By Derek Fisch | President | Velocity Media

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Successful advertising is studied and dissected by marketers and analysts everywhere.  There is no shortage of books written about marketing success- everything from headlines to colors to placement.  Every aspect of an ad is examined to find out what about it made it successful.  There is an occasional oddball in the group that breaks new ground, but the overwhelming majority have identifiable, predictable elements.  These are just guidelines, but they are guidelines that have led to consistent moneymaking success.  If you choose to break the rules, make sure you have an excellent reason for doing so.  You may think it’s earthshakingly clever, but its reception by the marketplace is what counts.  The history of advertising is littered with clever but unsuccessful marketing attempts.  This isn’t making a case for sameness, but rather for utilizing the fundamental building blocks of success, regardless of how the work ultimately turns out. 

 

Advertising: Direct Response or Institutional?

The advertising I’m talking about in this article is what is commonly referred to as direct response.  In other words, it asks the viewer for a response- pick up the phone and call, come in, visit our website or some other action.  It is more of a direct communication with the prospect, and designed with a short term goal in mind.  If it is well done, it also has a long-term goal, building on what has come before it. 

 

Institutional advertising is made with a long term goal of positioning the product in the consumer’s mind.  It usually doesn’t ask the viewer to take a specific action.  It is more of an image building ad.  Open a fashion magazine and you’ll se a lot of institutional advertising.  Entire pages can consist of just a picture of a model wearing a product and looking bored.  Somewhere on the page is the product name.  Both forms of advertising have their place (though by my calculations, an incomprehensible amount of money is wasted by most institutional advertisers.) For businesses not in the Fortune 1000, and who don’t have an enormous advertising budget, direct response is usually a much better choice. 

 

With direct response advertising, you’re able to find out quickly what works and what doesn’t. Since most of us don’t have millions of dollars to spend to find out what brings us business, we need to know what messages and what elements are working.  So let’s examine each of these elements in detail.

 

1. The offer

What are you selling?  Is it new or different?  Is it the same as what everyone else is offering?  If you’re not offering something that people actually want, or can get at a lot of other places, it won’t matter much how you offer it.  Before you place any advertisement, try to come up with something new.  Make a specific benefit-oriented offer that promises to quickly and measurably improve the consumer’s life, and you’re off to a great start.

 

2. The headline

The headline is the element that tells people right away if the ad is worth looking at.  If it doesn’t immediately promise a substantial benefit that is of interest to the reader, the ad won’t get read.  It wouldn’t matter if you were giving away free gold bullion in the ad itself, the reader would never get that far.  No matter what you have to offer, and no matter how good it is, it’s irrelevant if the headline doesn’t compel the viewer to read the ad.  It is by far the most important element.

 

If you have no headline, if you’ve used your name as the headline, or if your headline is clever instead of benefit-oriented, you need to start over.  Come up with something the reader cares about, or they’ll never read the ad.

 

3. The main graphic

The main graphic is usually a picture that relates to the headline.  Not every successful ad has a graphic.  Many advertisers, given the choice between a strong headline and a great picture, would choose the picture.  That is a very bad choice.  The picture should serve to support the headline, and help to quickly convey the benefit you’re offering.  So many pictures used are irrelevant or “clever” and ad nothing to the ad.  In many cases, they can actually detract, as the viewer’s eye passes over what looks like just another ad.  It’s easy to pass over a picture, but harder to pass over simple bold words that interrupt your thoughts.  Even if you only glance at the words, your mind reads them almost instantly.

 

With all that said, a great main graphic can help to make a great ad.  Concepts that are hard to express can me made clear with a picture. 

 

4. The first subhead

If your headline has worked, the reader will arrive at the first subhead.  It should help the reader understand how the rest of the ad will explain the benefit promised in the headline. 

 

5. The first paragraph

The first paragraph should summarize the benefit you offer, and promise the reader a clear and believable improvement to their life.  It should also encourage them to read further.

 

6. Additional subheads

Additional subheads are used for making your strongest points.  Don’t bury your best information in the body copy – pull it out and emphasize it.

 

7.Body copy

Body copy should be used to expand on your promised benefit.  Keep it short, impactful and to the point.  You don’t want to make more than a couple of points in and single ad, and each should relate to and build on the others.  If you find yourself needing to make too many different points, you need to hone your message further.

