<p align="Justify">Advertising Mistakes: How To Avoid Them
Advertising isn't hard to do. You prepare an advertisement or write a
classified ad to sell your product or generate interest to send people more
information. But the way most people make mistakes is either by their
inability to write effective ad copy and by sending it to be published in
the wrong publication. Here are some pointers to follow:
Writing Effective Copy
Never try to sell anything costing more than $5 in a small display ad or a
classified ad. First of all, you don't have enough room to tell people
everything they need to know to entice them to order.
Instead, you need to employ the "Two-Step" method of advertising. Request
the reader to send you $1 or 4 first-class postage stamps for more
information. When they respond, you will send them a brochure, flyer, order
form and cover letter so they can place an order for the real product.
Now that pricing is out of the way lets talk about writing your ad copy.
The best way to learn how is to read the ads other people have written.
Don't copy them word-for-word, but use them as a guideline to write your
own ads. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be writing effective ad copy
just as well as the pros.
Here's an example of an ad you could use to sell automobile wax: Free
information on the best wax available on the market. If you care about the
lasting beauty of your vehicle, send $1 for complete details to (your name
and address.)
Advertising in the Right Publication
Even if you make and sell the best candy in the world, you probably
couldn't sell very much of it to people who are diabetics. The same goes
for selling race car parts to women or dentures to teenagers.
Although this may sound a little silly and you think it is only common
sense to know this -- people will often overlook this fact when choosing
the publication they will be advertising in. Instead, they will look for
the lowest price for the amount of circulation they receive. Unfortunately,
this does not work out.
Even though you need to look for good deals that make it easy on your
pocketbook, you will be throwing money away if you don't pre-qualify the
publication you choose.
One way of pre-qualifying the publication is to send for a sample copy.
Most publishers will send them to you free of charge for the asking. If you
don't know of any mail order publications, just write to Glenn Bridgeman,
PO Box 10150, Terra Bella CA 93270 or William Lee, Rt 1, Box 10790,
Madisonville TN 37354 and ask them to send you some. (Be sure to enclose $1
or 4 first-class postage stamps in with your request to offset postage
costs.) If you tell them you are new to mail order and are interested in
publications to advertise in, you certainly will find the $1 you spent is
well worth the effort because both of these publishers are very reputable,
honest and helpful.
Study the publication to see what other people are advertising and how they
are advertising it. Contact some of the people who sell items similar to
your own with the hope of networking with them. You would be surprised how
much free publicity you can get just from corresponding, calling and
networking with others.
Once you locate a publication you want to advertise in, give it a try for 3
months. If you don't get any response or only a few orders, try another
publication. There are millions of them and eventually you will hit the
right target market that will be interested in what you have to sell.
Don't Stop With One Publication
Just because you locate the target market of people who are interested in
purchasing your product there is no reason you can't advertise in more than
one publication. In fact -- if you don't, your ad will become stale. If the
same people continue to see your ad every month they will probably get
tired of looking at it. Besides, if they wanted the product they would have
ordered it by now. Don't tire them out! Alternate different size ads and
get rid of ones that don't work well.
Leave your ad running as long as it brings in orders for you but also
advertise in 5, 10, 20 or 50 other publications also to generate a steady
stream of orders and to reach more people.
Key Your Ads
Many beginners in mail order never key their ads so they know what
publication people saw their ads in. In fact, I personally never did this
myself and ended up losing a lot of money. So please don't make the same
mistake I did.
Keying your ads means that you place a code of some sort in your address so
that when people write and order something from you, you immediately will
know where they saw your ad. Keep a record of every name and address of the
publisher you send an advertisement to. Record the date you sent the ad and
the date you received a checking copy, proving that your ad appeared. Also
record the "code" you used so you can immediately identify where it came
from.
An example of coding your ad would be: If your address is "123 Anytown St,"
it could become "123 Anytown St, Suite A" for one publication and "Suite B"
for another. The postman will still deliver your mail to "123 Anytown St."
Of course, if you live in an apartment complex and there are apartment
numbers you could turn "111 Johnson, Apt A" into "111 Johnson, Apt A-1" for
one publication and "Apt A-2" for another.
Post office box addresses are also simple. You could easily turn "PO Box
585" into "PO Box 585, Dept A-1" for one publication and "Dept A-2" for
another.
People will sometimes even change their name on the ad for keying purposes.
You might see the name "Harriet's Recipe Book" instead of Harriet Ranger.
Harriet might also use "Harriet's Cookbook" or even "Harriet's Solution to
Stress" on her ads relating to these products. Use your own imagination and
pretty soon, keying your ads will be a normal part of your life.
Be sure and keep track (on your Record Sheet) of how many responses you
receive from each publication. After 3 months, look over your Record Sheet
and get rid of the publications that didn't do well. You'll go broke if you
spend $10 per month advertising a 2-inch ad if you only receive $1 back in
orders. After awhile you'll be able to see where it pays you to advertise
your particular product and then you can send in larger ads to those
publications. Never stop using this method and you'll never stop getting
orders in your mailbox.
It's a win-win situation for everybody!
Tabloids -vs- Adsheets
Another question about advertising that many people have is whether its
better to advertise in tabloids or adsheets. Many people will sell you
information on the best day to mail and the best time of the year to
advertise. They think they have it down to a science and will convince you
of their methods.
However, there is NO set rules that can be employed by everyone. That's
because there are a wide variety of ways to approach various products. If
you sell travel services and read a report that told you not to advertise
during the summer months, you'd go broke. The summer is the travel
industry's biggest money-making season!
Don't get hung up on specific statistics made by people who claim to be
expert researchers. There is no way to determine what is best for you than
to try it yourself and see what works. You are the person in control of
your business and you are where the buck stops. Take advantage of your
authority and try every angle you can think of until you determine what's
best for your company's product and/or service.
Tabloids are a fantastic advertising vehicle and adsheets are too.
Sometimes people feel a small 1" camera-ready ad gets lost in a tabloid
filled with 100's of them. This may be true in some circumstances and not
true in others. Do you look at 1" ads in tabloids? Of course you do. You
scan the pages and your eye is always directed to one or two on the page
that catches your eye. Ask yourself "why" they caught your eye. Was it
because the ad was placed in a specific area on the page? Was it because of
the headline or the word "free"?
There are a million different ways to market and sell your particular
product or service. What might work for John may not work for Joe. You have
to find your own way.
In addition, classifieds sometimes work well in tabloids and adsheets and
sometimes they don't, Look in the back of the Globe or Enquirer. Don't they
have page after page of classified ads? If nobody was reading them and
responding to them, the advertisers wouldn't be submitting advertising to
the Globe or Enquirer for them. So evidently, people DO read classified ads
-- even if there are 100's of them. Test the waters and do what works the
best for you.
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