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Seven Steps for Creating Successful Marketing
7 Ways to Slash Your Advertising Costs (below)
16 Headlines that Will Get Your Advertising Noticed
Seven Steps for Creating Successful Marketing
By Jay Conrad Levinson
1. Find the inherent drama within your offering.
After all, you plan to make money by selling a product or a service or both. The reasons people will want to buy from you should give you a clue as to the inherent drama in your product or service. Something about your offering must be inherently interesting or you wouldn't be putting it up for sale. In Mother Nature breakfast cereal, it is the high concentration of vitamins and minerals.
2. Translate that inherent drama into a meaningful benefit.
Always remember that people buy benefits, not features.
People do not buy shampoo; people buy great-looking or clean or
manageable hair. People do not buy cars; people buy speed, status,
style, economy, performance, and power. Mothers of young kids do
not buy cereal; they buy nutrition, though many buy anything at all
they can get their kids to eat -- anything. So find the major benefit
of your offering and write it down. It should come directly from the
inherently dramatic feature. And even though you have four or five
benefits, stick with one or two—three at most.
3. State your benefits as believably as possible.
There is a world of difference between honesty and believability. You
can be 100 percent honest (as you should be) and people still may not believe you. You must go beyond honesty, beyond the barrier that advertising has erected by its tendency toward exaggeration, and state your benefit in such a way that it will be accepted beyond doubt. The company producing Mother Nature breakfast cereal might say, "A bowl of Mother Nature breakfast cereal provides your child with almost as many vitamins as a multi-vitamin pill." This statement begins with the inherent drama, turns it into a benefit, and is worded believably. The word almost lends believability.
4. Get people's attention.
People do not pay attention to advertising. They pay attention only
to things that interest them. And sometimes they find those things
in advertising. So you've just got to interest them. And while you're
at it, be sure you interest them in your product or service, not just
your advertising. I'm sure you're familiar with advertising that you
remember for a product you do not remember. Many advertisers are
guilty of creating advertising that's more interesting than whatever
it is they are advertising. But you can prevent yourself from falling
into that trap by memorizing this line: Forget the ad, is the product
or service interesting? The Mother Nature company might put their
point across by showing a picture of two hands breaking open a
multivitamin capsule from which pour flakes that fall into an
appetizing-looking bowl of cereal.
5. Motivate your audience to do something.
Tell them to visit the store, as the Mother Nature company might
do. Tell them to make a phone call, fill in a coupon, write for more
information, ask for your product by name, take a test drive, or
come in for a free demonstration. Don't stop short. To make guerrilla
marketing work, you must tell people exactly what you want them to do.
6. Be sure you are communicating clearly.
You may know what you're talking about, but do your readers or
listeners? Recognize that people aren't really thinking about your
business and that they'll only give about half their attention to your ad— even when they are paying attention. Knock yourself out to make sure you are putting your message across. The Mother Nature company might show its ad to ten people and ask them what the main point is. If one person misunderstands, that means 10 percent of the audience will misunderstand. And if the ad goes out to 500,000 people, 50,000 will miss the main point. That's unacceptable. One hundred percent of the audience should get the main point. The company might accomplish this by stating in a headline or subhead, "Giving your kids Mother Nature breakfast cereal is like giving your kids vitamins—only tastier." Zero ambiguity is your goal.
7. Measure your finished advertisement, commercial, letter, or brochure against your creative strategy.
The strategy is your blueprint. If your ad fails to fulfill the strategy, it's a lousy ad, no matter how much you love it. Scrap it and start again. All along, you should be using your creative strategy to guide you, to give you hints as to the content of your ad. If you don't, you may end up being creative in a vacuum. And that's not being creative at all. If your ad is in line with your strategy, you may then judge its other elements.
?Jay Conrad Levinson?The Father of Guerrilla Marketing?Author: "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books?Over 14 million sold; now in 42 languages?www.gmarketing.com?www.guerrillamarketingassociation.com?
Key words: marketing, marketing campaign, advertising, advertising campaign, ad campaign, small business promotion, small business marketing
16 Headlines that Will Get Your Advertising Noticed
By Danek S. Kaus
The headline is the most important part of any type of advertising. It is what draws attention to your ad and entices people to read, watch or listen.
Writing headlines is an art unto itself, but there are many time-tested formulas or templates that you can use in your ads. All you have to do is plug in your particulars.
Take “The Top 10,” for example. Although David Letterman has made it famous, it has been around for a long time.
So how can you use it in your business? Determine what the topic of your ad is, then fill in the blank.
Let’s say you’re an accountant.
You might start your ad with “The Top 10 Tax Mistakes Most Business Owners Make.” Or “The Top 10 Tax Deductions for Small Business Owners” and so on.
Here are 16 templates you can use.
Although I have used the number 10 in several of the headlines, you can pick any number that works best for you. I picked 16 for this article.
