4 Critical Elements To A Successful Ad

Over the course of your business life you are probably going to be forced to write many different advertisements from flyers to brochures, print ads to radio spots…possibly even the odd TV commercial.

So doesn’t it make sense for you to make those ads as persuasive as possible…and to continually be tweaking your ads with the aim of improving your conversions year in year out.

“That sounds like a lot of work”…I hear you say.

Depends on how you look at it.

Is it considered work if you spend an extra hour crafting a p0werful ad that doubles the sales your business gets from the ad that week?

It probably is…its just much more profitable work than pretty much any other task you do on a daily basis.

Persuasive Copywriting Increases Your Leverage

Leverage is the ability to get more from an existing task or resource. Ad writing is something that you need to do – so why not do it well. Continually be aiming to increase the response your ads get every time you run them.

In this article I’m going to tell you the four things that should be included as part of every ad you write. This is just the minimum – there are other elements which can be included depending on the size of your ad, where and what you’re promoting etc.

1) A Powerful Headline

While this is generally the shortest part of your ad, it should actually be the area you spend the most time on. Between 70-80% of people will read no further than a headline, so this is where you really need to work hard at capturing their attention.

Think of your headline as an ad for you ad – you are trying to convince people that your ad has some really valuable information that they should read immediately.

2) Irresistible Offer

Every ad should contain an offer to the reader. This is probably the part of the ad that gets left out by most business owners, who are content to write down a simple description of their business, their opening hours, blah blah blah.

Booooooooring.

You need to offer the reader a reason to buy from your business today. What can you offer them that separates your business from the hundreds of other businesses trying to get the attention of the reader?

3) Risk Reversal

Risk reversal is the process of removing all of the risk from the buyer and placing it on yourself. The most common example is the money back guarantee.

This is one of the most powerful elements you can include in an ad but many people are scared to do it because they are worried that customers will take advantage of them.

It has been consistently proven that businesses that offer powerful guarantees, outsell those that don’t.

And contrary to what you think will happen, very few people actually take you up on your guarantee. They just need to know that you stand behind your product, and are so confident in its value that you will refund any unsatisfied customers

4) Call To Action with scarcity built in

People need to be told what to do next in clearly stated terms.

• “Call this number now to receive…”
• “Visit our website now to download your free report…”

And you can make this even more powerful by creating a sense of urgency. Limit the amount of time they have to take you up on your offer. Or limit the number of spots available.

So In Summary

If you were to start writing ads tomorrow that included all four of these components, you would be far ahead of the game and would notice an immediate improvement in conversions from your ads.

I would recommend that if you want to improve your ad writing you start analysing ads in newspapers – and I’m talking all industries here, not just your competitors.

You’ll be surprised at how many ads out there are ineffective once you understand what makes a persuasive ad.

In the next few articles I’ll break down each of these four components and offer you some simple strategies you can you use to improve their effectiveness.

Craig