How To Create Killer Ads

by Millard W. Grubb

An Easy way to create ads that pull in business fast!

        Let's face it.  You want to get more customers, make more sales,
        convert more leads.  The typical business  puts money into
        advertising and expects the phone to ring off the hook.  Sadly,
        it doesn't happen that way.

        I had a client one time up in Racine, Wisconsin who was opening
        a computer store who had a headline that said, "Grand Opening
        Sale."  Another client had a sales letter that had a title, "The
        Business Plan."

        Ho Hum.

        Think for a minute about any ads you've seen on television or in
        print that really grabbed you.  If there was a particularly
        funny message or slogan, try to remember it.

	It gets hard, doesn't it?

        The problem is that we are bombarded daily by thousands of
        messages, thousands of offers, thousands of "sound bites"
        begging to be heard.  We finally get to the place where we don't
        hear or see much of anything for very long.  We effectively
        filter out excess "noise."

        For example:  Let's say that you just bought a new Ford Taurus.
        As you're tooling around running errands, you notice that there
        are a few more Fords out on the road.  Surprisingly, there are a
        lot of Fords the same make and model as your car.

        Was the dealer having a special sale so that most everyone
        bought a Ford Taurus?

	Did a Ford plant open down the street?

	Everyone wanted a Ford, right?

        Actually, what was happening was that since you just bought a
        Ford, in your mind, Fords became important and therefore
        noticed.  Before you bought your car there were just as many
        Fords running about.

	You just didn't notice them.

        Fords became important to you.  Until you bought a Ford, they
        weren't important to you.  Consequently, you didn't notice them.

	The same thing happens with advertising.

        If you're like most businesses, you have to advertise.  And if
        you are like most businesses, your advertising states the
        features of the business, items for sale, discounts, etc.  And
        if you're like most businesses, your ad was placed in the local
        paper by a rep or ad agency or you made the ad yourself and
        placed it.

        Can you tell me whether or not your ad pulled in any business?
        Over ninety-five percent of the businesses in America cannot
        tell whether or not the ad worked because they are doing what is
        called institutional or "image" advertising.

        We all know Coca-cola, Marlboro, GM, Campbell Soups, IBM, etc.,
        because over the years these mega-giants have told us over and
        over again about their products.  These companies have the money
        and the market share to advertise and throw money into a big
        hole without thinking much about it.

        As a small businessman or woman, we don't have the luxury of
        throwing money around to see if something works or not.  We must
        leverage every marketing dollar so that it does the work of
        four, five, six, or even ten dollars.

        The only way to do that  is to target your market and to have
        some sort of response device to determine whether or not the
        market is interested in what you have to sell.

        One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is that they think
        that everyone who reads the paper or listens to the radio or
        watches TV is a prospect.  That is one of the reasons it is
        sometimes very expensive to run a decent size ad in a local
        paper or other mass market, because the ad agencies would have
        you believe that because you are reaching a large number of
        people, you should pay for it.

        The truth has always been that when you use mass media, only a
        small percentage are really interested in what you have to
        offer.  And if you're not careful, you'll miss them.

        One thing that has always helped me to get my ads going is a
        simple formula called AIDA.

	Attention.

	Interest.

	Desire.

	Action.

        The best way to get attention for your ad is to have a headline
        geared to the target market you're shooting for.  You want any
        possible prospects to "stop in their tracks" to read your offer.

        Remember the headlines earlier I mentioned?  They didn't grab
        the reader's interest or cause them to read further.  What those
        headlines did was to feed the ego of the owner or corporate
        president.  I know that I am killing some sacred cows here, but
        the fact of the matter is that any advertisement is geared to do
        one of two things:  1) Get leads that can be converted to sales,
        and 2) Sell directly from the ad.

        Listen.  All other ads are just fluff.  They do nothing to
        improve the bottom line.  Case in point: When the new Infiniti
        ads came out, they won all kinds of creative awards, but there
        was no increase in sales due to them.  If you want to make ads
        that win awards, more power to you.  But you won't improve
        sales.

        When I was in the entertainment industry, I created a brochure
        for myself that was four-color, had a spinner inside, and was
        the most beautiful thing I ever saw.  It cost $10,000 for 1,000
        copies.  When the mailing went out, I sat back expecting the
        phone to ring off the hook.

	I didn't get one phone call.

	To say that I was disappointed would be a gross understatement.

	I was devestated.

	But I learned a valuable lesson.

        You see, I had followed only one of the points of the AIDA
        formula.  The brochure was very much of an attention-getter.
        All show and no go.  In other words, according to some of the
        recipients, "It was beautiful, I'm going to keep it."

        Everyone liked the brochure, yet, it gave no compelling reasons
        to buy or call to action.

        Make sure that any ads you produce are like a salesperson
        making a case for your product.

        Getting back to our formula, AIDA, the first point is attention.
        You get that attention with a benefit-laden headline.  The
        headline is an ad for the ad.  Don't make the mistake of using
        the name of the company or name of a product.

        The second point is interest.  When talking about the benefits
        of your product, it is vital to talk in terms of the benefits to
        the consumer, not the interests of the president of the company.
        As you are creating an ad, make a list of the important features
        of the product.  Once you have done this, then transform the
        features into benefits.  For example, if you're selling
        stainless steel cookware that is made with 18-8 stainless steel,
        emphasize the fact that this construction means more even heat
        distribution for easier cooking in less time with power savings
        to boot.

        Next, you must create desire by targeting emotional hot buttons
        through the description of more benefits.  Face it.  Most people
        buy based on emotional reasons then justify what they have
        bought through logical means.  So make sure to create interest
        and desire on an basis coupled with a few factual tie-downs to
        close the sale.

	Remember, advertising is just salesmanship in print.

        Finally, you must call your prospect to action.  It may be a
        phone call.  It might be bringing in a coupon.  Whatever the
        action is to be, it must be simple for the customer to do and be
        measureable.  In other words, you want the consumer to do
        something to let you know they are interested, yet, it must be
        simple enough so that they don't have to go out of their way to
        do it.

        These simple steps will help you to increase your responses in
        the advertising you do.



About Millard Grubb

        As owner of a Chicago-based consulting firm and author author of
        The Ripple Effect and numerous articles on marketing that works,
        Millard Grubb knows how to create documents that pull in dollars
        for business.  Grubb is now giving seminars across the country
        to help business market on a shoestring.