BJM Free Press

Why 80 Percent of Advertising is Wasted

Think of the last time you were flipping through a magazine and you suddenly decided to stop and read an advertisement.

What made you stop?

It was probably a headline that caught your attention!

It’s been shown time and again that people read a headline 5 times more often than they do the copy of an ad. That means the advertiser has invested about 80% of their advertising budget in the headline. So you can see the headline is the most important part of your advertisement. Yet most advertising is a wasted effort due to the lack of an effective headline, or no headline at all!

The first thing the reader of your ad, letter, or postcard sees is the headline. People make the decision whether to read, or not read, the main message of your advertisement in a bout three seconds.

So your advertisement must have a headline that gets and keeps your reader’s attention. If your message doesn’t do this they won’t read your whole message.

Creating compelling headlines is hard work, but you can do it by following some simple guidelines.

1. Use a couple of well chosen words to create urgency and compel your reader to stop and read you message right away instead of waiting until they get back to it.
2. The reader has to be able to justify taking the time to read the whole message. Therefore, you have to communicate something they think is valuable.
3. Your headline needs to shout out how your offer is unique.
4. Point out something specific to your reader using facts or how-to information.

By using these guidelines you can create headlines that quickly captures reader, gives them reason to continue reading, and offers benefits they want.

Avoid conventional, overused, or boring expressions and never trick your reader into continuing on or you will lose their trust.

Power words for attention getting headlines

Many of the powerful headlines you see use one or more of these words that sell:

You can begin by creating some headlines that clearly convey your commitment, benefits, or “unique selling proposition”. After you have made some draft headlines, look for ways to add power words from the list above AND three or four of the simple guidelines presented earlier.

10 Tips For Effective Advertising

Writing powerful classified ads doesn’t have to be hard, if you invest some time researching effective copywriting.

 10 Tips For Effective Advertising

1. Don’t try to sell expensive products from a classified ad. Incorporate a two step process. As the reader to visit your web site or email an auto responder for more information. Then send the reader more detailed information about your product or service.
2. Examine how the other marketers compose their sales message. It’s a no brainer, just study ads in the materials you are already reading. Or browse some of the free online classified ad sites. There’s not point in copying other ads, just use them as a guide to effective design for your own ads.
3. Advertise in the right place. Yep, it’s a basic idea. Don’t put a cooking ad in the sports equipment section.
4. Advertise in multiple locations that are appropriate for what you are selling. After you find several advertising venues, read their writing guidelines and practice.
5. Advertise in more than one location at a time to attract as many potential buyers as possible.
6. When people read the same ad over and over, every month, they will likely start to ignore your ad. So freshen up you ads by changing the headlines, use new wording, try different lengths of copy, insert some humor, add more details or interesting facts, include a testimonial.
7. Put a key in your ads so you will know which ads are working. Or use different email address or links in place of a key to see which ads pull the most responses.
8. Build your list by keeping a record of every response you get. Then follow up appropriately with information about your product or service.
9. Use the free classified ad sites to test your ad writing skills before committing to a paid ad in a print publication. Study the ads other marketers have placed at the free sites too. Create a free email account and respond to a few of their ads and see how they market their products and services.
10. Study publications and advertisements you receive offline through regular mail to help you better your ad writing skills.

Resources

• My Instant Swipe File
• Sales Copy Master Class
• Copywriting
• Advertising

Time (Life) Management, Ta-Da Lists, and GTD

Have you noticed how it’s often the simplest ideas that make the biggest difference?

This one is so simple you may be tempted to ignore it, I nearly did.

If you don’t know, GTD stands for “Getting Things Done”.  GTD is a productivity and life management concept developed by David Allen. Life management and productivity is a bit different than time management.

I got this idea from a blog reader who goes by “Colander”. This isn’t just another tip to get more things done. It’s about getting more of the right things done.

The nuts and bolts of what to do

1. Rather than using lists on paper per the GTD method, set up a truly free account (there’s not even an upgrade option) at Ta-Da Lists.
2. Create your to-do list but do not put all of your next action in it. Put just a handful of critical next steps on that list.
3. Make your Ta-Da List’s to-do list, one of your home page tabs.

Now if you’re one of those people who is resistant to change this all might make you a bit uncomfortable. Get over it! Because once you make this simple change your critical stuff will be hitting you in the face all-day-long.

Every time you open your browser to goof off with a game like Farmville, or visiting forums, or any one of thousands of time sinks, you will be reminded of your critical next actions.

Another plus about the Ta-Da Lists, you can make multiple lists, and the lists can be shared.

I hope you find this idea as useful as I did.

Your turn

Do you have any productivity tips to share?  Leave them in the comments below.

Resources

“Getting Things Done”, by David Allen

Ta-Da Lists