Tell a friend

How to Write Killer Advertising that Practically Forces People to Respond

by Terry Dean

Most advertising you see today is written extremely poorly. It confuses the prospect, doesn't paint a desired picture in their mind, doesn¹t give a reason to order now, and focuses on features, not the benefits. Most failed businesses can be tracked back to poor advertising, although there are many other reasons for failure.

If you want to stay in business, you must learn how to advertise effectively and how to produce orders NOW! This is what we will be working on in this articlel, so be prepared to change your advertising and to fill your mailbox with orders!

There is a creative money making genius on the inside of you. You just need to learn how to let it out. What we will cover in this short report is the purpose of advertising and the 12 Advertising Secrets you will need to know to become an effective advertiser.

No matter what business you do whether it be a small retail store, a consulting service, a house cleaning service, or a mail order business, you must learn to create advertising that gets results. If you don't, your business will be painful and short-lived. First of all, let us look at the two major (And different) reasons for advertising.

Number one is for exposure.
Most television commercials and many newspaper ads and magazine ads are made for this purpose. The Advertiser wants their name exposed to the public and for the viewer to think of them next time they are ready to make a purchase. Major corporations are the ones who will do this kind of advertising. They have the budget to constantly expose their name to the public and wait for their orders to come as people become more used to them and their advertising.

Direct response advertising
The type of advertising you and I are interested in is completely different. It is called direct response advertising. In other words, we are advertising and are motivating our readers to order now, to call our 800 number and order, mail us a coupon and order, or fax in an order. We advertise a product and service and seek for people to make purchases now.

As a small or home business, a quick way to go bankrupt is to place full page ads without asking for an order NOW! You must cause the person to order today if you want to stay in business in any type of display advertising or direct mail.

Classifieds are of a little different nature, but they work on the same premise. You don't ask for a sale right from the classified (Which would be a large mistake because there just isn't enough room in a classified to make sales). Even asking for one dollar in a classified ad reduces your response greatly.

You will have them call your 800 number voicemail or your fax-on-demand in which they will receive an offer and a chance to order NOW! In all advertising, you must ask for the order NOW or get out of business! Many people have contacted me and said, "I know that I have a wonderful product, but I just can't figure out why I am not getting any orders."

You may be the same way. Let me tell you a simple truth, It does not matter how awesome your product line is if your advertising doesn't cause people to see themselves using it and how it will benefit them.

Your advertising, not your product in many cases, will determine the success or failure of your business. Yes, Your product needs to be awesome (Or you will experience a large number of refund requests and a short-lived business), but your advertising will make or break your business.

Before we spend too much time detailing why you should create awesome ads, let us just simplify the whole deal. You want your business to make money? Then, write money-grabbing ads!

Now, Let us reveal 10 of the major advertising secrets you will need to know and begin using in every ad you create:

1) Testing, Testing, Testing
In all advertising and mail order, the biggest key of long-term success is Testing everything. Test your ads. Test your saleletters. Test you products. Test the publications. Test everything.

You will never be done. Learn to key all of your order forms and phone numbers to make sure you know which ad and publication is doing what. Don't ever leave anything to chance. Test everything.

Great Advertisers and Mail Order Millionaires are people who have tested everything and have found what works. Your testing period will NEVER end!

2) STRONG HEADLINES
The number two key to success is your headlines. You must understand that the wording of your headline is more than 70% of the effectiveness of your advertising. That means it is a BIG DEAL what your headline says.

A note that needs to be added. In mail order, it has been our experience that Negative headlines often Outpull positive headlines. For example, one of the most popular and effective headlines in network marketing has been "Dead Downlines Don't Lie!" Negative headlines force your prospect to identify with them saying, "That sounds like me.

The main purpose of the headline is to GRAB their attention, so your headline must be attention grabbing and prospect focused. What are their needs? What are their Desires? What are their Fears? Pay attention. The upcoming secrets must be used when writing your headline also, not just your body. HEADLINES WILL MAKE OR BREAK YOUR ADVERTISING CAREER!

3) Short Words, Short Sentences, Short Paragraphs
Forget what your grammer teacher taught you in high school. When writing ads, you must make your ads simple: Simple to Understand & Simple to Order. Keep the level of writing 8th grade or lower. Use Short Words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.

I know your literature teacher told you to not write paragraphs with only two sentences in them, but how much money did he/she ever make in advertising? The moment you confuse your prospect, their attention and the sale disappears!

4) Be Specific, Not General
Be specific in all of your advertising. Don't Say "Fill Your Mailbox with Cash." Say "Receive Up to $355 a day in your Mailbox Daily." Don't Say "Secrets to Making Money." Say "63 Year Old Man Tells You His Dirty Secrets to Making $578 a day!"

Being specific makes your advertising more believable. Being general makes your prospects say "He is just making this up." Being specific makes them say, "He must have counted it. I want to make that much." Don't say "Fill your Downline with Distributors." Say "Add Up to 15 New Distributors a month to your downline."

You get the idea now, don¹t you. Don't ignore the fact that Being Specific will beat being general everytime. Go over your advertising copy and edit it to become specific.

5) Use Your Background & Be Unique, Not A Me-Too Ad
So many ads out there today are for just me-too products and me-too advertising. When I say "Me-Too Advertising," I mean that these ads or products have been so overused that they just don't pull anymore. People are tired of them.

For example, People are tired of hearing how much more your network marketing company pays than the one on the other page. They are tired of hearing about how your products are the best in the industry. They have heard that story before.

