The following 15 Tips For Better Advertising are meant to either inspire or give a different perspective on what you are doing now. Each one can be used on its own or researched in greater depth to understand the art and science that go into making it effective. In the end, the more you customize the following points the more your sales will increase.
1. Set A Hot Price Point - Play with pricing to understand what number yields the highest sales. Too high and a greater number of customers will decline. Too low and you'll strain cash flow. Dedication to finding the right number that has the greatest mass appeal has huge pay-offs.
2. Be Creative But Relevant - Your materials need to get attention and stand out from the noise of other advertisers. However, if the message is too creative and the contents don't match your ad you will turn customers away due to lack of credibility.
3. Make It Easy To Find The Offer - Make the offer prominent, clear, and bold. Don't make customers read or think too much. Customers lose attention fast due to massive amounts of daily information that bombards them from every angle. Keep it simple.
4. Do Not Overload With Information - You may have a lot to say but too much reading can cause readers to give up. Saying a few dynamic things that get the phone to ring is more important than giving away all your secrets or reasons why you are the best.
5. Consider Pricing A Popular Item Low - If there are a few items your business or industry are known for price them low to attract interest and high volume sales. Gaining new customers for future sales will be worth multiples of the little you gave up.
6. Sell Bundled Products - This is a very common technique in grocery stores and pharmacies. This principle can be used in any industry whether it includes selling shoes, software, industrial products or something else. This technique creates a high perceived value and increases cash flow.
7. Use Catchy Headlines For All Advertising - Get people to stop and read. If you peak interest and can get someone to take a few moments to know what you're about you're opening the door for a future customer.
8. Note An "Offer Expiry Date" - Stir a sense of urgency. If customers see a great promotion but don't feel pressure to act now they'll just put it off to another time that doesn't usually happen.
9. Note "Limited Supply" - This is a variation of #8. If you're offering the product/service at the right price create demand by limiting availability to those who really want the product/service feel the pressure to act now.
10. Use Testimonials - A printed testimonial has a great perceived level of credibility then a marketer or company that makes promises.
11. Reduce Large Ticket Prices To A Daily Value - Any product that sells for thousands of dollars can be reduced to a daily value (1. decide the finance/payment terms in months 2. determine the number of days in that period 3. determine the full retail value 3. divide the retail value by the number of days).
The end result is a $2,500 software item over a finance period of 1 year will cost a company as little as the price of a daily lunch at $6.82. The sales ad head line might read, "For Only $6.82 a Day Our Software Can Solve Your Company's Problems."
12. Avoid Using A Percent Discount Unless It's Big - If you're going to offer less than a 20% minimum show how many dollars off. People like to know how much money they're putting back in their pocket without guessing.
13. Use Short Sentences - Keep words in sentences down to 6 - 12. The faster you can make the point the better.
14. Be Positive - Showing any form of negativity may scare people into taking action but will leave a stigma with your business. If you use negative advertising too often you'll be stuck with the "Boy That Cried Wolf" syndrome - people just won't see your points as dramatic anymore.
15. Show Solutions To Problems - Describe scenarios in your advertising where people have a problem your product can fix. This increases the value of what you offer significantly and helps customers relate to why they should take action.
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