Posts Tagged ‘Target Audience’

Six easy steps to creating a killer ad campaign

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

So you think your company may need to do some advertising to drum up business in this down economy?

Smart idea.

But before you hire an ad agency, or do it yourself, I’d like to arm you with some information that will make your job easier, and your ads more effective.

Keep it simple.
A cluttered ad screams “small-time.”  Savvy advertisers know that people don’t remember a complicated message.  If you give them more than one main point, or throw a bunch of graphics and copy into the mix, chances are pretty good they will either skip it, or quit before you get a chance to ask for the sale.  Keep your message, your headline, and your visual clean, simple, and singular.

Exude brand personality.
All brands develop personality, whether you want them to or not.  Which is why smart marketers make sure their brands reflect the personality they specifically craft.  What is your brand personality?  Your ads – and all your advertising and marketing materials – should always reflect your brand personality so that your  target audience will have constant reinforcement of your well-crafted, deliberately thought out brand.

Cut through the clutter.
The average American is exposed to hundreds of commercial messages every day – some experts say as many as <i>3,000</i>!  So you want to do everything you can to make sure <i>your</i> ad is the one that gets noticed.  Do this by having a great offer, keeping your ad simple with lots of white space, and having a memorable and creative concept that exudes your brand personality.

Keep it strategic.
There are basically two kinds of ads:  1) ads that have a specific offer, and 2) image-building ads.  Both types of ads are important and should be used in conjunction with each other.  While the first type of ad is designed to have fairly immediate benefits (such as sales or attendance to an event), the second type of ad is designed to give you long-term benefits by creating top-of-mind awareness so when your target has need of your service or product, you’re the first company they think of.  My advice is to use both as part of your overall strategic marketing plan.

Look professional.
Very few things hurt your brand like an amateurish ad.  People viewing the ad will perceive your company as being second-rate.  So I   strongly encourage you to  think very carefully before doing the ad yourself, or letting the newspaper design it for you.  Think seriously about hiring a professional to create an ad campaign for you with a look and feel that will last for at least a year.  Consider having them develop four different ads that you can easily have resized for different publications and rotate throughout the year.  Also, think about having a “template” ad developed that can work for special sales or invitations to events.

Give them a reason to buy.
Whether you’re creating an offer ad or an image ad, be sure you give your target a great reason to chose your company, product, or service over your competitors.

Now more than ever, advertising is a smart idea.  Use these tips and you will create ad campaigns that cut costs…and the clutter.

© Copyright 2009, BusinessBurrito.  All rights reserved.

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How To Craft A Headline That Pulls In Your Target Reader

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

It is a proven fact that the headline is the most important part of any advertisement. No matter how good the rest of your copy is, if your headline stinks your ad will fail. It’s that simple.


How can so few lines of copy be so important? Because the headline is your first (and often last) chance to make an impression on a reader. It needs to grab the reader by the collar and make it impossible for him to continue without reading the rest of your message. If your headline fails the rest of your copy will never even be read.


The primary purpose of your headline is to get the readers attention. But when crafting your headline, it’s important to remember that you’re not trying to attract everyone. You only need to attract people who would be interested in your offer.


A misleading or vague headline will earn you lots of readers who are not at all interested in your product. They’ll realize this as soon as they get past your headline and you’ll quickly lose them.


Meanwhile, you will have lost many others who would have loved your product but didn’t stop to read your sales page because the headline didn’t grab them.


Choosing your target audience carefully is a vital part of crafting a headline that sells. You really have to walk a fine line to get it just right, and it takes a lot of practice and testing.


In Scientific Advertising, the legendary Claude Hopkins uses newspaper headlines to demonstrate the importance of targeting your headline just right:


“Suppose a newspaper article stated that a certain woman was the most beautiful woman in the city. That article would be of intense interest to that woman and her friends. But neither she nor her friends would ever read it if the headline was ‘Egyptian Psychology’”.


For a more contemporary example, we can look to Google AdWords.


Let’s say you run a website that sells specialty teas. You want to drive some traffic to a special you’re having on a delicious Earl Grey.


You can only use a limited number of characters for your headline so you have to choose your words carefully. You could use a headline that simply stated what your site is about, such as “Specialty Teas”, but the traffic you’d receive would not be very targeted.


You’d likely get a lot of “tire-kickers” who are just browsing or looking for free information. Since you pay for each visitor, you’d be spending good advertising money on poor quality traffic.


Instead you could try something like “Earl Grey Sale Ends Today”.


This simple example off the top of my head shows how you would target someone looking for earl grey tea.


Someone searching for “earl grey” sees your ad and immediately knows:


1. You have the exact product they’re looking for

2. They can save money because you’re having a sale

3. The sale ends today so they have to act fast!


That’s a lot of information packed into 5 little words. See how tightly targeted it is? The people who click on your ad will be very likely to buy from you.


And people who are only interested in free information about chamomile tea will know not to bother – they are not your buyer anyhow.

Jonathan Hook

Jonathan Hook gives away free tools and articles at www.500articles.com Claim yours now.

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Instant Sales Letters – Point and Click Copywriting

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Instant Sales Letters is yet another product from Yanik Silver. This product aims at providing the ultimate business boosting utility to entrepreneurs all around the world. The importance of a good sales letter cannot be undermined with respect to a business so one has to make sure that the sales letter are a hit with the target audience.

Instant Sales Letters is a software package that will actually produce sales letters that sell. Now the letters that it produces are 1-2 pages long, but they work. Instant Sales Letters includes letter templates devoted to online and offline information sellers, professionals, service companies, retail stores, restaurants, network marketing, business opportunity marketers, business to business sales reps, and much, much more.

Simply put, a powerful sales letter is like having a little automatic, money-making robot working for you, tirelessly . Simply because if you want to truly become an expert at ad copy, you need see how every one crafts a sales letter. Provides how to write sales copy product or service and instant sales letters.

Yanik Silver’s easygoing and down to earth approach with his customers hasn’t hurt either. Yanik Silver has a reputation for a productive excellence. I’ve enjoyed each and every product I’ve purchased from Yanik and I think his prices are very fair.

He just added a brand new section for selling information products (online and off). Perfect for ebooks, manuals, membership sites, etc. Inside this section, you’ll find the long-form sales letters that are the workhorse of any direct marketing company. They’re based on proven sales letters that have generated nearly half a million in sales.

You’ll never again suffer through the pain and hassle of trying to write a powerful sales letter yourself. Or pay big bucks hiring a top copywriter. Now, you can get everything all done for you, practically handed to you on a silver platter. You simply fill-in-the-blanks…and you’re done in about 2 minutes flat!

Carl Ringwall

Carl Ringwall is the owner of Data SystemsPlus, a web consultancy offering a variety of e-learning offerings, software and tools. Considered one of the top blogs for forming a coherent internet marketing strategy, Carl’s online business blog is a must for anyone running a internet home based business.


More about Instant Sales Letters.

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