As a small business owner you must be making your ad copy or giving it to someone to do but are you aware of the various elements that make a good ad with a high conversion rate? The usual structure that small business owners follow is the company name, company logo, a list of services offered, claims of the best quality, best service or best prices, offer and contact details. Sometimes these ad copies do give you some results by getting you a few customers but they happen to come to you by accident. We don’t want accidents we want a sure shot method an ad copy that works every time. How can we make these ad copies so compelling that customers come to us not by accident but by design?
I will give you some thumb rules that you can apply to get the best out of your marketing budget by making sure the communication that goes out is perfect to attract you the maximum customers.
Answer yourself two questions:
What is the purpose of your ad?
What does your ad focus on?
The usual answers to the above questions are: Branding, getting people to know about my products and services, getting sales, wanting people to visit my store etc. All these are very different reasons and you can’t achieve all the objectives in a single ad, The thumb rule is one ad, one objective.
Once your objective is clear, make sure there is nothing else on the ad that is distracting your prospects from your message. Next, communicate to your readers what do you want them to do next? Do they call your toll-free number to order, or visit your website, are you offering a special offer and ways to redeem it. The call to action has to be absolutely clear not vague like don’t hesitate to call us. Give them a time frame to take action.
The next step you need to take as a business owner is not to talk about yourself in terms of product features. If you meet people someone at a party and all they do is keep talking about themselves, I am sure it would turn you off you would look at ways to move away from the person. Similarly don’t keep talking about things from your perspective in fact relate all your communication from the perspective of the customer. You need to consider how are you helping him/her to solve his pain points or problems? Join the conversation in his mind. How will your product and service make his life better? Talk about him and see how he gets interested in you, your business and your offering.
Develop a USP (a unique selling proposition)
How are you different from your competitor? Most of the businesses, if you remove the name and the logo they all sound the same. How is your identity different from others in your niche? If you are selling exactly what your others are selling there is no reason for the customers to buy it from you. You have no choice but to start competing on price to attract customers. To avoid this make your unique selling proposition so compelling and different that the customers would have no choice but to choose you over others. Most people go wrong with developing their USP by saying “Quality” or “Great Service” is their USP. There are 2 things wrong with it:
- Quality and Great service are expectations; they are just part of good business practice- not something unique.
- People only find out about your quality and great service after they have brought. A good USP is designed to attract prospects before they have made a purchasing decision.
So to develop your USP you need to ask yourself and answer:
- Why do the customers need to buy the product you are selling?
- Why should they buy it from you?
These questions should have clear and quantifiable answers. Something that can be measured in absolute terms. The uniqueness need not be in the product itself it can be in the way it is packaged, sold, delivered, installed, after Sales service etc. Make sure your USP is easy to understand and is communicated in very clear terms.
The next thing you got to create is your elevators pitch. Elevators speech is a well-rehearsed summary of your business and its value proposition, which can be delivered in 30-90 seconds. Don’t mention your product features but talk about the actual work it does. What are the problems it solves for people? Eg: Instead of me telling, I do Social Media Marketing, I can say I help Businesses grow by getting more customers by promoting it over social media channels.
Now comes your offer, how do you get it right?
Of all the products and services you offer, which product or services gets you, maximum clients? And among them which product or service do you enjoy delivering the most?
Let you offer be a win-win situation for both you and your clients. It should be something that clients would love to have it and at the same time, you should earn decent profits over it for you to continue delivering it.
Be aware that purchasing is done with emotions and logic is added to it later. Your communication right from ad copy, elevators pitch, your offer everything needs to trigger emotion in your clients to compel them to purchase your product.
So in a summary, a good marketing plan consists of a clear well defined single goal communication in terms of an ad. A good USP, stating why the customers should choose you over your competitor and lastly your irresistible offer.
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