How To Make Sure Your Advertising Copy Works: Tips 10-12

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Here are the next three, last month I gave tips #7-9 here are the #10-12.

Number Ten; No Deadline Or "Wimpy" Deadline: People are natural procrastinators and unless you motivate them to respond NOW, they never do. They might look at your ad and want to take advantage of your offer, but unless they have to respond right away, they will often set it aside, never to take action. A deadline is what makes them respond. Deadlines create fear - fear of losing out on a particular offer or opportunity. I have found that typically, the shorter the deadline the better. My personal favorite is four days and I have had great success with a one day ONLY deadline. One rule that I try to live by is never to give a prospect more than a two-week deadline. If you don't have a deadline, you might as well save your hard earned money that you invested in the ad.

Number Eleven; Me-Too Appearance: I have written and developed hundreds of ads and direct mail pieces during my career. One of the most successful ones that I have ever sent was a letter that asked for help in solving a dilemma about how to get the word out about our business. Why was this so successful? Because it didn't look like an ad. Or in other words it didn't have a "me-to" appearance. Instead, it looked nothing like a traditional ad, but like a letter that a friend would send to a friend, resulting over 150 new customers and close to $50,000.00 in sales.

Number Twelve; Focus On The Business Instead Of WIIFM: How many times do you see an ad for a particular business and all it says is how wonderful the business is. It talks about how many years they have been in business, or the friendly service, or the big selection -but what about what the customer really wants. Customers ONLY want one thing -WIIFM (What's In It For Me). When you concentrate on the customer and what's in it for them, you'll get much better results with your advertising.

Now you have them. The next three of fourteen tips to make sure your advertising works. As you probably guessed, in next months Chamber newsletter I'll reveal #10-12.

If you would like to learn more you can go to www.greatresultsmarketing.com

Dan Cricks, Results Marketing, LLC

Dan is a marketing & business consultant to many different professionals and types businesses. He currently has clients from all over North America and Australia. Dan speaks to many different groups locally and nationally, including business groups such as Chamber's of Commerce and different associations. Dan also will sometimes offer marketing seminars for these same groups. For more information contact Dan's assistant Alicia at 937-430-5651