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How
to Write Killer Advertising that
Practically Forces People to Respond
By Terry Dean
Stop a moment some day and look at the kind of
advertising you see in your mailbox, on your computer, on the radio, etc.
Look at it and think, "Would I buy this or not?" If you say "No," then ask
yourself why. If you say "Yes," then ask yourself why. What is it that
makes this ad attractive or what is it that this person’s offer
unattractive. Do this regularly and you will start surprising yourself
with what you will notice about advertising.
Most advertising you see today is written extremely
poorly. It confuses the prospect, doesn’t paint a desired picture in their
mind, doesn’t give a reason to order now, and focuses on features, not the
benefits. Most failed businesses can be tracked back to poor advertising,
although 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! This is what we
will be working on in this manual, so be prepared to change your
advertising and to fill your mailbox with orders!
There is a creative money making genius on the inside
of you. You just need to learn how to let it out. What we will cover in
this short report is the purpose of advertising and the 12 Advertising
Secrets you will need to know to become an effective advertiser.
No matter what business you do whether it be a small
retail store, a consulting service, a house cleaning service, 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.
First of all, let us look at the two major (And
different) reasons for advertising. Number one is for exposure. Most
television commercials and many newspaper ads and magazine ads are made
for this purpose.
The Advertiser wants their name exposed to the public
and for the viewer to think of them next time they are ready to make a
purchase. Major corporations are the ones who will do this kind of
advertising. They have the budget to constantly expose their name to the
public and wait for their orders to come as people become more used to
them and their advertising.
The type of advertising you and I are 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 our 800 number and order, mail us a coupon
and order, or fax in an order. We advertise a product and service and seek
for people to make purchases now. As a small or home business, a quick way
to go bankrupt is to place full page ads 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 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 dollar in a
classified ad reduces your response greatly. You will have them call your
800 number voicemail or your fax-on-demand in which they will receive an
offer and a chance to order NOW! In all advertising, you must ask for the
order NOW or get out of business!
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. Let me tell you a simple
truth, It does not matter how awesome your product line is if your
advertising doesn’t cause people to see themselves using it and how it
will benefit them. Your advertising, not your product in many cases, will
determine the success or failure of your business. Yes, Your product needs
to be awesome (Or you will experience a large number of refund requests
and a short-lived business), but your advertising will make or break your
business.
Before we spend too much time detailing why you
should create awesome ads, let us just simplify the whole deal. You want
your business to make money? Then, write money-grabbing ads!
Now, Let us reveal 12 of the major advertising
secrets you will need to know and begin using in every ad you create:
1) Testing, Testing, Testing
In all advertising and mail order, the biggest key of
long-term success is Testing everything. Test your ads. Test your sales
letters. Test you products. Test the publications. Test everything. You
will never be done. Learn to key all of your order forms and phone numbers
to make sure you know which ad 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 a BIG DEAL what your
headline says. A note that needs to be added. In mail order, it has been
our experience that Negative headlines often Out pull positive headlines.
For example, one of the most popular and effective headlines in network
marketing has been "Dead Downlines Don’t Lie!"
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 prospect focused. What are their needs? What are their Desires? What
are their Fears? Pay attention. The upcoming secrets must be used when
writing your headline also, not just your body. 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 ads, you must make your ads simple: Simple to
Understand & Simple to Order. Keep the level of writing 8th grade 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 prospect, their attention and the sale
disappears!
4) Be Specific, Not General
Be specific in all of your advertising. Don’t Say
"Fill Your Mailbox with Cash." Say "Receive Up to $355 a day in your
Mailbox Daily." Don’t Say "Secrets to Making Money." Say "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 prospects say "He is just making this
up." Being specific makes them say, "He must have counted it. I want to
make that much."
Don’t say "Fill your Downline with Distributors." Say
"Add Up to 15 New Distributors a month to your downline." You get the idea
now, don’t you. Don’t 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, Not A Me-Too
Ad
So many ads out there today are for just me-too
products and me-too advertising. When I say "Me-Too Advertising," I mean
that these ads or products have been so overused that they just don’t pull
anymore. People are tired of them. For example, People are tired of
hearing how much more your network marketing company pays than the one on
the other page. They 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? Did you flunk out of
school? Do you only have an 8th grade education? Put something of yourself
into the ad. A bald man could write an ad saying, "57 Year Old Bald Man
Grows Dollar Bills Faster than Men Half His Age Grow Hair!" 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.
6) Use Pronouns (I, You, He, She)
Again, we are going to make the literature teachers
angry at us, but Using "I" "You" "He" "She" throughout your advertising
copy will produce more cash orders. People will begin to identify with
you. They will begin to say, "Yes, I can do that." They will be drawn into
the picture you are painting of them enjoying or succeeding with your
product or service. Creating a picture of them and their needs being met
by your company spells creating an order.
