5 Ways of Making Your Ads More Effective.

When a prospect reads your ad, letter, brochure, etc., the one thing he will be wondering from the start is: “what’s in it for me ?” And if your copy doesn’t tell him, it’ll land in the trash faster than he can read the headline or lead.

When writing your copy, it helps to think of it as writing a letter to an old friend. In fact, I often picture a friend of mine who most closely fits my prospect’s profile. What would I say to convince this friend to try my product? How would I target my friend’s objections and beliefs to help my cause?

So how can you focus on them? Glad you asked.

you are not writing to impress your English teacher or win any awards. The only award you’re after is your copy beating the control (control being the best-selling copy so far), so take some liberty in grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. You want it to be read and acted upon, not read and admired!

• The XYZ car delivers 55 miles per gallon in the city. • Our ladder’s frame is made from a lightweight durable steel alloy.

• Our glue is protected by a patent.

• This database has a built-in data-mining system.

 what are benefits? They are what those features mean to your prospects.

• You’ll save money on gas and cut down on environmental pollutants when you use our energy saving high-performance hybrid car. Plus, you’ll feel the extra oomph when you’re passing cars, courtesy of the efficient electric motor, which they don’t have !

• Lightweight durable steel-alloy frame means you’ll be able to take it with you with ease, and use it in places most other ladders can’t go, while still supporting up to 800 pounds. No more backaches lugging around that heavy ladder. And it’ll last for 150 years, so you’ll never need to buy another ladder again!

• Patent-protected glue ensures you can use it on wood, plastic, metal, ceramic, glass, and tile…without messy cleanup and without ever having to re-glue it again—guaranteed!

• You can instantly see the “big picture” hidden in your data, and pull the most arcane statistics on demand. Watch your business do a “180” in no time flat, when you instantly know why it’s failing in the first place! It’s all done with our built-in datamining system that’s so easy to use, my twelve year-old son used it successfully right out of the box.

This is where research really pays off. Because in order to push those buttons, you need to first know what they are

Remember, copywriting is salesmanship in print !

Well, a good salesman knows how to ask the kinds of questions that will tell him which buttons to press on the fly. When you’re writing copy, you don’t have that luxury. It’s therefore very important to know upfront the wants, needs, and desires of your prospects for that very reason. If you haven’t done your homework, your prospect is going to decide that he’d rather keep his money than buy your product

Pro Tip

People buy based on emotion first and foremost. Then they justify their decision with logic, even after they are already sold emotionally. So be sure to back up your emotional pitch with logic to nurture that justification at the end.

When your prospect reads your ad, you want to make sure he believes any claims you make about your product or service. Because if there’s any doubt in his mind, he won’t bite, no matter how sweet the deal.

Tips

 If you’re dealing with existing customers who already know you deliver as promised, emphasize that trust. Don’t leave it up to them to figure it out.

 Include Testimonials of satisfied customers.

Remember John Daniels is more believable than J.D.

It’s,, even more better if you can add a picture and professional title.

Make sure you add enough compelling testimonials and that they are believable.

 Pepper your copy with facts  and research findings to support your claims.

 If applicable, cite any awards or third-party reviews the product or service has received.

 If you’ve sold a lot of widgets, tell them.

 Include a GREAT return policy and stand by it ! This is just good business policy. Many times, offering a double refund guarantee for certain products will result in higher profits.

Make them think, “Guy, they wouldn’t be so generous with returns if they didn’t stand behind their product!”

 If you can swing it, adding a celebrity endorsement will always help to establish credibility.

When it makes sense, use 3rd party testimonials.

I took quotes from experts in their respective fields and turned them to my side. But…be sure to get their consent or permission from the copyright holder if there’s ever any question about copyrighted materials as your source.

 Reveal a flaw about your product. This helps alleviate the “too good to be true” syndrome. You reveal a flaw that isn’t really a flaw. Or reveal a flaw that is minor, just to show that you’re being “up front” about your product’s shortcomings.

Example:  “You’re probably thinking right now that this tennis racket is a miracle worker—and it is. But I must tell you that it has one little…shortcoming. My racket takes about 2 weeks to get used to. In fact, when you first start using it, your game will actually get worse . But if you can just ride it out, you’ll see a tremendous improvement in your volleys, net play, serves, …” And so on.

it is refreshing when someone stands out from the crowd and is honest? In other words, your reader will start to subconsciously believe that you are revealing all of the flaws, even though your best foot still stands forward.

 Use “lift notes.” These are a brief note or letter from a person of authority.

Lift notes may be distributed as inserts, a separate page altogether, or even as part of the copy as always, _test!_

Avoid baseless “hype.

”hype itself does not sell well. Don’t try to compensate for their lack of research or not fully understanding their target market or the product itself by adding tons of adjectives and adverbs and exclamation points and big bold type.  Whew! If you do your job right, it’s just not needed.

It’s what separates your product or service from your competitors. Let’s take a quick look at some unique selling propositions for a product itself:

 Lowest Price – If you’ve got the corner marketed on budget prices, flaunt it. Wal-Mart has made this USP famous lately, but it’s not new to them.

 Superior Quality – If it outperforms your competitor’s product or is made with higher quality materials, it’s a good bet that you could use this fact to your advantage.

 Superior Service – If you offer superior service over your competitor’s, people will buy from you instead. This is especially true with certain markets that are all about service: long-distance, Internet service providers, cable television, etc

Exclusive Rights – My favorite! If you can legitimately claim that your product is protected by a patent or copyright, licensing agreement, etc., then you have a winner for exclusive rights. If you have a patent, even the President of the U.S.  must buy it from you.

• We are the only car repair shop that will buy your car if you are not 100 percent satisfied with our work.

• Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s on us!

• No other furniture company will pay for your shipping.

• Our recipe is so secret, only three people in the world know it!

what if your product or service is no different than your competitor’s?

I would disagree because there are always differences.

The trick is to turn them into a positive advantage for you.

You want to put your “best foot forward.” So what can we do in this scenario?

One way is to present something that your company has devised internally that no other company does. Look, there’s a reason why computer store “A” offers to beat their competitor’s price for the same product by X%. If you look closely, the two packages are never exactly the same.

Unless your prospect knows the inner workings of both your and your competitor’s product,

including the manufacturing process, customer service, and everything in between, then you have a little potential creative licensing here. But you must be truthful

For example, if I tell my readers that my product is bathed in steam to ensure purity and cleanliness (like the cans and bottles in most beer manufacturing processes), it doesn’t matter that Joe’s Beer up the Road does the same thing.

That fact that Joe doesn’t advertise this fact makes it a USP in your prospect’s eyes.