You need to become Unique in your approach. Are you elderly? Are you Young? Are you Deaf? Are you bald? Did you flunk out of school? Do you only have an 8th grade education? Put something of yourself into the ad. A bald man could write an ad saying, "57 Year Old Bald Man Grows Dollar Bills Faster than Men Half His Age Grow Hair!"

Be unique. Find something about yourself that is unique aand put it into your advertising. Let people know who you are, then they will begin to trust you, and Trust spells orders.


6) Use Pronouns (I, You, He, She)
Again, we are going to make the literature teachers angry at us, but Using "I" "You" "He" "She" throughout your advertising copy will produce more cash orders.

People will begin to identify with you. They will begin to say, "Yes, I can do that." They will be drawn into the picture you are painting of them enjoying or succeeding with your product or service. Creating a picture of them and their needs being met by your company spells creating an order.

7) Focus on Benefits, Not Features
This is a lesson mail order & direct mail professionals have been trying to get over to us for years. You must focus on the benefits of your product, not its features. Although it may sound like these two things are one in the same, they most definitely are not. Which way you lead your presentation which will make a big difference between the success and failure of your advertising campaign.

Your product's features are things such as pay plan, product ingredients, what it is made of, etc. Benefits are what your product will do for them. Features are product centered. Benefits are prospect centered.

Benefits are things such as "How much will your prospect make? How much weight can they lose? How much hair will they grow?" You have to make your advertising copy prospect centered instead of product centered.

8) Use Lots of Adjectives & Adverbs
You will notice in mail order, there is not the "information packed manual." There is a "huge 62 page information packed manual with step-by-step instructions." When writing your ads, take your descriptions to the limit. Then, you can cut it down some as you go over it.

Describe the product. Paint a picture in your prospect's mind of them using your products or services. If you are selling Home Business information, paint a picture of the prospect succeeding in business, making money daily, having more free time, etc.

As a general rule, people do not buy because of logic. Too much failed advertising is logic oriented. Too many people say, "It is only logical for them to buy my product." If that is your idea, it won't sell. People buy because of emotion. Create pratical logical products. Then, write advertising that uses emotion to make sales. Paint the picture of your prospect both with and without your product. Make them need your product. Make your product have an emotional appeal to them. Then, you will make
sales

9) Testimonials
Testimonials are a powerful selling tool and should be used at every opportunity. Include testimonials in all of your ads if possible. Many Great Selling Ads are made up of 1/3 to 1/2 testimonials of the company's products or services. Getting testimonials is easier than many of us think also. Make up a testimonial form (With signature required) and hand it out to all of your clients. Let them know you care what they think about your products and services. Make it easy for your clients to give you testimonials. Then, use them in all of your advertising if possible.

10) Free Bonuses For a Limited Time
Something Free is always a drawing factor in advertising. "Free" is probably the most powerful advertising word in existance. Anything that you sell that has a price of more than $20 should always have Free Bonuses attached, and most products under $20 should have Free Bonuses also if possible.

Then, You should always make your Free Bonuses for a Limited Time Only to Bring in Orders Now. This has the Effect of "Sale" on a prospect's mind and moves them to order now.

All advertising must be geared for the prospect to Order Now! And Free Bonuses don't have to cost you very much either. Include something that you can reproduce cheaply, but has a high value to your prospects.

11) Strong Guarantee
The best way to gain trust in your prospect's mind for you is to include a solid guarantee on your products. The postal service requires a 30 Day Money Back Guarantee on All Products sold by mail order unless your guarantee is mentioned. You should always include this guarantee if not more. "30 Day No Questions Asked Money Back Guarantee! I refuse to Let Anyone Be Unhappy With Our Product!" Add guarantees to everything that you sell.

This is a strong motivater to people and can overcome most fears and objections they have in their minds toward ordering from you.

12) Easy To Order
Make it easy for people to order from you. This almost goes without saying, but there are a lot of ads out there which have broken this rule. Tell people clearly how to order. For example, "Pick Up Your telephone and Call 1-800-000-0000 Now And Have your Credit Card Ready!" Or "Fill Out this Order Form and Make Your checks payable to Business Systems 2000 and then fax your order to 1-000-000-0000 or mail them to Business Systems 2000, Box 128, Richmond, IN 47375!"

Make it clear to your customers what you want them to do to order now. Another thing that should be mentioned is that you will increase your orders 50% - 100% just by accepting credit cards. They produce more trust and more orders for any small or home business.

Order a copy of our "How to Increase Business By At Least 50% Just By Accepting Credit Cards" for information about merchant accounts and how 99% of home businesses (Even brand new startups) are able to obtain a merchant account for a very low cost.

BASICS OF ADVERTISING
Those are the twelve basics to advertising. Remember them. Go over them. Use them. It will make a difference in your business. Remember this report as your Twelve Step Program to Advertising Success:

1. TESTING, TESTING TESTING
2. STRONG HEADLINES
3. SHORT WORDS, SHORT SENTENCES, SHORT PARAGRAPHS
4. BE SPECIFIC, NOT GENERAL
5. USE YOUR BACKGROUND AND BE UNIQUE
6. USE PRONOUNS
7. FOCUS ON BENEFITS, NOT FEATURES
8. USE LOTS OF ADJECTIVES & ADVERBS
9. TESTIMONIALS
10. FREE BONUSES FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY
11. STRONG GUARANTEE
12. EASY TO ORDER
    

Create your advertising materials and then go over them again and again to refine them, but always remember they are NEVER finished.

Testing is the name of the game in advertising and then winner in the end will always be the one who has tested their advertising the most.

More Copywriting Resources: