Making an Ad

This article was contributed by Geoff Clynes. Geoff is a partner is Business Line, a Warragul-based marketing group offering help and advice on business development issues. This article is the final in a series of eight.

Advertising, paid mass communications, is one of the oldest means of informing customers about our offer, and most people in business try their hand at it from time to time. The results are often mixed. A senior exec in the Lever and Kitchen soap empire said once that he knew half their advertising money was wasted: he just didn’t know which half.

That’s important; when the professionals occasionally stumble, it’s time to get practical. Wherever, whenever, the experts differ, I’ve found three reliable points of guidance:

• There are no guarantees, magic bullets, assured rules of human behaviour.
• Experience counts: limit your risk, keep records, but take risks and learn.
• But every situation is different: my experience may not work for you.

Those guidelines are so general and negative that one’s driven back to general norms of human behaviour: as we teach teachers, psychologists, parents, supervisors, politicians, sales reps and a host of other specialists:

People do things for their reasons, not ours.

Got that straight? Then act on it, and show people why they should buy, not what:

•  study the difference between features (what) and benefits (why);
•  offer an attractive benefit; no, make that several benefits;
•  but in your small business, make sure the benefits are credible:

"Nelson Mandela says ........" " No questions money back guarantee"

"103% of Morwell men use .." "Half our production is exported".

• · Guarantee the benefit(s) to the buyer.

"Call our Help line.."

Then all you need is to get the reader/hearer/viewer to do what you want.

Perhaps that’s getting them to buy; more likely, for the SME like you and me, it’s encouraging a phone call to get more information, though I might just be setting out to create a good impression, a market profile, image.

While oozing professional respect for agencies, let me suggest that that third group, the image outcomes, are nonsense for us, the invention of ad agencies. SMEs need results, not image. If your ad campaign didn’t produce any visible results, I don’t think it worked. Image doesn’t even improve your credit rating: check that with your bank manager.

Persuade.

It’s that simple: whether your message is heard or seen (rarely you get the precious choice at both – as with TV, Cinema, personal selling) promise credible benefits to the right people, and in their own time, they’ll come chasing those benefits.

Try this:

Choose something in your product range that doesn’t sell as it should.

Why should "they" be kicking your door down? What’s in it for "them"?

Stick to the benefits you can prove, or will guarantee.

Then put it to use:

You’ve got ten words: state that main "kick the door down" benefit to your ideal new customer.

Another twenty words: why can (s)he be confident about actually getting the benefit?

Finally, make it memorable: a relevant graphic, a logo, a supporting picture, humour, startling colour?

Oh, and whenever and wherever you run that ad, find ways to measure its results!

Next Topic: Price

© Copyright Business Line 2003: This text is for use and publication by the Gippsland.com web portal, and may be reproduced and distributed without charge. It remains the property of Geoff Clynes & Associates (trading as Business Line), and may not be sold or distributed for profit without the owner’s express permission