Pursuant to Advertising Works part 1 and 2, I wanted to clarify some issues about web marketing using classified advertising. To recap some major points: All products and services can be grouped into two general categories; good products and bad products. How do you know if you have a bad product? The answer is simple, people will send it back and demand a refund because the product is unsatisfactory. And what identifies a good product? You can be pretty much assured you have a good product if people do not complain or return it to you demanding a refund within 30 days. So what if you advertise a good product and nobody buys it? Is that the product fault? Or is it the ad fault? Remember that a good product is inert, it just sits there waiting to be sold. I tell people to pretend you have a warehouse full of the (perfect product) and run a test ad to see if you can get people to respond for more information. If nobody responds to the ad can you blame it on the imaginary product you dont even have? No, a lack of inquiry would be the ads fault not the product. Keep in mind that a good marketing team can sell bad products but a bad marketing team cannot sell good products. The product technically means little or nothing when it comes to getting people to respond to your ad. It all lies in the advertising message, the headline, the hookthe winning formula that reels people inthat peeks their interests to hear more about your offer. Thats why it is critical to learn how to write order-pulling classified ads, to get people to check out your products or your website. If you have a website and you have product for sale at that website you have a couple hurdles you need to overcome. First, you have to have an ad that will get people to visit your website and then, you have to have a compelling message to keep them interested in learning more about your offering. Secondly, you have to get them purchase the offering. Keep in mind that your website IS one of your products and your offering is the other. Meaning, if you cant get people to your site, how will they see your offering? It looks like this: The Ad = reader response. (What action do you want people to take?) The action could be many things from visiting a website to calling a toll free phone for more information, etc. If you run a classified ad in a newspaper you dont want to ask for money up frontbut you do want them to take actionlets assume to visit your website. Assuming you write an effective ad and people respond and visit your website to learn more. Once again, you will have to have another headline, a hook and a reason for people to probe deeper into your offering. AD headline = reader response = visit website = another AD headline = reader response = purchase. What you are shooting for is an incremental approach to bringing people into your business in a way that keeps them interested in learning more and hopefully purchasing your good products. Keep in mind that from the first ad to the final sale, it is a step by step approach to advertising, informing, educating, enticing and eventually a person will, at the worst, become familiar with your business and at best will purchase from you. The key is to get people to take action. Why classified advertising in newspapers? There are a variety of reasons. First, classified ads are cheaper than any other advertising (.) Secondly, they have an audience of people who choose to read the advertising and are not victims of mass advertising. Thirdly, classified ads can be highly targeted towards a particular geographical market or customer type and closely analyzed for responses. You want to test headlines for pulling power. Test, test, test until you find the hitter ad that makes people respond en masse. When you find the hitter ad, clone it and roll it out! But that wont happen right awayfirst, find the ad that drives traffic to your site then, develop the step process to making a purchase. You know your offering can help people right? Then show them how and why they need the offering. Just dont underestimate peoplethey are smarter than you think and smell a bad deal a mile away. This is especially true at a website where they can just click your site and make it go away. So keep your advertising and all communications honest. This is always a good practice because it keeps you from violating Truth In Advertising Laws and people respect not being lied to with false claims and promises. Keep in mind there are a TON of unsold good products that never get off the ground. Why? The simple answer is either there is not a market for the product or, more probably, the market was never reachedhow can people determine if they are interested in your product if they dont even know it exists? This is why it is so important to advertise in some manner and classified advertising is the most cost affordable way to start promoting your website. If you would like to learn more we have a business kit called Advertising Works! Located in the Smart Business Kits section of our website-- you may want to take a peek atit is STUFFED with everything you need to know to roll out a successful advertising campaign on a very limited budget. It will show you how to write order-pulling advertising and puts the whole U.S. newspaper market at your fingertips. Its hotcheck it out! Thanks for reading! Copyright 2006 James W. Hart, IV All Rights reserved |
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