 

8. Last paragraph

The last paragraph is the place to inspire action.  Make the reader feel that he or she is this close to enjoying the benefit you’re offering.  All they need to do is (insert your call to action here.)  Just pick up the phone, visit our website, or whatever it is you want them to do.  And make sure you actually know what it is that you want them to do.  If you leave it up to them they’ll likely do something else. 

 

9. Post script

The post script is a place to eliminate fear of taking action, or to inspire fear of not taking action.  Here you can take away the risk for them by offering your explicit guarantee.  Or you can tell them that the offer is good for a limited time only, or something else that will help persuade them to act on the desire you’ve instilled in them.

Still wondering whether you should start a blog? This post comes courtesy of Amber Hensley with Online College, http://www.onlinecollege.org/ :

When you have a small business, every little way that you can reach out and get in touch with customers and form a great brand can help. The internet helps make that whole process a little easier, especially with the advent of social networking and blogging. Creating a blog can be a great boon to your business and set up an avenue for you to get in touch with potential clients and customers. If you’re not sold on the idea of creating a blog, consider these potential benefits:

 

1. You can interact with customers.
With a blog, it’s simple to interact with those that are interested in your products through emails, comments and even posting reader letters. You’ll be able to really get to know a wide range of people who purchase from you, often in a way that you might not be able to outside of the internet.
 

2. You get immediate feedback.

If you’ve got new products or services or want to check up on your existing products and services, a blog can be a great way to do so. It allows you to get immediate feedback on how you’re doing and to find out new ways that you can adapt and adjust what you’re doing to be even more profitable.
 

3. It gets the word out about your business.

If you’re a small business, a lot of people simply may not have heard of you. Having a blog opens you up to millions of people who are on the up and who may have an interest in what you’re doing. Even if they don’t even up patronizing you themselves, they may remember and pass along your name to others.
 

4. You can connect with others in your industry.

Blogs can be a great way to network with others in your industry. Create friendships with other business bloggers, see what they’re up to and use their advice and expertise to refine your own blog as well.
 

5. You put a face with your business.

People want to buy products from businesses they think are trustworthy and that actually care about customers. By putting a face with your business you’ll be creating a more personal image that can work in your favor when it comes time for potential customers to buy.

 

This post was contributed by Amber Hensley, who writes about the accredited online college. She welcomes your feedback at AmberHensley1980@ yahoo.com

Derek Fisch  |  http://www.velocitymediainc.com

I was with my family this weekend in a mountain town in the Colorado Rockies. We were walking through an antique store full of stuff that the kids actually found interesting. I noticed my son had stopped and was staring at something on the wall. As I walked over to him, he asked “How did this work?” and pointed to… a rotary-dial phone.

We showed the kids how we used to stick out finger in the dial and spin each number. It occurred to me that my kids had never seen a phone with a cord, let alone a rotary dial. Newer phones today don’t even have buttons – they’re touch screen.

Kids adapt effortlessly to new technology, while most adults resist. When it comes to reaching your marketplace, are you a rotary dialer or a touch screen dialer?

With age comes wisdom, but mostly it just comes with more age. Every once in a while something pops up that tells me I’m getting old.

How about you? What things have happened to you lately that make you realize your years?

Follow Derek on Twitter at http://twitter.com/derekfisch

Derek Fisch  |  http://www.velocitymediainc.com

Here is a link to an article that does an excellent job of examining how a great marketing campaign works. It goes beyond the typical “What a great idea” to explain the full impact of a campaign that works on many levels.

Anyone wanting to know how to utilize both traditional and social media for geometrically enhanced results should read this article.

By Derek Fisch. Follow on twitter at http://twitter.com/derekfisch

Incorporate this into your marketing and watch your sales soar

The world’s most important marketing concept. Wow, pretty grandiose title. But this is one area where understatement just won’t do. If more companies understood this one concept, their marketing would actually stand a chance of doing its job.

Before we get to this big idea, though, let me define what the job of marketing actually is. Ultimately, it should be designed to convince people to do business with you. That’s it. Every thing else related to marketing should all be done with that end result in mind, because that’s where it should all lead. Product, pricing, placement, promotion, and people need to all point in this direction. Every campaign aimed at increasing mindshare, raising product recognition level, penetrating new markets, or any other specific short-term goal is designed to convince people to do business with the marketer. Or at least it should be. So how do you do that?

