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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