The Top 10 __________
The Best __________
The Worst __________
The 10 Best Ways to __________
The Easiest Ways to __________
Why You Should Always __________
Why You Should Never __________
Why You Should Always __________ When You __________
Why You Should Never __________ When You __________
10 Reasons to __________
10 Reasons Not to __________
10 Questions You Should Ask Before Choosing a __________ (doctor, lawyer, mechanic, school, charity, etc.)
10 Things to Consider When You __________
10 Tips for __________
10 Tips for a better __________
How to Avoid __________
You can also sign up for a free newsletter on how to get free publicity.
Danek S. Kaus has published hundreds of business articles in about 75 newspapers and dozens of websites. His new book, “You Can Be Famous: Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity,” will be released later this year. He is the co-author of “Power Persuasion: Using Hypnotic Influence to Win in Life, Love and Business” (David R. Barron and Danek S. Kaus).
He has over 10 years experience in sales and advertising, in both B2C and B2B. Write him at dkaus@sbcglobal.net
Kewords: advertsing, writing advertising, how to write advertising, copywriting, copywriter, save money on advertising, reduce advertising costs
7 Ways to Slash Your Advertising Costs
By Danek S. Kaus
You know you need to advertise, but you just don’t like spending all that money. Not a problem.
Here are some great strategies to spend less and advertise more.
Negotiate
– Don’t believe everything you see in print. Next time an ad rep shows
you the rate sheet, keep in mind that these prices are usually
flexible. The sales person usually has the power to go off the rate
sheet if you are ready to wheel and deal. Now that newspaper ad
revenues are dropping, this is a great time to get some bargains.
Barter
– Some media outlets will trade advertising for things they want in
exchange for advertising. When I sold ads for a local independently
owned newspaper years ago, I got my first computer that way.
The
owner of a computer store needed some advertising but didn’t have the
funds to pay for it. I made a three-way deal that included some
computer equipment for the paper, ad space for the store and a computer
for me as my commission. Everybody won.
Also, radio stations
will often exchange air time for things they can give away to their
listeners, it all depends on what you have to offer -- dinner for two
at your restaurant, a day of pampering at your spa, etc.
Team up
-- This works great with newspapers. The reason is, it costs more to
buy a unit of space, say 1/8 of a page, than it does to buy an entire
page and split it eight ways. Here’s an example.
Say the 1/8 page costs $200. But you can buy a full-page ad for $1,000.
The
way you save is to get other business owners to go in with you on a
full page. This works well for shopping malls and downtown areas with
lots of stores that sell different services and products. Or, you might
create a professional services page with one lawyer, one accountant and
so on. In this case, you don’t need to be in the same area.
For
example, you might get seven other business owners to go in on buying a
full page ad, with a banner or headline at the top such as, “Downtown
Merchants” or “Professional Services.” A $1,000 ad buy, split eight
ways is $125 each. You’ve almost cut your cost in half. You can slice
the page up any way you want. You might have three other businesses
who want a 1/4 page. You each pay $250. That’s only $50 more for twice
the size.
Co-op -- If
you sell a brand-name product, chances are they have a co-op program.
This means that if you run an ad that features their product, they will
pay a portion of the cost. Check with your vendors to learn more.
Use a Media buyer
– These are people who specialize in buying ads and making good deals.
Find them on the web. Please keep in mind that you must have a decent
budget to interest them. But if you do, they can save you some bucks.
Create an electronic newsletter
– You have to get people’s permission to send them business-type
emails, better known as electronic newsletters or ezines. Once you
have the permission of your customers and prospects you can send them
all a weekly or monthly ezine that includes product info, new product
releases, tips and just generally help people to know you better. Best
way to send out your newsletters is through an autoresponder. There
are lots of good ones listed on the web. There are a few rules you
must follow, such as allowing people to cancel. The web has articles
about obeying the rules. If you don't, your internet service might be
canceled. So protect yourself.
Get it for free
-- send a press release to the media. If they like the story idea
about you or your business, they will interview you and run the story
for free. Another advantage is that publicity has more credibility
than an ad. If you don’t know how to write a press release and approach
the media, please visit my website.
http://yourpowerpublicity.com
You can also sign up for a free newsletter on how to get free publicity.
Danek
S. Kaus has published hundreds of business articles in about 75
newspapers and dozens of websites. His new book, “You Can Be Famous:
Insider Secrets to Getting Free Publicity,” will be released later
this year. He is the co-author of “Power Persuasion: Using Hypnotic
Influence to Win in Life, Love and Business” (David R. Barron and
Danek S. Kaus).
He has over 10 years experience in sales and advertising, in both B2C and B2B. Write him at dkaus@sbcglobal.net
Kewords: advertsing, writing advertising, how to write advertising, copywriting, copywriter, save money on advertising, reduce advertising costs
