As a copywriter, clients often ask for my advice on how to improve the results they get from their advertising. I'll talk today about the common mistakes small businesses make when it comes to advertising and help you get a better return on your advertising investment.
Layout
Too many small business ads read like a list:
Company name at the top (where there should be a benefit-rich headline). Dry, egotistical copy in the middle. No clear or compelling offer. Phone number and address at the bottom.
That layout will kill your sales right there, because your prospect doesn't care about your company name (or a cute headline). He or she only wishes to know: "What's in it for me?"
Here's a better layout for selling that works well in almost any situation:
You have to lead in with a compelling, attention getting headline. Keep it simple, just state the biggest benefit of using your service or product.
Include a contact number or perhaps a coupon at the bottom right. This corner is called the "anchor point".
Company name and address should go in the bottom left corner. You want to use your adspace to make the case for your business. Once you convince the reader, they'll find your address.
If there are illustrations or photos in your ad, follow them with headlines. This will create a narrative structure to your ad and keep readers moving down the page.
It's a good idea to outline the benefits of your product or service with bullet points. Long copy is great, but it's a lot harder to write.
How are your ads? Do they read like a shopping list, or a compelling story ending with a call to action? If the former, I know you'll get great results from changing your formats.
Failing to Test and Track Ad Response
You should always test and track your ads. Even a slight change can generate many more sales for the same product or service. Testing and tracking can help you to cut out what isn't working and keep what performs well.
How to Track Advertising Response
It's easy to track your advertising, you can just ask people who call how they heard about your business. If you are publishing many different ads, you can get more complex with your tracking using one or more of these techniques.
Your coupons can be colour coded, you can include coupon codes or ask callers to ask for a specific person or mention an offer mentioned in the ad.
Online it's even easier, there are lots of great tracking software programs that will allow you to compare one page against another or one traffic source against another.
When one of my marketing consulting clients started tracking their ads a while back, they found that $500 newspaper ads were generating almost zero response, while cheap flyers were bringing in loads of customers. So they were able to save a bundle on ineffective advertising.
What To Test
Test these parts of your ads:
Headlines, Offers, Body Copy, Guarantee and Price
Hint: You'll get the greatest return by testing headlines first.
When you find something that works, stay with it until you find something better. It really isn't hard to improve your marketing ROI if you use this approach, yet hardly anyone does it! If YOU decide to take action on this tip, you can save money, leverage your marketing budget, and put some distance between you and your competition.
Simply making your ads sell harder can boost your business massively, start by testing and tracking your ads, and consider hiring a good copywriter, a small investment in professionally written copy will makes your advertising dollars work much harder.
Not Making The Most of a Powerful Guarantee
Many small business fail to include a strong guarantee in their advertisements. This is a shame, since a powerful guarantee can mean response rates which are at least 50% higher.
Gurantees work because they remove the risk of purchase from your customer, making it easier for them to buy. When you guarantee your product or service, you're showing confidence that it will produce the result you claim, customers respond to that.
Here are a few tips for successfully incorporating your guarantee into your ads:
1. Your guarantee should be a specific promise of performance or results.
Don't use boilerplate phrases like "Satisfaction Guaranteed" or even "Money-Back Guaranteed". While these are probably better than nothing, they don't have a fraction of the effect of a specific promise like:
"If you don't love our product, we'll pay you to go to our competitors"
" 50% increase in traffic to your site in 60 days or your money back"
"Send $35 to [Your Business Name and Address] and if you're not happy with us, we'll refund you $40."
2. Test Your Guarantee
Being a small business consultant and copywriter, I spend a lot of time helping clients to come up with attention getting guarantees for their advertisements. Many business owners are nervous about making money back guarantees, fearing that they will lose money if too many people take advantage of these guarantees. However, I can tell you that in practice, the amount of additional business which a strong guarantee can bring in dwarfs the outlay you'll see in refunds. Track the response to your ad and compare it against the returns. If the guarantee is working for your business, continue offering it.
In almost every case, a good guarantee will bring in much more in sales than you'll end up paying out in refunds. Fine tune your guarantee (wording, conditions and so on). You may see a huge difference in sales between a 30 day and 60 day guarantee.
3. Make your guarantee highly visible
Make your guarantee a headline, you want prospective customers to see this.