I’m not going to talk specific tactics in this article, but rather about the common unifying concept, which if understood, will direct a marketing campaign to success. The idea is actually so simple that you might be disappointed. But it’s so powerful that it will determine the outcome of your marketing. Here it is: everything you do in marketing should clearly and explicitly tell the consumer how you will make his or her life quickly and dramatically better. If you can communicate that concept in a way that the consumer believes, and more effectively than your competition, you’ll never lack for business.

The problem that the overwhelming majority of businesses I work with have is that they are approaching their marketing from the wrong end. They’re focused on their company and their product rather than their customers. The ask questions like “How can we show people how great our product is?” rather than “How can we show people how much we can improve their lives?”

I often get initial disagreement from company owners and managers when I first propose this. To most of them it’s a completely new concept. They have, since the beginning of their business life, been trying to figure out how to outshout the competition. The problem is, they’ve been shouting the wrong thing. For those who disagree on this point, let me make this statement: the consumer doesn’t care a bit about your product or service. They really don’t. They care about what your product or service does for them. Or in other words, how it makes their life better. The product or service is just a means to an end.

Most marketers have gotten comfortable with the idea of selling benefits rather than features. But let me take that one step further by introducing a concept I call the Ultimate Life Benefit (ULB). The ULB goes beyond selling benefits. It shows the consumer how his or her life will be quickly and appreciably improved. And most products have many ULB’s. To get to this way of thinking, list the benefits of your product or service and then ask yourself “And then what happens?” For example: Feature: SPF 90 Benefit: Protection from sunburn ULB: Your kids don’t suffer pain or skin damage. They are happy and healthy. See what I’m getting at here? If you just go as far as selling the benefit, you haven’t communicated to the consumer how his or her life will clearly be better. The benefit is “Protection from sunburn.” Go ahead and tell the consumer that they’ll be protected from sunburn. Repeat it as many times as you like. Shout it loudly. You’ll get some results, but not great results. Shift your message to showing the results of the benefit, and the mental connection is made quickly and completely in the mind of the viewer. Show them exactly how your product delivers the benefit and produces the ULB and you’ve got them.

The trick here is to show exactly how your product or service leads to the ULB. Don’t just say or imply that it does, but rather demonstrate it explicitly. Don’t assume that the consumer will make the mental connection. I don’t know about you, but most people are too busy to figure out what advertisers are trying to say. Next time you’re watching television, pay attention to what advertisers are showing you. Most national advertisers are showing ULB’s. One of the most frequent and most obvious is commercials that show how using their product will make you more attractive to the opposite sex. Use this razor and get the girl. Use this mouthwash and get the girl. Drive this car and get the girl. Wear these clothes and get the girl. You get the point.

The successful ads are the ones that make the connection clear. Car commercials are another good example. They don’t just say that the car is fast. They show you how you can enjoy unlimited freedom with that kind of horsepower. Jewelry advertisers don’t just talk about the total carat weight of their diamond jewelry. They show you the reactions of your friends when they see your new necklace. A lot of advertisements miss completely, though. The advertiser is trying hard to get us to associate their product with something. But they fail to communicate it in a way that causes the viewer to make the mental connection. The commercial makes no point and is quickly forgotten.

Even the most mundane product can benefit by incorporating a persuasive ULB. Whatever you sell, there are benefits to it. Take copier paper for instance. Your paper may cost less, or cause less jamming, or maybe it’s brighter and sturdier. Whatever it is, it has a benefit. So then what happens? If it jams less, then you can concentrate on the important things, instead of continually fixing the copier. You get more work done, you make more money or get a promotion or whatever you choose to show. The benefit is that it jams less. But the ultimate benefit goes beyond that.

Every product has at least one ULB, most have quite a few. Find them and communicate them to the consumer, and they’ll have no reason to resist. They’ll see that it’s in their best interest to do business with you. And once that happens, just make sure you’re stocked up.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Derek Fisch is founder and President of Velocity Media, a full service marketing and advertising firm | www.velocitymediainc.com .

Follow Derek on Twitter at http://twitter.com/derekfisch

NOTE: You’re welcome to “reprint” this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “about the author” info at the end), and you send a link to your reprint to design@velocitymediainc.com.