Please share this Christmas gift with your e-mail list. Happy Holidays!
On the eighth day of Christmas, Mesmerizzzed! gives to you -
eight advertising "don'ts,"
seven direct mail steps,
six customer solutions,
FIVE MARKETING KEYS,
four sales methods,
three pricing strategies,
two engineered products and a focused target market.
Here are eight things you should not with your advertising dollars:
Don't Fail to INTERRUPT
If you are going to advertise, you are going to have to get comfortable with
interrupting people - boldly!
People are busy. People are pre-occupied with their own stuff. If you are
going to get their attention, you are going to have to break their
pre-occupation with their own stuff and get them to break their trance to
pay attention to your stuff.
How do you do that? With a compelling, benefit loaded headline.
Don't Fail to ENGAGE
Okay, you've broken them out of their trance with your powerful headline.
Now what?
Now you need a sub-headline - something that draws them from the headline
into the copy.
How do you do that? You make a promise - a promise that the information that
you are about to share will facilitate their decision-making process - that
it will be worth their while to keep reading.
Don't Fail to EDUCATE
You can't start with telling the reader how wonderful you are. You have to
start by educating them on the important and relevant issues that they need
to be aware of.
Then you make your case - briefly and succinctly - for how your business
stacks up against those issues.
Don't Fail to Make an OFFER
Now you go for the close - but not to get them to buy.
The offer has to be a low-risk step in the buying process. You offer more
FREE information that will allow the reader to be totally in control of
their decision.
FREE Reports, FREE Samples, FREE Consultations - make it easy and risk-free
to take the next step.
Don't Fail to TARGET
Unless you are working with a billion dollar advertising budget (if you are,
call us today for FREE information on improving your advertising results),
you can't afford to market to the masses.
You must take the time to ensure your advertising dollars are chasing people
in your focused target market.
Make the publication or media outlet prove that your demographics are
reading or tuning in for your message. Get more information on that topic
below.
Don't Misuse Visuals and Graphics
Most advertisements we review take one of two extremes.
If an advertising agency develops the ad, the visuals and graphics dominate
the ad. The pictures are beautiful, often award-winning, but seldom are the
ads designed to get results using the Interrupt - Engage - Educate - Offer
structure.
The second extreme occurs when a business creates an advertisement on their
own. They may cut in a few pictures of their building, but the advertising
content simply describes who they are. You've seen these - been in business
for thirty-two years. Who cares?
Visuals are a vital element in the interrupt sequence - they help break
people's pre-occupation with what they are doing. But they must be
integrated with the copy and in the context of the ad. A picture of a pretty
girl may cause people to stop, but it does little to get people to buy your
widget if the visual is out of context with your offer.
Don't Trust Reach and Circulation Statistics
We have a lot of friends in the publishing and media business.
Unfortunately, every one of them inflates the impact of their reach and
circulation. They can't help it because they really, really, really need you
to buy their space to survive. In most cases, they really do believe what
they are telling you.
It doesn't matter what they tell you about readers and listeners. You need
to ask one question:
Give me the names and phone numbers of three advertisers who can tell me the
results they can track directly to your publication, radio or television
spot.
If they quickly provide those names, you can keep talking - to those
advertisers. If they can't or won't give you the names of those advertisers,
you know what to do next, show them back to the door!
Don't Buy the Exposure B.S.
You'll also hear people tell you not to worry about responses to your
advertisement, that it's important to get the exposure for your business.
Unless you are still looking to spend that billion dollar advertising
budget, adopt this philosophy:
Don't pay for advertising - pay only for results!
You can't afford to run "institutional" ads - paying for the privilege of
getting your name out into the ether. You can only pay for "direct response"
ads - ads that you can track results to determine how many people call to
get your FREE report or FREE consultation or FREE whatever.
Don't let your business fall into the trap of these advertising "don'ts!"
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