What powerful guarantee can you offer your prospects to make it easier for them to do business with you? - 15478
Layout
Too many small business ads read like a list:
Company name at the top (where there should be a benefit-rich headline). Dry, egotistical copy in the middle. No clear or compelling offer. Phone number and address at the bottom.
That layout will kill your sales right there, because your prospect doesn't care about your company name (or a cute headline). He or she only wishes to know: "What's in it for me?"
Here's a better layout for selling that works well in almost any situation:
You have to lead in with a compelling, attention getting headline. Keep it simple, just state the biggest benefit of using your service or product.
Include a contact number or perhaps a coupon at the bottom right. This corner is called the "anchor point".
Company name and address should go in the bottom left corner. You want to use your adspace to make the case for your business. Once you convince the reader, they'll find your address.
If there are illustrations or photos in your ad, follow them with headlines. This will create a narrative structure to your ad and keep readers moving down the page.
It's a good idea to outline the benefits of your product or service with bullet points. Long copy is great, but it's a lot harder to write.
How are your ads? Do they read like a shopping list, or a compelling story ending with a call to action? If the former, I know you'll get great results from changing your formats.
Failing to Test and Track Ad Response
You should always test and track your ads. Even a slight change can generate many more sales for the same product or service. Testing and tracking can help you to cut out what isn't working and keep what performs well.
How to Track Advertising Response
It's easy to track your advertising, you can just ask people who call how they heard about your business. If you are publishing many different ads, you can get more complex with your tracking using one or more of these techniques.
Your coupons can be colour coded, you can include coupon codes or ask callers to ask for a specific person or mention an offer mentioned in the ad.
Online it's even easier, there are lots of great tracking software programs that will allow you to compare one page against another or one traffic source against another.
When one of my marketing consulting clients started tracking their ads a while back, they found that $500 newspaper ads were generating almost zero response, while cheap flyers were bringing in loads of customers. So they were able to save a bundle on ineffective advertising.
What To Test
Test these parts of your ads:
Headlines, Offers, Body Copy, Guarantee and Price
Hint: You'll get the greatest return by testing headlines first.
When you find something that works, stay with it until you find something better. It really isn't hard to improve your marketing ROI if you use this approach, yet hardly anyone does it! If YOU decide to take action on this tip, you can save money, leverage your marketing budget, and put some distance between you and your competition.
Simply making your ads sell harder can boost your business massively, start by testing and tracking your ads, and consider hiring a good copywriter, a small investment in professionally written copy will makes your advertising dollars work much harder.
Not Making The Most of a Powerful Guarantee
Many small business fail to include a strong guarantee in their advertisements. This is a shame, since a powerful guarantee can mean response rates which are at least 50% higher.
Gurantees work because they remove the risk of purchase from your customer, making it easier for them to buy. When you guarantee your product or service, you're showing confidence that it will produce the result you claim, customers respond to that.
Here are a few tips for successfully incorporating your guarantee into your ads:
1. Your guarantee should be a specific promise of performance or results.
Don't use boilerplate phrases like "Satisfaction Guaranteed" or even "Money-Back Guaranteed". While these are probably better than nothing, they don't have a fraction of the effect of a specific promise like:
"If you don't love our product, we'll pay you to go to our competitors"
" 50% increase in traffic to your site in 60 days or your money back"
"Send $35 to [Your Business Name and Address] and if you're not happy with us, we'll refund you $40."
2. Test Your Guarantee
Being a small business consultant and copywriter, I spend a lot of time helping clients to come up with attention getting guarantees for their advertisements. Many business owners are nervous about making money back guarantees, fearing that they will lose money if too many people take advantage of these guarantees. However, I can tell you that in practice, the amount of additional business which a strong guarantee can bring in dwarfs the outlay you'll see in refunds. Track the response to your ad and compare it against the returns. If the guarantee is working for your business, continue offering it.
In almost every case, a good guarantee will bring in much more in sales than you'll end up paying out in refunds. Fine tune your guarantee (wording, conditions and so on). You may see a huge difference in sales between a 30 day and 60 day guarantee.
3. Make your guarantee highly visible
Make your guarantee a headline, you want prospective customers to see this.
What powerful guarantee can you offer your prospects to make it easier for them to do business with you? - 15478
About the Author:
Author: David B. Ascot has important information regarding sales lead generation strategies that will help your business grow through online lead generation.
