I recently saw an advert for a free report which promised to give me no less than 31 insider tips for turning leads into sales. And I must say, my head began to spin at the very thought.
Thirty-one? How would I ever take them all in and then activate them?
Indeed rather than get me to apply for the report, what this advert did was to remind me once again that simplicity in advertising is often the key.
Now in this context simple doesn’t mean “Just tell them what you are selling” – for that takes us back to announcement advertising – the least effective (although still the most popular) style of advertising that is used in the UK today.
To be clear – if I was selling you our Velocity advertising service with an announcement advert which began, “All your advertising needs taken care of by Schools.co.uk” I might get some sales, although I doubt it. It is too general, and too all-encompassing.
However, Velocity is a service which can cover a huge range of activities, including sourcing email lists, writing adverts, sending out emails, monitoring their success, changing the website if the emails work but sales don’t come in, undertaking PR, setting up a Facebook page and keeping it active…
So how can I tell you all that, without making it sound too grand and all-encompassing?
The answer is that I need to tell you the benefits of the product or service, without going into every feature.
And if you feel that it is vital for the customer to know about the features, put them somewhere else, such as on your web page. So the email talks about benefits and the web page covers the features.
In short, there is a need to combine engaging with the potential customer with talking about what you are doing.
But this needs to be done in the context of the fact that the reader will want to skim through the advert, see what’s in it for him/her, and make a quick decision.
Put another way, the reader wants to move at speed, while you want the reader to slow down and take notice of how wonderful your product or service is.
This is the eternal dichotomy of advertising, and the solution to the problem varies according to the audience you are seeking, the product you are selling, and the medium you are using.
Generally, however, you do need to grab attention with an interesting and engaging headline, and then take the reader through the issues in a quick but informative and interesting way.
And this is what we do. We write advertising copy, send out emails, analyse results, and give advice.
If you would like to know more, and particularly how it could relate to your work, please do call 01604 880 927 or email Stephen@schools.co.uk
If you would like to know more about our Velocity programme there are details here.