Johan
-
02:13:55 pm on August 16, 2008 | # |
Dear Friend
Today I want to discuss how you write an advertisement when you have an online newsletter or blog/web site. But before I get there let me get something off my chest. If you can bare with me because this is going to be ugly…….
I work with many off-line business people who are traditionally technophobes.
Being a technophobe is not a problem because it’s a choice and when you see it as a choice then you can choose not to be a technophobe. But when you, as a traditional off-line marketer or a brick to brick advertiser, waste money on advertising then I have no sympathy with you. Because technology, like an online newsletter, allows you to make more money from advertising.
I have said it many times and today I will try and explain it with an example of my own advertising.
This is the problem with traditional advertisers:
- They advertise to sell instead of advertising to create relationships of to give something of value
- They ignore the people who have done business with them
- They ignore people who may need to do business with them but who are not ready today
- They have no clue how to write an advertisement. For example they think that their business name is the most important aspect of their advertisement. Please remember you are not Coke or Microsoft or Google. For all practical purposes you are Joe Local Business.
Lets have a look at the two advertisements that I have created for two local newspapers.
There are a few advertising ideas I want you to note:
- I am making you an offer. You will learn and it’s all in red and large print.
- I did not use any logo and I did not start with my business name.
- I also added an unbelievable guarantee. Have you seen many advertisements that add a guarantee?
- I have created two ads for two different newspapers. This was done to test and see which ad works best. Then I will swap the ads to see if both newspapers gives me similar results with the same advertisement. And only when I know which ad works best will I increase the size of the ad and go to more expensive advertising mediums.
- People can contact me if they want to talk to me. These are the ready and hot lot. When they phone me I’ll tell them what’s it all about and see if they are interested in the newsletter option. If they are not I’ll ask them if they want to subscribe to my online newsletter. And then get their name and email address.
- If they are not ready to phone me then they can visit my online web site and read more. Here they can also subscribe to my newsletter or email me to tell me they want training.
The last point is one of the most important that traditional off line marketers never realise. They never capture the attention of people who want to do business but who are not ready to day. And they have no tool to educate these people.
Now that I came this far I feel better
There are obviously more to this story but I an sure you get the idea. From today you have no excuse. You can continue to market for new business, you can continue to ignore people who want to spend money in the future or you can start your own online newsletter and change your advertising approach to double and even triple your advertising response rate.
Have fun
Johan Horak
P.S. Can you tell me which ad you like best? And if you have any idea on how these ads can be improved? Leave a comment below.
If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or Email. Thanks for visiting!
Related posts