Advertising has but one purpose: to sell. Whether a promotion for a new product, a landing page for a special offer, or attention-grabbing product descriptions for an e-commerce site, effective advertising eventually leads to sales.
Nobody can actually guarantee that an ad is going to be effective. The only way to know for sure is to test it. But there are several elements that you can incorporate into your ad or sales letter to give it a better chance of being a winner.
Here are some elements you can incorporate to develop effective advertising campaigns:
#1 SMART AD PLACEMENT
The first step in positioning your ad for success is increasing its chance of being seen by your target market.
Find out where majority of your target market are, are they on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Newsprints, TVs, etc. Until you know this information, you cannot make smart choices about ad placement and you’ll likely end up wasting a lot of your hard-earned money on an ad that didn’t even get seen by your target market.
#2 A CLEAR OBJECTIVE
You’ll never get what you want if you don’t know what you want. This is true in your advertising efforts. You must have a specific objective for your ad if you want people to act. Is it to contact you on WhatsApp, come to your office, or visit your website?
An ad copy should have a clear objective right from the start. Without a defined objective and clear direction, no piece of ad copy will succeed in its intended purpose.
#3 COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Why should your prospect do business with you over any of your competitors? Even those that have lower prices!
Often your competitive advantage is the biggest benefit you can offer your prospects so consider including it in your headline, bulleted copy, or your guarantee.
If you don’t have a competitive advantage, then you better get one. Not having a competitive advantage with which to show value, results in competing solely on price, and that’s a losing proposition (unless you have a significant cost advantage).
READ: How to Achieve Competitive Advantage in your Business
#4 COMPELLING HEADLINE
Your headline is the most important part of all the technical aspects of your ad. Most people always have much thing to do online these days, so you have to get your headlines right, let your headline be so catchy so as to pique their interests into checking out your ad.
Readers satisfy their interests by scanning headlines. If your headline doesn’t grab attention, your ad will never be read, let alone noticed.
#5 SELL THE BENEFITS
Your prospects don’t care about you or your business. They only care about how you, and what you offer, can benefit them. Ultimately people only want two things – to gain pleasure and to avoid pain.
Tell people how your offer will help them either gain pleasure or avoid pain by expressing them in the form of benefits. Don’t confuse this with listing the features of your product or service. Instead, tell them how the features will benefit them instead.
#6 MAKE IT RISK-FREE
Consumers are naturally skeptical. With all the scams, rip-offs, and untruthful ads consumers have experienced, who knows what to believe anymore? You must make your ad credible and risk-free.
There are 3 ways to provide a risk-free offer:
- Use testimonials
- Offer a strong guarantee
- Include facts and statistics
Each of these ways will build credibility and reduce the risk prospects naturally feel when contemplating an offer. But make sure you are being honest and truthful.
#7 CALL TO ACTION (CTA)
When someone tells you that they don’t like being told what to do, don’t believe it. People do want to be told what to do. In fact, people need to be told what to do and when to do it.
Phrases such as, “call now”, “come in today”, “sign up right now” trigger emotional response mechanisms that get your prospects to take action on an offer that secretly you want to take advantage of anyway. Make your CTA explicit and clear, so your prospect knows exactly what to do.
#8 URGENCY
Humans are naturally lazy and like to procrastinate. Without a real or perceived sense of urgency your prospects will drag their feet. To compel your prospect to act immediately you must inject a feeling of “scarcity”.
For instance, placing a deadline on your offer makes your prospect feel as though they have to take advantage of your offer before they lose the opportunity. You could do this by repealing a discount offer or a special bonus offer within a specified period of time.
Another maneuver is to limit the quantity available so that people will feel the need to take advantage of your offer before your product runs out. This is why you see offers stating, “while supplies last”, “only 45 left”.
CONCLUSION
Although, none of these elements alone can guarantee a successful ad, the combination of these elements will increase the potential for your ad to be a solid winner.
READ: 4 Reasons Why People Advertise
