Small ads - 'as sound as a pound'

Written by Steve Hawker


Continued from page 1

Do test new adverts by running them for a few weeks initially. Monitor their performance proactively, change them and run more tests until you are happy. If tested adverts contain offers that are unlikely to change over time, select longer advertising periods, to take advantage of any discounts. Select longer periods too, if you are prepared to wait forrepparttar 'right' price or customer.

Set fair and reasonable prices. Include commas for prices in thousands, full stops for prices in pence, and state clearlyrepparttar 100536 tax arrangements. Attach any conditions of sale, like ‘or very near offer’. Check your price and conditions. You may wish to set a slightly higher price if you foresee haggling.

Think carefully about your most likely customers. Which emotions will motivate them to buy from you: happiness, love or jealousy perhaps? What do your customers need? Do they seek fulfilment, a sense of belonging, or security? What associated benefits are they seeking fromrepparttar 100537 items or services you are selling?

Describe sales offers in ways that will interest your potential customers greatly. Use simple, factual words that they will search, or browse, for. Enter unusual abbreviations in full. Avoid slang, legal and technical words, and jargon. Use as few ‘noise’ words as you can, words like 'but', 'and', 'to'. Create short, logical, punchy sentences with correct spellings and punctuation. Use plain, positive English that stimulates curiosity and demands action. Your only goal remember, is to make buyers contact you for more information.

Create captions that will grabrepparttar 100538 attention of your most likely customers. Use advertising ‘power words’ to fascinate them with what you have to sell. Make your customers stop in their tracks and want to read your description. Avoid unsubstantiated hype though, as well asrepparttar 100539 extensive use of exclamation marks.

Leave any selection of advert types and classes until after you have drafted your description and caption. Often,repparttar 100540 most cost-effective categories become apparent once these are in place.

Now you’ve establishedrepparttar 100541 contact arrangements, sale locations, prices, conditions and classes, check your adverts again. Read them aloud to yourself. Show them to objective friends. Will your captions entice? Will your descriptions fascinate? Change your adverts, if necessary. Repeat this process until you are happy that your adverts are attractive, credible and effective. Use your full character or word allowance. Balance this suggestion withrepparttar 100542 needs for accuracy, brevity and clarity.

Lastly, check for competing small ads in various different media. Who are your nearest competitors? Are your offers competitive on price and availability? Change your adverts again, if needs be. Effective small ad creation is a highly iterative process, you see.

Do experiment and aim for uniqueness. Small ads should be 'right first time', competitive and successful. Yes, and fun too! Good hunting.

© Steve Hawker 2005. All rights reserved. Steve is a partner at http://www.ehawker.co.uk, the small ads search engine. E-mail him at: info@ehawker.co.uk


7 Questions to Ask Before You Advertise

Written by Michele Pariza Wacek


Continued from page 1

5. Would you rather save time than money? Let's face it. Running an ad is easy. Other marketing methods are more time-consuming. If you want your marketing to be easy, then advertising is about as easy as it's going to get. (Now there is a caveat to this one, because you can hire people to do some of those marketing tasks, such as updating Web sites, running PR campaigns, etc. However, not everything can be hired out so you still might be stuck spending time you don't have.)

6. Are you planning to test a new campaign or a new product/target market? Running small, inexpensive ads can be a good way to test certain marketing aspects before launching big, expensive, time-consuming campaigns. If you want to penetrate a new market or if you have a new product to launch or a new marketing message to try, buy some ads and see whatrepparttar response rate is. Another strength of advertising is control -- you have total control over your test.

7. Do other marketing approaches never quite measure up? It happens. Advertising in one or two specific media outlets seem to generate more sales and more leads then anything else you've tried. If that'srepparttar 100535 case, then don't mess with it. Asrepparttar 100536 old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Creativity Exercise -- Advertising and your business

Is advertising right for your business? Try this exercise and see.

1. What's your biggest marketing challenge right now? Write it down.

2. Go throughrepparttar 100537 above list of questions and ask yourself each one. Does it apply to your situation? If it does, write that down too.

3. Do some brainstorming. In what ways can you use advertising to solve your marketing challenges? What media would work best? Online? Print? Radio? Television? Direct mail? Something else? Make up an ad for a variety of media.

Now dorepparttar 100538 exact opposite. Think of ways advertising WON'T work for your business. Brainstorm at least 25 reasons why advertising won't work for your specific situation. Be silly. It's a good way to loosen you up.

4. Go back and reread both your pro and con lists. Now read your ads. Do you like what you came up with? Do any of them resonate with you, even now after coming up with your list of objections?

You may have just come up with your next advertising campaign.

Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money." She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com. Copyright 2005 Michele Pariza Wacek


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