Writing an advert is easy for you to get tempted in either writing about the products or writing on the services you are selling or on the other hand the main point of selling. Either way, that still makes sense. As a matter of fact, if you actually not going to tell reader what the product entails then the reader will stop reading. However, the problem that comes with this format is that you may end up chasing way the reader instead of retaining him/her.

This approach focuses on the product instead on the idea of grabbing the reader’s attention. And for over 30 years experience of work writing adverts, its known that the success of an advert depends on the attention grabbed

For instance, if your product that has factor X within it and considering that the factor X is not unique but what’s important to you is one main reason that will make people go for your product and not go for another person’s product. So at the end of the day, your temptation will be to say that you have X in your headline and also in the sentence that opens your statement.

I cannot deny that the approach can work but factor X is already known to most of the people. On the other hand it is also offered by the firms. So people are not going to read the advert because they already know what factor X is. The solution is to come up with something unique, something that is a bit ambiguous or amusing or may be an element that is different in your product and is also not known like factor X

There is always a protest every time I mention such a thing, that’s the main problem, but if only they avoid ignorance and realize that readers of either sales letters or mails neither start reading at the top nor read very word written.

But they rather skim and consider the only the first four words of each paragraph, and will end up picking bits that has remained. What is read after the headline is the end paragraph or ps.

What do you sell on if you can’t sell on the benefits?

What I would urge people who don’t believe me and would continue with their product description, is for them to try out one of the A/B experiments

If you can’t sell on benefits, what then can you sell on?

As stated in the previous email, the old proverb that talks of selling on benefits instead of the features was true as it has always been. In addition to that, the point that one needs to offer benefits that other firms don’t offer.

In my last email I suggested that the proverb on selling the benefits and not features has always been true until now.  However I also made the point that one needs to offer the benefits that cannot be offered by other firms.

This is often hard because it is normally difficult to get particular benefits for some products and services that most people will not claim.

So what should you do?

Most firms retreat into a description of the product features or services offered by them. This is what is known as announcements advertisement and they do not actually work in general.

However, there are other many alternatives

One of the approaches that one can use is by writing an interesting question through the headlines. Take a look at this, if you are selling computers that are most expensive in the market, you might write something like

What can be the most effective way of reducing computer costs?

Such a headline will draw the reader’s attention close because of the fact that there is reduction of costs. You can then state about false economy that comes with buying cheap computers because programs develop each day and if you find a cheap computer that won’t break down then it might end up being slow as you upgrade.

Or what I would have written in the headline instead is; what is the simplest way one can double the number of response you should get from marketing directly?

Writing great adverts take time and require little experience but it is worth if you want it to work.

Dean Williams

Dean Williams is a design and marketing blogger working for Print-Print Limited, promoting business and building brands through quality print marketing. If you’re interested in small business promotion then please get in touch hello@print-print.co.uk