7) Focus on Benefits, Not Features
This is a lesson mail order & direct mail
professionals have been trying to get over to us for years. You must focus
on the benefits of your product, not its features. Although it may sound
like these two things are one in the same, they most definitely are not.
Which way you lead your presentation which will make a big difference
between the success and failure of your advertising campaign.
Your product’s features are things such as pay plan,
product ingredients, what it is made of, etc. Benefits are what your
product will do for them. Features are product centered. Benefits are
prospect centered. Benefits are things such as "How much will your
prospect make? How much weight can they lose? How much hair will they
grow?" You have to make your advertising copy prospect centered instead of
product centered.
8) Use Lots of Adjectives & Adverbs
You will notice in mail order, there is not the
"information packed manual." There is a "huge 62 page information packed
manual with step-by-step instructions." When writing your ads, take your
descriptions to the limit. Then, you can cut it down some as you go over
it. Describe the product. Paint a picture in your prospect’s mind of them
using your products or services. If you are selling Home Business
information, paint a picture of the prospect succeeding in business,
making money daily, having more free time, etc.
As a general rule, people do not buy because of
logic. Too much failed advertising is logic oriented. Too many people say,
"It is only logical for them to buy my product." If that is your idea, it
won’t sell. People buy because of emotion. Create practical logical
products. Then, write advertising that uses emotion to make sales. Paint
the picture of your prospect both with and without your product. Make them
need your product. Make your product have an emotional appeal to them.
Then, you will make sales
9) Testimonials
Testimonials are a powerful selling tool and should
be used at every opportunity. Include testimonials in all of your ads if
possible. Many Great Selling Ads are made up of 1/3 to 1/2 testimonials of
the company’s products or services. Getting testimonials is easier than
many of us think also. Make up a testimonial form (With signature
required) and hand it out to all of your clients. Let them know you care
what they think about your products and services. Make it easy for your
clients to give you testimonials. Then, use them in all of your
advertising if possible.
10) Free Bonuses For a Limited Time
Something Free is always a drawing factor in
advertising. "Free" is probably the most powerful advertising word in
existence. Anything that you sell that has a price of more than $20 should
always have Free Bonuses attached, and most products under $20 should have
Free Bonuses also if possible. Then, You should always make your Free
Bonuses for a Limited Time Only to Bring in Orders Now. This has the
Effect of "Sale" on a prospect’s mind and moves them to order now. All
advertising must be geared for the prospect to Order Now! And Free Bonuses
don’t have to cost you very much either. Include something that you can
reproduce cheaply, but has a high value to your prospects.
11) Strong Guarantee
The best way to gain trust in your prospect’s mind
for you is to include a solid guarantee on your products. The postal
service requires a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee on All Products sold by
mail order unless your guarantee is mentioned. You should always include
this guarantee if not more. "30 Day No Questions Asked Money Back
Guarantee! I refuse to Let Anyone Be Unhappy With Our Product!" Add
guarantees to everything that you sell. This is a strong motivator to
people and can overcome most fears and objections they have in their minds
toward ordering from you.
12) Easy To Order
Make it easy for people to order from you. This
almost goes without saying, but there are a lot of ads out there which
have broken this rule. Tell people clearly how to order. For example,
"Pick Up Your telephone and Call 1-800-000-0000 Now And Have your Credit
Card Ready!" Or "Fill Out this Order Form and Make Your checks payable to
Business Systems 2000 and then fax your order to 1-000-000-0000 or mail
them to Business Systems 2000, Box 128, Richmond, IN 47375!" Make it clear
to your customers what you want them to do to order now.
Another thing that should be mentioned is that you
will increase your orders 50% - 100% just by accepting credit cards. They
produce more trust and more orders for any small or home business. Order a
copy of our "How to Increase Business By At Least 50% Just By Accepting
Credit Cards" for information about merchant accounts and how 99% of home
businesses (Even brand new startups) are able to obtain a merchant account
for a very low cost.
BASICS OF ADVERTISING
Those are the twelve basics to advertising. Remember
them. Go over them. Use them. It will make a difference in your business.
Remember this report as your Twelve Step Program to Advertising Success:
TESTING, TESTING TESTING
STRONG HEADLINES
SHORT WORDS, SHORT SENTENCES, SHORT PARAGRAPHS
BE SPECIFIC, NOT GENERAL
USE YOUR BACKGROUND AND BE UNIQUE
USE PRONOUNS
FOCUS ON BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES
USE LOTS OF ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS
TESTIMONIALS
FREE BONUSES FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY
STRONG GUARANTEE
EASY TO ORDER
Create your advertising materials and then go over
them again and again to refine them, but always remember they are NEVER
finished. Testing is the name of the game in advertising and then winner
in the end will always be the one who has tested their advertising the
most.
Terry Dean, a 5 year veteran of Internet marketing,
will Take You By The Hand and Show You Exact Results of All the Internet
Marketing Techniques he tests and Uses Every Single Month" Click here to
Find Out More:
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