10 Tips To Make Your Advertising Work!
Author: ©Hal Hoadley

10 Tips I Use To Make Sure My Advertising Produces For My Clients!

Number One: Translate features into benefits. Don't give your client information and think they "get it." Many of my clients are automobile dealers. When advertising a car it would be a mistake to list a product feature without showing the benefit first. For example; front wheel drive is a desirable feature, but many people wouldn't know why. You need to tell them it's desirable because of safety, improved cornering, improved braking, increased mileage and so on.

Number two: Write from the "you" perspective not the "I" we perspective. Say, "You will love the smooth handling and quiet ride of your new car." Don't say, "We build the quietest and best handling car."

Number Three: Communicate credibility. Credibility can be demonstrated in many ways. The length of time in business, the number of customers you serve, the size of your company, testimonials from satisfied customers, membership in various community associations, awards and certificates of appreciation and all things combined.

Number Four: You can use dramatic license. You shouldn't deceive or mislead or misrepresent anything but you can dramatize it. Here is an example you're familiar with; Remington Shavers had commercials in the eighties and the president of the company said; "I like the Remington shaver so much that I bought the company." Well that's silly. That man is a shrewd and experienced business person and his acquisition of Remington was based on a thorough analysis of many factors, not just the quality of the product. However, his statement is at least partly true and is a dramatic way of talking about quality. That's dramatic license.

Number Five: Remember that stories sell, facts only tell. Whenever you can use first person stories, third party stories about customers and amusing stories to make key selling points, do so. Stories sell, facts only tell.

Number Six: Don't be afraid of long copy. Ad copy should be as long as necessary to tell the story effectively and persuasively. Customers will read all the way to the bottom when it is something that interests them. One of my most successful sales letters was 8 pages long.

Number Seven: Use a writing technique, Dan Kennedy calls; "a double readership path." This is really very simple and I agree with Kennedy that it is extremely important. The idea is to understand and reach both ends of the spectrum of consumer behavior. Analytical behavior versus impulsive behavior. Here is what is meant; the analytical person will read lengthy copy and is interested in as much information as possible. The impulsive person lacks the patience to read lots of copy and wants to get the message quickly. When you organize your copy, you should communicate the important points in only your headlines, subheads, photo captions and call to action so the impulsive person can quickly skim over your copy yet still get the message and take action.

Number Eight: Keep your sentences and paragraphs short. You don't want to intimidate or confuse people with long paragraphs and complex sentences. Number Nine: You must create a sense of urgency. You can do this in many ways. By offering a discount or bonuses, putting an expiration date or including extra incentives for a quick response.

Number Ten: Use the power of the P.S. Many direct mail copywriters agree that many people skip down to the P.S. on a letter and read that first. You can take advantage of this in several ways. One, make sure you include a P.S. at the bottom of your letter, two, make a powerful, persuasive and interesting statement and three, reiterate whatever bonus, incentive or discount you offered in the letter copy.

Now that you have my top ten tips. Use them in all your advertising. Don't use four or five, use all ten every time when you're writing your ads. These techniques can turn a small business into a big business, a struggling business into a successful one, a modest income into wealth.