Three-Step Shortcut to Writing Successful Ads

I’ll never for­get this for as long as I live.

The real estate office man­ager marched to his secretary’s desk. He rubbed his face in frus­tra­tion. I stopped mak­ing cold calls to spy on their conversation.

In muf­fled tones, he told her to write a “house ad” for a new list­ing. He wasn’t sure what to write. So he told her to come up with some­thing. Anything.

Back then I sold real estate for a liv­ing. I just started learn­ing how to write ads that work. But I couldn’t believe what just transpired.

The office man­ager abdi­cated his most impor­tant respon­si­bil­ity — writ­ing ads to bring in new leads — to his… secretary.

Ever feel like this guy?

Most online and offline busi­ness peo­ple do. Faced with a blank page or com­puter screen they shut down. Oth­er­wise artic­u­late peo­ple cower in fear when it comes to cre­at­ing ads.

They squirm in their seats. Guz­zle down cups of cof­fee. Read the paper. And, worst of all, pawn the job off to some­one… any­one… else.

Look, when it comes to craft­ing adver­tis­ing win­ners, noth­ing is more impor­tant than…

Knowing What To Say

Yet, the biggest prob­lem adver­tis­ers wres­tle with is, well, know­ing what to say in their pro­mo­tions. You see, your prospects respond to what you write.

How you write takes the back seat. Because regard­less of how elo­quently you say it, you first must say the right things…

… Things proven to elicit response.

Here are a few secrets to dis­cov­er­ing what to say. Once you know these secrets, your con­fi­dence lev­els will soar. You’ll never again stare in bewil­der­ment at a blank page or com­puter screen. Nor will you ever guess what to write in your promotions.

Step One: Stop Guessing

First, you should know, noth­ing mur­ders response rates more than guess­ing. And there’s no need to guess anyway.

What you do instead is this: Gather about you three or four ads tar­get­ing your mar­ket. Try to find ads that sell the same or sim­i­lar prod­ucts. Try to find ads spe­cific to the media you’ll use. Try to find ads that keep run­ning over and over again.

These are proven winners.

Step Two: Make A Benefit List

Armed with these proven pro­mo­tions, it’s time to take the next step.

Make a list of all the ben­e­fits con­tained in each ad. If you find three rel­e­vant ads, then you’ll write three sep­a­rate ben­e­fit lists. Then cir­cle all the ben­e­fits appear­ing in each ad.

Guess what? These ben­e­fit lists you cre­ate reveal the market’s hot but­tons. The ben­e­fits that show up in each ad over and over again are the ben­e­fits you high­light in your ad.

Step Three: Model Successful Ads

Take one of the ads you like and use it as a tem­plate. Insert the most per­ti­nent ben­e­fits — based on the research you just did — into your ad.

Now, you’ll rely on a proven suc­cess­ful model to craft your own ad. Doing so puts the odds in your favor. In fact, by fol­low­ing this sim­ple three-​​part for­mula, you can cre­ate ads that are up to three times more effec­tive than any­thing you could dream up on your own.

In con­clu­sion, once you know what to say in your ads, gen­er­at­ing the type of response you want is easy. And the eas­i­est way to know what to say in your ads is to model suc­cess­ful ones.

Oth­er­wise, you’re guess­ing and hop­ing to find the right sales appeal. Fol­low the three steps above and you’ll be way ahead of most busi­ness own­ers who write their own advertising.

About the Author

Last 5 Posts By John Anghelache

• Slaughter The Competition Without Mercy

Other Related Posts

• Why Freelance Copywriters Go Hungry
• Giving Thanks With This Birthday Giveaway
• Give Your Joint-Venture Offer An Extra Punch
• New To Copywriting? Start Here...
• How to Negotiate Better Copywriting Fees