Each day from the time we wake up till the time we “hit the sack” we are exposed to thousands of ads. Most of them we simply ignore cause we are used to them. We get out of bed, grab a cup of coffee and read a newspaper, there it is hundreds of ads throwing their messages at us. We turn on the TV and watch our favorite show and there it is again – commercials that make us get up and do something else. Advertisements in general are hated by the masses. A marketers worst dream is their messages being ignored and this happens quite often.
The thing that makes people ignore your marketing messages and ads are the fact that they don’t have personality. Usually ads are plain and do not really catch potential customers eye or attention. Colors, message and the way an ad is presented has a lot to do when it comes to marketing effectively. When creating an ad don’t think of it as a marketing message but an art. Try to be different, think outside the box. Create a message, an ad that sets yourself apart from your competitors.
Here are 5 tips that might help you get started on marketing effectively and getting the attention that you deserve,
- Top notch product : Yes, product! Marketing is directly related to your product isn’t it? This is one of the reason why your product or service has to be top notch. Don’t go marketing a product or service that is exactly similar to your competitors. What’s the point? Of course you might be able to garner new clients or customers but your competitor might still lead you as he probably already has a good share of market. Set yourself apart and if you don’t have a killer product forget about it. Marketing might work once but when your product fails to deliver it won’t work again. So create a product that catches the attention and then your marketing message itself becomes effective.
- Cause controversy : People love to talk – good or bad, gossip is something that flows like a river and spreads like a wildfire. If you want your ads to create some buzz, don’t forget the controversy rule. It is effective, it will capture people’s attention and it usually works. However, controversial ads should be created with utmost care. We want good controversy. Of course with any controversial message there are going to be a few that are not going to be happy and talk negatively but exposure is exposure. As long as your main targeted market talks about it in a positive way, you are good to go.
- Do not follow the norm : You all have probably heard the saying that if one sheep jumps off the cliff every other sheep just follows the first one. Same thing with marketing. Do not follow every little trend. Try to be different, be an artist not just another marketer. Think outside the box, dare to be different and rock the boat with your marketing skills. You do not have to be a great marketer, you just have to be creative and trust me it doesn’t take that long to come up with an idea that might rock your sales.
- Secrecy is the key : People love secrets. I have already written an article regarding this but once again I would like to stress that if you want anything to hit the charts, secrecy works. Anything you want to hit big start it with a hint of secrecy. its like a spice that everyone loves to get a taste of. Secrets make people talk and talk some more. Although it might not work each time, if applied properly the “secret” marketing can do some wonders.
- Double Meaning : Yup, double meaning. This is another way of setting your message apart. Create a message that can be taken in two ways. This makes people think. Of course the meaning has to directly connect with your product as well. And the second meaning, well, it has to be taboo or something that will make people talk. This ties back to the first point – be controversial. When people have two ways to think of something they will do exactly that and spread the message around to see what others think of it. 1,2,3 and the message goes viral.
If you would like to share tips with us please feel free to do so through your comments.
Great marketing tips guys, thanks. Here are a few more that I have found to be helpful over the years.
1. Make Your Ad Look Like A News Article
David Ogilvy is considered by many to be the father of advertising. In his book “Ogilvy on Advertising”, he conducted studies that revealed that advertisements that include news produce better results. Ogilvy pioneered the idea of making advertisements that look like informative news articles.
2. The First Sentence Is The Most Important
The first line, immediately under your headline, is the most important line in your sales copy. The purpose of your first sentence is to interest your prospect enough that he continues to read your sales copy. You do this by tapping into your prospect’s emotions and then you create curiosity by hinting at your offer. A few examples of good first sentences:
“If you will give me just 30 minutes of your time a month, I will show you how to double your income in less than a year.”
“If I could show you how you can add 20 yards to your drive in just six swings, would you be interested?”
“If you are 40 pounds overweight, the odds are your life will be 15 years shorter.”
“What does Donald Trump do when he needs to close a real estate deal?”
3. Long Versus Short
Long sales letters have been proven to work better than short sales letters. Many website owners think that people do not have the time to read a long sales letter. This is simply not true and we know it is not true because many famous marketers have done tests on this subject time and time again. One such famous marketer is Claude Hopkins who writes:
Mail order advertising tells a complete story if the purpose is to make an immediate sale. You see no limitations there on amount of copy. The motto there is, “The more you tell the more you sell.” And it has never failed to prove out so in any test we know.
The famous direct mail copyrighter Ben Hart says that his 2 page letters perform better than his 1 page letters, and his 4 page letters perform better than his 2 page letters. He has even written sales letters that are more than 12 pages long!
There are two types of prospects: scanners and readers. Scanners do not have time to read everything and so they will scan your sales copy. Readers want to know everything they can about your product or service before becoming a buyer. What you need to do is to appeal to both types of prospects.
Your sales copy should have sub-headings throughout the text. Use the same rules for creating headlines to create your sub-headings. Your prospects who like to scan will jump from sub-heading to sub-heading while your prospects who want to find out everything they can about your product or service before making a decision will read your entire sales letter.
Another reason that long sales copy works better than short is that the search engines like longer copy. The longer your sales copy the more keyword phrases that will be generated for your web page and indexed in search engines. The more keyword phrases that your sales copy is indexed for in search engines, the more traffic that will be driven to your site.
4. Professional Polished Feel Versus Personal
Personal sales copy works the best. Strive to make your sales copy be as personal as possible. It should sound as if you are sitting on a couch talking with your best friend. Avoid the use of words like “I”, “we” or “us”. Replace these words with “you”. Use contractions, like doesn’t and can’t, to sound more personal.
People want to buy from people, not big nameless corporations. When I first began designing web sites for clients, my goal was to make the web site look as big as possible. I would use words like “we”, and “us” quite often. I found that when I made the sales copy seem like it came from a friend and replaced “we” and “us” with “you”, the sales copy performed better.
If you are a fan of the television show The Apprentice, you might recall the celebrity season where Gene Simmons wrote the following headline for Kodak, “It’s a Kodak World.”
Gene Simmons lost the competition and was fired by Donald Trump as well he should have. A common mistake newbies make when it comes to writing headlines and sales copy is to try and seem bigger to prospects. Bigger is not always better and this is especially true when it comes to writing sales copy. Gene Simmons would have done a much better job for Kodak had he used something more personal like, “My Kodak”.
Imagine if MySpace was instead named WorldSpace, UniverseSpace, or InfinitySpace. Imagine if YouTube was instead named WorldTube, UniverseTube, or InfinityTube. It is doubtful that either of these businesses would have ever grown to the size they are today.
As Fairfax Cone said, “There is no such thing as a Mass Mind. The Mass Audience is made up of individuals, and good advertising is written always from one person to another. When it is aimed at millions it rarely moves anyone.”