Have you ever wondered why certain advertising material creates excitement and generates sales while another fails to pay what you invested in creating it? What are the characteristics that make your written material more effective?
To generate sales, your advertising must:
- Get the attention of your potential customers. Focus on them. Emphasize the benefits that the product offers them. Distinguish yourself from the competition. Prove what you promise. Establish your credibility. Show clearly that the product or service is worth more than what the customer is going. to pay for it. Close by asking the client to act immediately so that he does not miss this opportunity.
These eight elements do not have to be presented in the same proportion, depending on the product or service, some will be dominant while others will be subordinate.
Take the pharmaceutical industry as an example. Companies like Pfizer or Bayer have a well established reputation and can show a great record in creating good products. So these companies are very strong on elements five and six (prove what they promise and establish their credibility).
A small company or a new one, on the other hand, without the same record or reputation cannot employ these elements as the dominant elements of their advertising. Instead, they could use elements three (the benefits that the product offers customers) or perhaps four (distinguish the product based on a new technology that is not yet available to their competitors, for example).
Each product or service has its strengths and weaknesses. Strengths should be emphasized and weaknesses presented in a way that does not adversely affect sales.
It goes without saying that all eight elements must be present to some degree or advertising will not work.
Let's look at these eight elements in more detail, along with some helpful examples:
1) Your advertising must attract attention
If your advertising material fails to attract attention, it will be ignored or discarded. The message you have carefully constructed will not be read, your sales will not increase, and your investment will not recover.
There are many ways to gain attention. For example: Recently, a full-page newspaper ad advertised: "Starting right now… For $ 1 a week, New Yorkers over 50 can get health insurance… Guaranteed!"
The price, one dollar a week, for access to health insurance, arouses the reader's curiosity and makes him read the rest… especially if he lives in New York and is over 50 years old!
2) Your advertising must focus on your client
Your advertising material should focus on what your client needs, what he wants to achieve or the problem he wants to solve. Your product or service is secondary. Its value will depend solely and exclusively on whether it can help your client achieve one of her dreams, solve a problem or satisfy a need.
For example, instead of writing: "Finally on the market, our new small business health program…" is more effective: "Finally, you can reduce the exorbitant costs of health insurance that threaten to take your business out. of business!
3) Your advertising should emphasize the benefits that your product offers your customers
Remember that your customers do not want to know what your product is or what it does or how it does it. What they are really interested in is how it can help them achieve the benefits they want, such as saving time or money, increasing their income, being happier, looking or feeling better, and so on.
For example, a brochure promoting a temporary worker firm explains to its potential clients the advantages of hiring temporary workers instead of increasing their payroll with paid employees… even when there is not enough work!
4) Your advertising should distinguish you from the competition
Customers today have more options than ever. So to close sales, your material must reinforce the idea that your product is different. For example: a customer who enters a supermarket can choose between multiple types of cereals. To differentiate itself, Crispix is marketed as the only cereal that stays crisp even in milk.
5) Your advertising must prove what you promise
In the previous element your advertising says to be different, in number three it talks about the benefits that the buyer will get. But these are promises made by whoever markets the product or service. If you say your product is the best and don't try it, customers won't believe you.
For example, if you have a medical claims service, you should say how much money you have managed to get your clients to receive from insurance, what percentage of what you have claimed you have recovered and how that result compares to the national average.
6) Your advertising must establish your credibility
Although it is not their main concern, your customers will always ask themselves "Who are you?" They want to know if your company can really manufacture, install and maintain the product they are going to buy.
Your credentials may include the years you have been operating, the number of employees, annual earnings, recommendations from satisfied clients or associations, the results collected by independent agencies, coverage in the media, financial or technological resources, etc.
7) Your advertising must clearly show that the product or service is worth more than what the customer is going to pay for it
It is not enough to convince your customer that you have a great product or superior service, you must also convince them that the value they offer exceeds the price they must pay. Why should you buy your product and not a cheaper one? Close by asking the client to act immediately so as not to miss this opportunity.
8) Your advertising must close by asking the client to act immediately so that they do not miss this opportunity
Your marketing material should make your potential customer change their opinion, attitude, beliefs, purchase plans or brand preferences. Once this is achieved, you should ask the customer to act: tell them to call for more information or to reserve the product, to send the coupon by mail or to visit your website, etc.
It should be very clear what you expect the customer to do or otherwise few people will reply.
Now take a highlighter and identify in your promotions the places where you are using the elements mentioned in this article. If you are not applying them yet, it is time to do it and remember:
The magic is not in the words, but in the ideas that they communicate.
In the following webinar, David Gómez, an expert in marketing topics, teaches how to build an effective advertising message, explaining that advertising communication, in order to generate results, must be: clear, concise, focused, direct and credible. Factors very in line with those expressed in this article.
