Advertising is a proven and effective way to get new leads and customers.
However, plenty of businesses are just approaching it plain wrong. It’s frustrating to see and so many businesses could actually start seeing a decent ROI on their ad spend by advertising what they do differently to every other business.
If you’ve been advertising for a while now and still are, and you’re not getting ideal results then something needs to change.
We all know Einstein’s famous quote,
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.”
What I’ll be covering in this post is how you can get the most bang for your buck out of every paid advertising campaign you run.
1. Choosing the right publication
A BIG mistake I see is businesses posting their ads in publications that aren’t read by their target audience.
A bit of research and due diligence is required before posting any ad. Make sure you know it’s a publication your target audience reads. If you aren’t sure that your target audience reads it then they probably don’t.
Only ever post ads in publications where you’re confident your target audience will see it.
For example, if you run a software business then you’re much more likely to get a better result placing an ad in a computer software magazine or newsletter than in the classifieds section of your local newspaper.
2. Knowing WHO Your Target Audience Is And Writing A Message That Resonates With Them
Before you can even write the copy for your ad you need to know WHO your target audience is. You need to know who you’re writing for.
The reason this is so important is because of the message you’ll write in the ad. If you don’t have a very clear picture in your mind as to who you’re writing for then you’ll never create a laser targeted message that gets their attention and attracts them.
There are a few things you need to know about your target audience before writing the ad:
- Demographics – things like their age, annual income, job, political affiliations, married, single, etc
- Psychographics – interests, values, morals, what do they believe in, hobbies, etc
- Psychic-graphics – what’s their biggest problem? What is so bad that it gives them trouble sleeping at night? What do they obsess about?
- Geographics – where they live, town, city, state, etc
You need to know this basic information if you really want to create a laser targeted message that attracts your target audience.
3. Write A Compelling Headline
By far one of the biggest mistakes that 98% of businesses make is writing a boring headline. Just pick up the Yellow Pages and look at the headlines in each ad. I can almost guarantee you most of them will be a headline that contains the name of the business and that’s it.
Unless the business name is one that communicates a very clear and distinct competitive advantage it’s completely the wrong approach to take.
Advertising is tough, you’re competing against other businesses also pushing their message to your target audience. The edge you can get here is employing a headline that jumps out, grabs their attention, and gets them reading the ad.
You do that by focusing on benefits. A benefit is something that improves the life of your customer. It makes their life easier. It alleviates the massive problem in their life that keeps them awake at night.
Once you’ve figured that out you communicate it in your headline. Here are some proven to work headline templates if you’re struggling:
- How to (insert benefit) without (insert problem)
- Who else wants to (insert benefit)
- Get (insert desired result) in (insert desired timeframe)
- (Insert number) secrets/tricks to (do something) and (something else)
I can 100% guarantee if you write headlines like this you’ll get a much better response than every other business in your ad space copying everyone else’s inefficient advertising.
4. Offer Them Something FREE
Offering something free is powerful and it’s perhaps the biggest lead generation secret of all.
Offer them something for free that helps them with a BIG problem they are experiencing. You can do this in the form of reports, checklists, ebooks, whitepapers, case studies, training videos, DVD’s, and much more.
The most important thing is to create something that educates them and helps them with a problem they have. When you do this you’re naturally building trust with your prospect and inevitably, they end up seeing you as a credible expert in your industry.
This is the little sweetener combined with everything else above that will skyrocket response to your advertising.
How can you use these tips for your next paid advertising campaign?
Leigh Hankin
Latest posts by Leigh Hankin (see all)
- How To Get The Most Bang For Your Buck From Paid Advertising - February 14, 2016
