Do Your Advertisements Make Sense to Readers?

In my last post, I talked about how easy it is to assume you know what your prospects and clients need. In this post, I’d like to talk more about assumptions in advertising.

For most people, advertising is a waste of money. I’ve gone over some of the reasons why your advertising might not be working and how to use direct response advertising to generate more leads in previous posts. At its core, advertising is salesmanship in print.

• It must invoke some type of curiosity to get readers to keep reading.
• It must build a case for why what you say is true.
• It must offer prospects something of value.
• It must tell prospects what they must do to capitalize on your offer.

The problem is that it’s really easy for us to become obsessed with how clever we’ve been or how cute our ad is or how well it’s designed that we overlook the basics. We assume we know what will work because we like it. How do you know if your ads make sense to readers?

• Write to one person. When you sit down to write, picture one person in your target audience that you know pretty well. Salesmanship happens one person at a time, so write as if you are writing a personal letter, ad, or mailing to just that one person.
  
  
• Read it out loud. Have you ever written something only to come back to it two days later and wonder what the heck you were thinking when you wrote this? Reading out loud is a similar process because it forces you to read every word you’ve written. Does it make sense?
  
  
• Ask for a critique. Find someone in your target audience and ask their opinion. Ask them not to focus on design (everyone and their mother has an opinion on what something should look like), but to explain what they think about when they read it. What is their first impression? You know you’re on to something when they start talking about the offer rather than how you sell it to them.
  
  
• Include proof. Does your piece build a case for your offer? Is it compelling and authentic? Include testimonials, references to studies, and your credentials for writing this piece. If you are writing to potential referral partners, why should they refer their trusted clients to you? How do they know they can trust you to do what you say? If you are writing to home sellers, why should they believe you can sell their home faster for more money and less hassle than any other agent out there?
  
  
• Clearly define the next step. Is it clear what your readers should do when they are finished reading your ad? Did you include at least a soft and a hard offer?

Keep in mind - in marketing, there is one golden mantra you should repeat every day - “You are not your target market.” It doesn’t matter if you like your ad, your website, your brochure or your mailing. What matters is that it addresses the needs of your target audience, established value, and explains the unique benefits of working with you.