1. Target market – Is the target market clearly identified? Ideally this should be in the headline e.g. Plumbers… 7 reasons why you need to…
2. Attention grabbing headline – Your headline needs to break though the clutter, people are exposed to over 60,000 advertising messages daily. E.g. Don’t buy another Ducati until you have read this…..
3. Include a loop – that encourages the reader to read further (see above)
4. Offer – is it powerful enough to attract people away from their current supplier?
E.g. 24 months interest FREE… Pay nothing until March 2006….
5. Photo – Photo’s attract attention, ideally of people, rather than objects.
6. Benefits, and features – people buy on benefits, not features. what’s in it for them? How will they benefit from buying
Feature – has a 9 volt spark plug
Benefit – starts every time, even in the rain
7. Specific Words… there are 16 powerful sales words in the English language e.g. FREE, NEW, YOU, SAVE…. Make these bigger and bolder
8. USP (Unique Selling Proposition) clear – What differentiates you from the competition. What are you competing on? Why would someone choose to do business with you?9. Guarantee – Reduces the customer’s perceived risk of doing business with you… This should cover their key frustration about your business/industry e.g. And a money back guarantee and be specific If you are not… we will…..
10. Call to action – Explain in simple terms what people need to do to use your services… e.g. Clip the coupon and bring it in to one of our stores…. Or Phone Rachael on 09 555….
11. Deadline – All decisions can be delayed, to get people to act quicker we must give them some urgency. E.g.… Offer expires Friday 25th at 5pm… or limited to first 20 customers….12. Test and measure – Test different headlines, offers, calls to action etc… Once you find out what works (the only way is to measure the response to the ads) then run it again and again. This way you will have a self funding advertising budget. You will get sick of your ads long before you customers do.
13. Testimonials – these reduce the customer’s perceived risk of doing business with you. Write them yourself, and then ask your best clients if they will HELP you. Everyone likes to help, and this makes it easier for them, they don’t have to write anything, and you can say what you want about your business (i.e. main reason for buying your services) Include their company name, title, and ideally a photo if possible
14. Layout – Is it attractive and enticing, does it make you want to read further. Ideally you should be on the top right hand side of a right side page15. Phone numbers – Should generally be bigger e.g. 0800 555 555 (particularly for Yellow Pages ads)
