Gimme Three Steps . . . To Profitable Advertising

Howdy  . . .

Lynyrd Skynyrd inspired me to write this article . . .

There I was just cruising along minding my own business with what I thought was a great ad . . . Just submitted it to my client a mere two day prior thinking he’ll love it. . . when all of the sudden in comes my  client with fire in his eyes!

“I can’t run this . . . it’s too damn outrageous. The board of directors will never go for it. We’re tearing it up. Start over. You’ll need to tone it waaay down, says big cheese client.”

“No way I won’t do it! You hired me to get results, right? Do you want advertising that puts cash in your bank account or something limp and ‘toned down’? I asked.

No you shouldn’t go in looking for a fight. But on the other hand if you know how to create profitable advertising based on solid salesmanship fundamental, you’ll have a serious leg to stand on when defending your copy. Plus, you’ll make your client a hero and you’ll come out smelling like a rose.

Here are three simple steps to profitable advertising

1. Learn how to sell. Go out and get yourself a good education in sales. Read and study good books and courses on salesmanship. Even better get into sales! It’s an education that will serve you well the rest of your life. Good copy writing has more to do with salesmanship than good writing. Years before I ever thought about writing copy I logged years of belly to belly selling. I’ve sold vacuum cleaners, cars, major appliances, real estate and more. It boils down to learning your product . . . all of the features and benefits it has to offer and explaining these benefits to your prospect. Learn what your prospect wants. Your prospect always comes first. Period!
2. Learn your customer. This applies to your prospects also. After all you gotta attract good prospects first, then turn them into clients. You must analyze, understand and connect with your customers. Find out as much as you can about them. Where do they live? What problems are they dealing with? What daily frustrations are they encountering? What worries keeps them up at night? And so on. The more you know about your customers, the better chance you have building rapport and connecting with me. Try walking ‘a mile in their shoes’ to really understand them as the old adage says.
3. Learn your product or service. This sounds logical doesn’t it? Well, it is. It’s very difficult to sell something you don’t know anything about, right? Take the time to everything you can about what you are offering. One very easy way to ground yourself into the product details is to buy the product and use it as a consumer would. If the product is a service then use the service just like a consumer would use it. Then after you’ve ‘kicked the tires’ make some notes. List all of the features about the product or service. Next make a list of all the advantages and benefits. Then translate all of the features into benefits. Not sure how to do that? Here are two words that will help: “You Get.” For example, let’s say you’re selling a simple No. 2 pencil. Feature: A wooden cylinder surrounding a graphite core . . . Benefit: Can be resharpened as long as you life, ensuring crisp writing. Feature: 71/2 inches long. Benefit: You get a long lasting writing life. Feature: One end has a rubber eraser. Benefit: You get a built in tool that lets you correct errors. And so on . . .

The next time you find yourself in a situation that requires you to persuade someone to do something, then follow this simple outline . . . you’ll be happy with the results!

Warmly,

Emette E. Massey

P.S. Want to see this outline in action? Here’s a great sales letter swipe you can use to model your letters after? Just email me at eemassey@yahoo.com . . . I’ll zip it right over to you.