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To bring great sales success, a great advertising technique is
not the only parameter. You must know what it is that your
customers are actually buying. They are not buying your product
or service, they are buying what it will do for them. Use the
answers to this to set up your advertising masterpiece.
1. Offer an impressive benefit for the client
It must not be related to the product or service on offer. This
is the most important of the 6 ways. It must be a primary
customer benefit...for the person. For example a free garage
inspection; emphasise the safety benefits for the family etc. If
you're selling books on 'Computer Accounting Systems' focus on
the reduced accounting time the purchaser will achieve and not
the features of the product.
Frame the major benefit in a storyline with the customer
involved. Make it really clear what is involved, i.e what's in
it for them. Be specific, spell it out. It should be immediately
understood. Include the product.
Attract good customers through high level benefits for them.
Your main message must make the customer say. 'This is important
to me, I must found out more'.
2. Make The Customer Believe Your Claims
What you state could be true, but a lot of potential customers
don't tend to believe advertisers. Over bragging can kill the
ad. Keep the claims honest and reasonable. It will pay off in
the long run.
3. Make The Layout & Design Reader Friendly
Layout - Don't wrap around a photo, i.e. put blocks of
text around it. - Emphasise specific phrases by putting more
white space around them. - Base your layout on the fact that
most people look at the 2nd quarter of the page from the top,
first. - Use your single most important benefit as your
headline. - Put a benfit laden caption undert the photo as 80%
of readers will read that first or instead of the copy.
- Don't use more than four secondary benfeit messages.
Typography - Use Serif typeface (e.g. Garamond) for copy,
stylish headings and sub-headings. - Sans Serif (e.g.
Helvetica) can be used for headlines, sub-headings, captions and
labels. - Consider larger font size if your tartget audience
is older people. - Print out alternatives and have them test
read by others.
4. Stress What Is Unique
Re-emphasise services that are unique or may have been hidden
from or taken for granted or assumed by the reader. Define your
Unique Selling Point. What makes you stand out from the crowd?
What makes you better than your competitors.
5. Attract Attention With Something New
Be inventive here. Is there something new that will be of
interest to your customer's needs? Fresh benefits, new services
or product features. E.g. 'You now have access to our outlets
all over the country'. 'You can now obtain your account details
online without visiting our offices'.
6. Keep The Reader Involved
Put the reader in your advertisement and get personal. Use the
present tense for the customer experiencing their benefits.
Don't put them in the future and use the future word 'will'. Get
them feelig like they are part of your advertisment story.
About the author:
(c) Paul Curran, CEO of Cuzcom Internet Publishing Group and
webmaster at Wealth-Building-Secrets.com brings you sales &
marketing strategies, promotional marketing products plus strategies and
advice for personal and business success.
This article may be reproduced in its entirety provided the
resource paragraph above is included and all urls kept active.
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