If you’re like most small businesses, you’re spending quite a bit of money on display ads, direct mail and/or PPC and possibly even relying on these ads and sales letters for all or most of your leads. For maximum profits, small businesses should build and implement multiple streams of lead generation, but if the majority of your marketing budget is tied up in ads, it’s still possible to literally double your business without spending any extra money.
Make More Money From Each Of Your Ad Dollars
By optimizing your current ads to increase the response you get from them. To help you get started, follow these 11 time-tested laws to boost the response rate of your ads and sales letters.
The 11 Time-Tested Laws of High-Response Ads
Law #1 – Include Coupons and/or An 800 Number – Coupons increase your response rate for several reasons. First, people like to save money and so take notice of coupons. Include an expiration date to improve your response even more. Coupons are also powerful because people tend to cut them out, thereby increasing the likelihood they’ll see your ad again later. As far as a call-to-action goes, not many are more powerful than 800 #’s because they encourage people to make a free phone call, which research shows they often do.
Law #2 – Use 8, 10 or 12 Point Font Only – Fonts are rarely the make or break reason for your ad getting read, but it can have some impact if you use the wrong font. Don’t try to get too cute here. Use a font type and size that people are accustomed to reading in the publication you are running the ad with. Typically these fonts are between 8-12 point and in a more popular font style like Times New Roman, Verdana and Tahoma.
Law #3 – Don’t Use Capitals – Using capital letters throughout your ad actually makes it harder to read because the typical human eye is used to reading text with mostly lower case letters. Instead of taking chances on ideas you aren’t sure will perform, stick to the laws that are time-tested.
Law #4 – Don’t Use Pictures – Display ads are expensive and to get a good ROI, you must use your space wisely. Unless your products must be seen, use the space instead to deliver benefits that persuade the reader to take your desired action.
Law #5 – Give As Many Details As Possible – Having trouble filling your ad with valuable details that translate to benefits? Ask your customers why they buy your products and services and fill your ad with benefits culled from their feedback. The more you tell your prospects why they should buy from you, the more you’ll sell.
Law #6 – Use Facts & Figures – Today’s consumers are blind to outlandish and unproven claims; if anything, they work against you because you sound like everyone else. Claims of superior service and great quality are vague and in reality are already expected from consumers. Instead, fill your ads with specific figures and the facts to back them up.
Law #7 – Use Positive Language – Negative language has a way of lingering in the consumer’s mind. Instead of using negative language to describe your products and services, always focus on the positive results they provide. For example, a chimney cleaner should promise a warm, smoke-free house rather than removing all the dirty soot that’s clogging their chimney.
Law #8 – Focus On Solutions, Not Prevention – Consumers rarely look far enough into the future to worry much about preventing problems that may or may not arise. Focus on helping them solve the issues they have now. Focus your ads on promising these solutions and your responses will skyrocket.
Law #9 – Promise Free Trials & Samples – One of the easiest ways to get people to read and respond to your ads is to offer a free trial or sample of your products and services. It will cost you some money to give your goods away, but if they are as good as you say they are, you’ll make far more profits in the long run from repeat customers and is actually the cheapest way for you to build your business.
Law #10 – Use A Headline – Headlines are by far the most important part of any ad, sales letter or commercial. More than 4-out-of-5 people read the headline ONLY. Without one, you may as well be throwing away your advertising dollars. Come up with some headlines that promise your most important benefit to your ideal prospect and see which one works best.
Law #11 – Test Everything – Think your ad is as good as it gets or that testing isn’t worth the time it takes? Think again. Every aspect of your ad should be tested, one at a time. This includes your headline, call-to-action, guarantee, free offer, P.S., time limit, font and anything else you can think of. No matter how satisfied you are with your ad’s response, testing will help them improve.
Stop spending a fortune on underperforming ads and sales letters. Even when the economy is down, your ad responses don’t need to be. Follow these laws religiously and invest time into testing and improving your ads over an extended period of time (forever) and you’re business will grow all by itself without spending any more money than you already are.
Looking For A Guaranteed Way To Improve Your Ads?
Let Prevail PR do it for you. We guarantee we’ll improve your ads and boost their response to generate more money than you paid for this service within 60 DAYS or we’ll refund your entire purchase price.
We Either Make You More Money Or We Give Your Money Back. Simple As That.