Remember the average westerner living in a city see around 1750 marketing messages per day!!!!!!!!!!!!
You've got to be real smart to get their attention.
Usually a headline that sells a BENEFIT and solves a problem or delivers the answer to a need is best.
Here's a headline from our example, the single's club:
How You Can Easily Meet Single Professional People Just Like You
All Year For the Cost Of Dinner At A Good Restaurant
Can you do better?
Check out these examples of well-proven headlines.
And notice you never put a punctuation mark at the end of your headline. Why? It subconsciously gets your reader
to STOP reading for a moment. And at this critical point when you want him or her to read on your reader just might
get distracted by something else - other than your ad.
Do you know what the great copywriters all say about creating a headline? It goes something like this:
If you have ten hours to write an ad, you’d best spend 9 of those hours creating your HEADLINE, and the other one hour,
writing the rest of your ad.
This is how important your headline will be to the success, to the "pulling power" of your ad.
Or again, to get a great headline write 100 different headlines and then pick the best!
5. To write powerful advertising copy you must write within your prospect's experiential reality. Its no good trying to sell a work shirt to a lumber jack in the language you would try and sell a fly fisherman's jacket to a doctor. And its no use trying to sell a new set of pneumatic tools to a builder in the language and terms you would try and sell an investment opportunity to a retired public servant.
Now count the words in the sentences above.
Oh dear. 13 words. 28 words. 34 words. Oh shit!
Did you know (have you heard of the Fog Index) that sentences longer than 8 or 9 words become exponentially more difficult
to read. And further who the hell uses words like "exponentially.
So let's try again. With a little sub editing:
Do you want to write powerful advertising copy? Then you must write within your prospect's experiential reality. Say you want words to sell a work shirt to a lumberjack. Don't try it in the language you would try and sell a fly fisherman's jacket to a doctor. Do you want to sell a new set of pneumatic tools to a builder? Then don't attempt it using the wrong language! Don't use the terms you would try and sell an investment opportunity to a retired public servant.
Lets see:
Word count: 8 words. 9 words. 12 words. 14 words. 8 words. 17 words.
A bit better. And already a lot easier to read. Thanks to short sentences and a coversational style of writing.
Some rules to remember:
Write in your reader's way of speaking.
Write for an individual person.
If there is a simpler word use it!
Use the language of the "coffee shop" or the family dinner table.
Write as if writing to a good friend. "Me - you" communication.
(And by the way "you" is the second most powerful word in copy writing after "free").
Write short sentences.
Write even shorter sentences.
Don't have your paragraphs longer than three to five sentences.
Use subheadings or bullets to break up blocks of text.
Be very careful and think exactly what you are trying to achieve if you are tempted to include hum our. It will piss a
lot more people off than it makes laugh.
Use "verisimilitude" - mask your copy ring true, make it believable. But don't become a cynic in doing this. Just aim
to do your job of writing your ad as to maximise its believability!
6. Use subheadings to break up blocks of copy. And create all these subheads out of your list of user benefits.
7. "A picture is worth a thousand words" - mind you a thousand words helps a lot too! Balance your copy and your illustrations.
Your illustration should show your product or service being used by a satisfied customer. If you don't have enough room for this try and "suggest" a user. For example if you are selling a coffee pot. Show the coffee pot being used or at least an illustration of a hand holding the coffee pot.
The larger the illustration, within reason, the more effective the illustration. Remember the eye goes from left to right and down... and from light to dark. Place your illustration according to these guidelines and have it "facing" the right direction. For example if you are selling a car and your illustration is at the bottom right hand corner of your space ad have the car "driving" back into the ad not out of it.
8. A company LOGO or a company symbol that becomes immediately recognisable is extremely important to larger corporations. It is also an added bonus to your overall marketing program if you have one even if you are a smaller organisation. And if you do have a logo use it everywhere. On your letterhead, on your business card, on all your ads, on your place of business on the vehicles your company uses, on staff uniforms etc.
Your logo is basically a symbolic snapshot of what you and your company stands for. It must be strong, clear, simple, and to some degree, if possible, sum up or tie in with your USP (Unique Selling Proposition). Although this is not always possible.
Look around you at the larger companies, the TV channels and you'll see what a LOGO is. Logo comes from the Greek word for "word" or sign. Basically your logo is a single word or sign that names your company.
Can you tell me what the logo of Shell petrol is? What the logo of Quantas is? What the logo of BHP is? What the logo of the Commonwealth Bank is? Can you recognise the logos/symbols of at least six companies that operate around where you do business?
Your logo should encapsulate who you are, what you stand for and should ideally communicate the qualities of your organisation. Strength, continuity, solidarity, friendliness may be some of these qualities.
9. You can use many attention-getting devices are used to draw your reader's attention to specific parts of your
ads and sales letters.
Amongst these attention getting devices are:
- Flashing words or illustrations (on the Web)
- "Bombursts"
- "Bullets" - black dots at the start of a list of points.
- "Handwritten" margin notes - particularly used in sales letters
- Computer generated graphics such as a closed hand with a finger pointing to a particular part of your ad
- Boxed material - including the famous "Johnson Box" of traditional direct mail. (This is a box listing three to five "bulleted" major points or benefits relating to the product or service being promoted.
- A stuck on matchstick, coin, "sctatchie" etc.
- Underlining, bolding, indentations etc are also all attention getting devices.
Its important to note however that if overused they lose their attention-getting power!
10. The layout and design of your ad are very important considerations as they will make your ad either easier to read and understand or harder to read and understand. If your ad is hard to read and understand you will quickly lose potential readers and thus potential buyers.
The eye runs from left to tight. It runs from light to dark and it runs from top to bottom. The layout of your ad should enhance the eye's natural track across a page.
Rule# 1. Use serif type faces (type with little "wings" attached. For eg. New Times Roman.
Rule #2. Don't normally use more than two, or at the very most three, different type faces in your ad. It’s tempting to do so if you are learning to use your computer to create your own ads -- but is a BIG mistake -- it only serves to confuse the eye.
Rule #3. Never set type in odd shapes such as the shape of a profile of a face, a man or woman, a car, a wine glass. This is ridiculously difficult -almost impossible to read - and you'll lose buyers in droves. Avoid being too "creative." You are a sales man or woman.
NOT AN ARTIST.
Rule# 4. Be careful using reverses. That is, white type out of a block of black. Use these carefully and in well thought out ways.
They can be overpowering.
Rule#5. Never use typefaces that are "weird" and difficult to read. What's the point?
Rule #6. Use icons where necessary. For example use a scissor icon if you want your readers to cut off a coupon. Use phone, fax icons if you want them to call to order or fax an order to you.
Rule #7. Have illustrations” looking into the ad" not "looking out" of the ad.
Rule #8. Make sure that your coupon is positioned for maximum ease of cutting out. For example on a full page ad in a
magazine your ad should go on a right hand page for maximum noticeability and in this case your coupon should be at
the bottom right hand corner of your full page ad.
11. Customer service, the commitment to treating them like your family, is an essential ingredient of all successful marketing
programs in today's world. You want to get customers and then keep them for life! (And remember it costs 6 times as much
to get a new customer as to resell to an existing one who loves your company!
So state in all your ads your company's commitment to customer service ...
