Avoiding Common Advertising Mistakes Small Businesses Make
In my work as a copywriter, clients sometimes ask me to review their ads to help them improve their sales results. Here I’ll talk about some of the most common small business advertising mistakes, so you can troubleshoot your advertising and get a better Return On Investment from your marketing.
Layout
Many small business ads look like a shopping list, this is the biggest mistake to avoid.
They’ll put the company name at the top instead of an attention getting headline and follow with dry copy which simply does not hold the reader’s interest. No compelling reason is given to follow up; and the ad concludes with a phone number and address.
These ads are ineffective; they don’t get prospective customers to care about your company. Your reader wants to know one thing: what’s in it for him or her.
Here’s a better layout for selling that works well in almost any situation:
Headline at the top. (Don’t be tricky: just state the strongest benefit of your product or service.)
The bottom right (known in the business as the “anchor point”) should have a contact number and coupon, if you are using coupons in your ad.
Your company name and address should go in the bottom left corner. Your reader will look for it once you have made your case.
If you are using photos or illustrations, place headlines underneath them to keep your reader’s eyes moving down the page. Make your headlines and photos part of a narrative.
Bullet points briefly outlining the benefits of your product or service is a good idea. While long form copy can be effective as well, it’s a lot harder to write.
What are your ads like? Are they lists or do they have a story to tell followed by a call to action? If you are using the former style, I promise you’ll get more results by changing things up.
Failing to Test and Track Ad Response
Why should you test and track different ads? Because one ad, sales letter or web page may sell 2, 3 even 21 TIMES more than an alternative for exactly the same product or service. You need to know what’s working and what isn’t so you can cut the losers and optimise the winners.
How to Track Advertising Response
Tracking advertising response is as easy as asking callers where they heard about your company. As you publish more ads and test one ad against another, you’ll need to get a little more sophisticated with your tracking by implementing one or more of the following?
Use colour coded coupons in print ads, or track coupons with codes. You can also have callers mention a special offer to track the success of your ads.
If you’re advertising online, it’s even easier, you can use tracking software to compare response rates between different ads.
One of my clients a while back tracked their advertising response rates and found that their expensive print ad campaign was bringing in almost no responses, while a nearly free flyering campaign was generating a lot of business. They were able to drop the print ads and save a lot of money while having a more effective advertising and marketing campaign.
What To Test
You should test these things in your ads:
Headlines Offers Body Copy Guarantee Price
Hint: You’ll get the greatest return by testing headlines first.
When you find something that works, stay with it until you find something better. It really isn’t hard to improve your marketing ROI if you use this approach, yet hardly anyone does it! If YOU decide to take action on this tip, you can save money, leverage your marketing budget, and put some distance between you and your competition.
Just making sure that your ads are working well can dramatically increase your business; you may want to think about taking on a in-house copywriter. This can make a lot of difference in your advertising return on investment.
Not Making The Most of a Powerful Guarantee
Many small businesses don’t have a strong guarantee, or they don’t know how to incorporate their guarantee into their ads. This is important, because powerful guarantees have been shown to increase ad response by 50+ percent.
Gurantees work because they remove the risk of purchase from your customer, making it easier for them to buy. When you guarantee your product or service, you’re showing confidence that it will produce the result you claim, customers respond to that.
Here’s how to use a guarantee in your ads in a way that gets responses:
1. Your guarantee should be a specific promise of performance or results.
Avoid boilerplate like “satisfaction guaranteed”. Use more distinctive copy like:
“If you don’t love our product, we’ll pay you to go to our competitors”
” Web traffic increased by at least 50% in 60 days or your money back”
“Send $45 to [Your Company Name and Address]. If you’re not satisfied, we’ll send you back $50.”
2. Test Your Guarantee
As a copywriter and small business consultant, I spend a lot of time working with my clients to produce guarantees which get the reader’s attention. A lot of business owners worry that they will have a lot of customers taking advantage of their money back offers. If this is the case, then start small ? publish one ad with this guarantee, another without. Track your response rate and the number of returns you see. If it works for you, keep offering the guarantee.
I’ve always found that a strong guarantee generates more than enough additional sales to cover any returns or refund requests.
Also test different aspects of your guarantee (e.g. wording, time period, conditions etc.) The difference in sales generated by a 30 day and 60 day guarantee can be significant.
3. Make your guarantee highly visible
Make your guarantee a headline, you want prospective customers to see this.
What powerful guarantee can you offer your prospects to make it easier for them to do business with you?