Ads take time to create and cost money to run. When they don't work you're wasting both your time and your money...two of the most valuable assets of any Small Business Owner. Make sure you avoid these seven costly mistakes in all your future advertising to drastically improve your chances of success. 1. No headline or a poor headline. By far the most common and deadliest mistake. Most people are scanning [when reading a magazine, newspaper or surfing online] for something relevant to them. The question you must answer is... "What's in it for me?" Do this by making the biggest promise that you're product or service can legitimately do for your customers. Or, by telling them how you can solve one of their biggest problems. 2. No offer. You must offer a reason to act now: >a discount/coupon >a special offer >two for the price of one >a free gift >a free bonus >one day sale It can be any one of these or even better a combination. 3. No deadline This can be time related e.g. offer expires at 5pm on 17/11/09 [aim to make time deadlines short or they lose their power...ideally less than 2 weeks.] You can also use the numbers as a limiting factor e.g this offer is only valid to the first 100 customers to respond. 4. No Guarantee. It is essential for all small businesses to offer a guarantee. It helps to build confidence and trust in your offer. It doesn't have to be a money-back guarantee...although if you can offer this it is very strong. You can also guarantee: >speed of delivery >quality >performance >durability >combination of these factors 5. Trying to make the sale in the ad The majority of the time-unless it's a full page ad- the whole goal of the ad is to get them to take a specific action: >visit your store >call a hotline number >go to your website >call for a free quote >request a copy of your free special report In a typical ad you cannot tell enough of your sales story to sell straight from the ad. Decide what action you want potential customers to take...then use your ad to motivate them to do it. 6. No testimonials. Consumers are becoming more and more skeptical about the claims made in advertising. Use a testimonial from one of your satisfied customers to help build trust in you and your offer. Remember, anything someone else says about you is infinitely more powerful and believable than anything you can say about yourself. Include a name, town and picture. Ask permission to use it in your advertising. Collect testimonials from all your happy customers. Change them every 6 months. 7. No testing and tracking You must have a way of knowing which ads are working and which aren't. Use codes for people to quote on the telephone. Use a different website page for each ad. Test two ads against each other and keep the one that performs best. Make this ad your control and try to come up with other ads to beat it. These 7 most common mistakes waste the time and money of small business owners every year. Every time you're creating an ad..use this as a checklist to make sure you don't fall into the same trap!
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