Do you know what I find hard, writing my own advertising. I don’t have the same mental constipation with my client’s ads.

I am going to let you in on a little secret… a lot of us copywriters and marketing pros have a hard time with our own business’s marketing. With all the training we have we still have a civil war going on within our heads.

The trouble with all business owners is…  that we see our advertising as something other than what is supposed to be, to help people. How many times when you are placing ads are you thinking about what affect on your life the ad has if it succeeds or fails?

You immediately start thinking about bills that need to be payed, equipment you need to buy, employees dependent on you or a high priced hooker you have scheduled for every Thursday… it all impedes how you see your advertising.

Your ads will reflect your situation unless you are extremely disciplined. I can always tell a desperate business by their advertising, can’t you?

Most times we are not thinking about the right results. We focus on money, but the person reading your ad is focused on their problems. You have a business that specializes in eliminating a problem (or problems) for people.

Whether you are a window cleaner, financial adviser or a used car salesman, you’re in the business of solving problems.

This is why it is so much easier for me to write advertisements for other businesses. I can see the business’s solution to the clients problem and write it to their target market in an appealing way.

Here is a simple approach to writing your own ads- Tell them how you can help them. It is vital you forget about your side of things.

You must be sincere in your effort to help others. I have seen advertisements written by small business owners, with little marketing skill win big with a simple, direct and sincere ad.

Don’t be funny, fancy or egocentric. You likely have not got the sincerity part down yet so adding humor or visual enhancements become a mask. This is a VERY hard way to create an effective advertisement.

Humor is based on what YOU think is funny. Design is based on what YOU think looks appealing. If the words are generic your results will be weakened.

I know this is beaten to death but you need to write from the customers point of view. I always try to ask ‘why?’ when I write a sentence, offer, add graphics…. Why should they keep reading. Why do these graphics help in making sales. Why should they be compelled to contact me now.

Be sincere and always keep asking yourself why and you will see huge leaps in sales.

Paul

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When I am writing someones sales page I need to research their product or service.

A lot of the time I see a lot of value in what they offer, yet they charge almost nothing…. and then lump on a bunch of bonuses or freebies.

I had a client with a business selling plans for building a contraption for car enthusiasts. I took one look at his price and… 

raised it without even seeing anything.

Actually, I almost doubled the price. I knew he was positioning his products as "poor mans plans" and I don’t see a profitable outcome there.

He about crapped his overhauls but he raised the price and sales INCREASED.

Obviously writing him a new sales page helped, but we were not hitting a new target market. These were the "tightwads" he believed would not pay more.

If you’re going to sell a product or service think about the price. Experiment with a higher price point first. Let the market tell you what sounds good.

For those of you writing your own ads, really look at the value of what you are offering. Convey the value with a justifiable price and sales will increase.

I am not saying raising prices is the answer to more sales, but most focus on how cheap it is. They focus on cheap and so does the customer.

I see WAY too many under-priced offers out there. It cost no more to sell something for $57 than it does $17.

Don’t jump over the dollars to get to the dimes.

go get some

Paul

Please feel free to leave your thoughts on this. I would love to hear what you think.

 Being that I write ads and sales pages I always find myself
in a situation where I need to qualify my client’s position.

This happens a lot in the ‘relationship’ niche.

It can be very hard to position somebody as someone with
the answers when they don’t have a body of work or
proof (like degrees, awards, expert testimonials, etc)

You likely have had to (or will be) trying to convince people
to buy your thingy or service based upon your know-how.

A lot of niches can do this with screen shots and testimonials,
but a lot of others do not have these tools.

My favorite example of someone completely forcing his will
upon people to believe him is…  Tony Robbins.

Here we have this troubled man with no degree in anything
talking about changing peoples lives in 15 minutes.

How did he do this? Back in the mid 80′s when he started out he grasped
onto NLP. He studied this little known method to great detail and
wrote a book.

He took what he knew and simply challenged psychiatrists that he
could ‘cure’ their patients in front of a live audience. He convinced a
woman deathly afraid of snakes not to be in 15 minutes!

Here is a guy who was absolutely nobody. Took on a niche where
you HAD to have a formal education and became one of the most
famous self help people to ever walk the earth.

He started having private sessions with people for $500 an hour
and ‘cured" them in one session! He quickly charged $5000 a session.

He VERY quickly proved to the world (despite being criticized
by every expert as a charlatan) that he was indeed someone who
can teach you to help yourself.

Dr Phil did much the same thing.

If you are a part of what you are selling, you need to give the reader
something other than "I’m the expert". Reveal stuff in your ads, give
out some ‘secrets’.

I promise you if you divulge some awesome free advice/tricks/
strategies you can get around fighting to get them to believe you
are the expert.

Find a way to show them you are the expert that can help them

go get some

Paul