Today is article number ten in our series of Top 10 Advertising Mistakes and How to Avoid Them.
I really appreciate you going through these first nine articles with me.
Ideally, they have imparted some experience, knowledge, help, to avoid or eliminate some of the advertising, marketing and media pitfalls that many advertisers have had to deal with.
I limited this series to 10. That’s not to say there aren’t a huge number of them. I’m sure everyone can add to the list or maybe change the order as they see fit and I fully respect that.
But these are the ones that have been the standouts in my career across multiple agencies, clients, industries, and budgets of all sizes.
My hope is that they are some guides for you on how to navigate your future activity.
So, as a quick review before we get to the end of our series, a quick recap.
number one was a failure to test and measure your ad and
number two he wasn’t taking the time for ad scheduling.
Number Three he was failing to investigate who his target group really is
number four I was changing the look too often
Number five – remember that I suggested that you have to dance with whoever you brought. You take care of your existing customers
number six was to do due diligence and not open your wallet to just any ad sales rep
number seven it was spreading too thin and not doing a good job in any medium to begin with
number eight you were coming into the campaign with unrealistic expectations of what your ad campaign can do to transform your business overnight
number nine he was giving up his campaign too soon
today for Number ten and it hits the heart of creativity and that’s very simple, Bad ad execution.
You’ve seen them, you can probably rhyme two or three off the top of your head just like that.
There’s no way of putting it finely, but most advertising fails, up to 90% according to some reports, but most advertising fails.
Hey? Ninety break through! Yes, and why do you ask?
Well, because they do not excite or engage the reader.
They do not arouse curiosity. They do not tell the reader to pay attention.
They blend into the background and become invisible.
They are too boring.
Like I said, there’s no way to put this delicately.
But if your message isn’t compelling enough to grab someone’s attention, how the hell are you going to get them to the bottom of the ad when you can’t even get their interest at the top of the ad?
I mentioned Mr. John Caples earlier in this series. He was a prolific ad tester. He was also a very good ad writer and possibly the most famous was an ad he wrote for the US School of Music correspondence where the headline read: …They laughed when I sat down to play the piano but when i started playing…
Then he went through a wonderful narrative. That headline captivated people throughout the ad and directed them to the tear-out coupon to order some music lessons by mail.
It was a resounding success and was repeated for decades because it continued to arouse the curiosity of readers.
Their the headline makes or breaks your ad and many experienced copywriters will tell you how important those few words are in drawing the reader into the rest of the story.
It can arouse curiosity.
Can be That is how.
Can be This is why.
Can be who else wants whatever,
but more than anything your headline has to divert attention from everything else because of what that person is going through at that moment and say…
…you really need to read this and you need to see what it is. I have to say that nothing else is as important as these 95 seconds it will take you to read my ad…
That’s what you have to do. To fix this, dear readers, you honestly just have to create better ads.
It all starts with words. Those 26 letters of the alphabet are the key to sales. Whether you write it yourself or have an agency or professional do it for you, you want ads that are informative, that make the prospect eager to have more of East. whatever you are East happens to be
To include them in your ads, you need to create a great headline.
And a great headline is responsible for more than 80% of ad success. He has to stop you and draw you in. He has to have stopping power. You want to sell them right?
You need to get their attention, and if you want to get their attention, stop them with a headline that says… you have to read this now.
Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you, it has been my privilege.
I hope this series has been helpful to you.
I look forward to your comments electronically or by mail if you wish.
All contact information for reaching me can be found in the resource box at the end of this article, which directs you to my website. You’ll find a lot of free and paid resources there to help you along the way and if I can be of any further assistance it would be a privilege.
This is Dennis Kelly. Thanks.
