Marketing

Creating Marketing That Gets Results Advertising Isn’t Just For Coca Cola
by Ken Doyle

You have great products to sell. You have a great story tell. The only thing you’re lacking is prospects. Do what Coca Cola does. Do what McDonald’s does. Do what Nike does. In short, do what everyone who has great products to sell and a great story to tell does: Advertise.
While you may not have the multi-million dollar budget of Coca Cola, McDonalds, or Nike, you can still develop a highly successful, results-driven marketing effort that includes print ads, direct mail, insert mail, and flyers.
First things first. Develop a plan. Before you can create an ad, direct mail piece, or flyer you need to identify who your potential customers are – known as your target market. This is as simple as asking yourself, “What kind of people want or need my services?”

What makes you special?

Next, you need to ask yourself what makes your product or services different from the competition. This is known as the unique selling proposition and, it alone, is responsible for the creation of some of the most successful advertising campaigns in history. (Reason enough for you to adapt this simple technique in your advertising.)

Choose one thing – one benefit that makes your product or your services stand out from everybody else. A word of caution: Too many advertisers make the mistake of trying to mention everything that makes them different. This “kitchen sink approach” is mind-boggling and confusing to a prospect.

Market in Threes

After selecting the key benefit that separates you from your competition, you need to take it one step further by giving support for that benefit. Just saying you’re an expert in HSAs isn’t enough. The support for your benefit should include three key points. This is known as marketing in threes. Studies have shown that communicating fewer than three points is not meaningful and communicating four or more is too much for a consumer to absorb.

For example, let’s say that your unique selling proposition is that you’re an expert in offering HSAs. The support points for that benefit might be the following:
• You can offer your clients substantially lower premiums.
• Your clients will receive special tax advantages.
• Your clients will be able to open a special kind of savings account, which can earn interest.

Select the proper media.

A 30-second TV spot on the Super Bowl can cost over a million dollars. On the other hand, you’ll only incur the cost of postage when sending a flyer or direct mail piece through Uncle Sam. If you have a big enough budget to run an ad, choose your media carefully. You don’t need to take out an ad in a major newspaper if you’re only trying to reach small business owners. The Yellow Pages might suffice.

Frame Your Message

You’ve identified your target market. You understand their special needs. You know what makes your product unique or special. So now, you’re ready to frame your message. Framing means to paint a clear picture of what you want your audience to think and visualize. People should see the sunshine and feel the rain.

Creating Clever, Catchy and Convincing Print Ads, Direct Mail and Flyers

Volkswagen’s ad didn’t say, “Buy this great Volkswagen” along with a picture of the Beatle. It read “Lemon.” It was so intriguing, fresh, and innovative that a reader couldn’t help being drawn into the copy. It explained that Volkswagen went to great lengths to ensure that a customer would never walk away with a lemon. This ingenious ad sold millions and millions of cars.

Write a Strong Headline–Write several headlines until you come up with a particularly compelling one. Test headlines with friends and colleagues. Avoid buzzwords, clichés, and puns. Speak to one person, not the masses. Make your communication piece feel personal to your intended readership. If copywriting isn’t your thing, work with a copywriter who can make your words sell.

Picture This–Studies show that ads with graphics or illustrations get read more often than ads with only text. And the best ads use images that are interesting and large. But don’t go overboard. Graphics should enhance your communication piece and help draw people in, not overwhelm it. By all means, resist the temptation to use clip art. It looks cheesy and it will cheapen your communication effort.

Remember the White Room–White space is as important an element in a communication piece as the text and graphics. Too little white room and your piece won’t be read at all. While it may seem a waste of precious space in so small an area, white space will actually make your piece clearer and more easily understood.

Keep Your Fonts Few–Although there are thousands of fonts available, only use one or two. Here’s why: It’s confusing for a reader to read a bunch of different fonts.

Don’t Rush to the Capital–Just as it is hard to read a bunch of different fonts, text in all capitals has little contrast as all the letters are the same height. People’s brains process text written in lower case letters much better.

Do a Balancing Act–Balance is an important element as well. This doesn’t mean that you have to center everything in your communication piece. Try to get balance by placing elements, such as graphics, type, and logos in such a way that your communication piece flows well and is balanced across the space. In general, people read following a reversed S pattern.
Casual or Black Tie? Is your audience serious and businesslike or relaxed and casual? This is important. Some communication pieces need to take a formal tone while others can benefit from being playful and fun. It all depends on your audience.
Hurry! Call now! This is a Limited Time Offer! Many clever ads have won numerous awards, but they’ve sold nothing. Don’t forget that the objective of your communication piece is to sell. Create a strong call to action. Put your phone number in a prominent place. Ask the reader to do something – give you a call or visit your website.

Some Common Mistakes to Avoid

Too much clutter – Don’t forget the white room. If you can’t fit in all the information you had hoped to, consider going with a larger sized ad or editing down your information to a more manageable amount.
Unclear message – Make sure you know what you are trying to get your reader to do before you create your piece. Keep this objective in mind at all times and review your piece when you’re done to make sure this has been achieved. Tip: Show you final draft to friends and colleagues and get their take on it. If they don’t get it, don’t take it personally; just start fresh.

Errors – It may seem easy to proofread such a small amount of type, but sometimes errors show up. To be safe, read your piece out loud and have someone else review it carefully.
Lack of contact information – You’ve written a spectacular ad or direct mail piece that’s catchy, clever, and impeccably designed. You’re a genius with pictures and words. And yet, no one has called. Why? You forgot to include contact information like a phone number, address, website, etc. You can create the greatest message in the world but if a potential customer can’t find you it’s all for nothing.

Ready. Set. Create

By following the steps outlined above, you should be able to create a compelling, interesting communication piece that draws the reader in and gets results. Remember, it pays to advertise–even if it’s something as simple as producing a flyer or direct mail piece. You can reap huge rewards. If it didn’t work you can be sure companies like Coca-Cola, McDonalds and Nike wouldn’t be doing it.
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Ken Doyle is director of marketing nationally for Warner Pacific Insurance Services. He is based in the company’s Westlake Village office. He can be reached at 800-801-2300 x 138 or at kend@warnerpacific.com.