How to sell print advertising space
Print Advertising Techniques and Examples
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so print advertising tips you want to
have obviously a headline so your print
ad if you're doing print ads direct mail
or whatever you need to have a headline
you want to point out who the message is
for early on and i usually do that by
asking questions that my ideal prospect
is going to relate to
so those first two steps with the
headline and the opening sentence
opening paragraph should be written
exclusively for
your target audience
there's a a mistake people make in
advertising they think oh our product is
so useful everyone should own it so
we're going to write bland generic copy
that's trying to get everybody's
attention because everybody is our
target market because our product is
that good everyone needs to have it
right
that's a huge waste of time and money i
think
because what that says when you say
everyone's your target market it means
your copy is going to be so generic so
bland it's actually going to appeal to
nobody right
and that's a big mistake you want to
write an engaging headline that's going
to grab the attention of your target
audience
you also want to start off your copy um
pointing out who it's for and certainly
you'll see that an example of the super
fund we'll go i'll go through it with
you in just a moment
so you also want to choose the right
image not every image is going to be
appropriate for your market but you want
to have an image that's going to capture
their attention just like you see in
offline media like newspapers or
magazines typically it's an engaging
action orientated image or it's a
professional image like you see in these
cases
so you want to have a an image
you also want to include scarcity and
you'll notice that in the free smsf
consultation ad
you'll notice that they have scarcity
and also they have an effective call to
action too many print ads
don't have either there's no reason for
me to call and act now or take action
now there's no
reason for that what i call scarcity or
urgency
there's also
no effective call to action there might
it not even be a call to action at all
they leave that out and just assume if
we show our ad enough times certainly
people will know what they need to do
no
you need to instruct people what to do
because remember we're drowning in
information we have short attention
spans
we need to know
what to do so don't make it difficult by
assuming people will find you tell them
what to do so
i want to go through this with you now
could i get a copy of that as well thank
you so this is an ad that's run every
single week in australia um i've
looked at the the the results behind it
it's doing very very well thank you very
much
so let's go through this real quick
if you look at the headline it's got a
compelling offer if you're someone who's
after self-managed super funds right
everyone knows what superannuation is
no okay
i beg your pardon
yeah well in australia it's basically
part of your income if you're working as
an employee part of your income gets
attributed to a fund so when you retire
you can then access access that money
and retirement right there's lots of
different funds that allow you to do
that um and people usually shop around
for the best one and the best rates but
think of it as retirement savings right
and so these gentlemen are offering or
this company is offering a way
for you to go and talk to them about how
to best manage that right
so that's the offer just to educate you
um so this is free sms smsf consultation
one week only so we've got that urgency
in there and then they've got the call
to action book now now not every offline
print ad needs to have these elements
but notice how it's a compelling i
better read this now
headline right
look at the first paragraph thinking
about setting up a self-managed super
fund question mark
already have a smsf but want some
support managing it they're not asking
a question that appeals to everyone's
needs they're asking something that
appeals directly to the ideal prospect
are you in this situation right and i'm
going to go over how you can do this as
well in your ads in in a minute when we
get to the formula but basically
that's how you start off with and
typically a lot of my copy i write
online and offline ask those questions
to identify and get the prospect to say
yeah this is me you want them as they
read it to be not in their head going
yeah that's the situation i'm in and it
could be about any business right
you could do that for any business you
know what their problems are and then
you're going to ask what they are
in the copy so you're calling out to
your ideal target market
so then they go on about their
credibility and that's the next
paragraph they establish themselves as
an authority and how they do this they
say as smsf experts with 28 years
experience and having helped more than
10 000 trustees we're happy to share our
expertise with you
um we understand self-managed super
doesn't suit everyone so it's important
you get the right information to decide
for yourself this is called
understanding your prospect's pain
and then agitating it
right
you got to know what their pain is what
are they going through what are they
having problems with
and if you call them out on that like do
you have this problem it must be
terrible to have this problem you're
agitating it and here they're saying
you know it's difficult it's difficult
to know which one to choose you should
probably get some expert advice which is
kind of subtly hinting at they're going
to be providing that
but they're agitating the prospect's
problem after pointing it out
then and they've already established
credibility with you know we've been in
business 28 years we've helped already
10 000 people or how many it was
contact us by the 31st of january 2014
and you'll receive a free smsf
consultation call to action is already
listed right do this by this date and
you'll get this so it's an effective
call to action copy notice it's not
pushy it's not hard sell it's just
saying by this date
take action and this is what you'll get
if you're new to this type of super
you'll find out how it may benefit you
and your family if you have an smsf
you'll discover ways you could be
getting more from your fund you'll also
learn about unique approach and services
they go on to qualify the reader if
you're in this situation and you have
this amount of money then this is
perfect for you so they don't want calls
from everyone or people who aren't their
ideal prospects in this piece of copy
they're saying are you in this situation
do you have these problems if so you
want to contact us for this free
consultation it's a great way of
qualifying your audience because how
many of you have gotten leads before and
you're like these are just a waste of
time
you can qualify online and offline
people by stating
who you're after in your advertising
they end with but hurry this offer of a
free sms conversation is for this week
only and then they have in big bold
lettering their phone number and also
their email address notice at the bottom
of the ad they've got more what i call
credibility indicators because if this
was in the newspaper right this is a
printout in the newspaper you don't know
who these guys are you've probably never
heard of them but the image of them
speaks authority because they're older
gentlemen in suits right and it has
their names there
also
they have a younger
man in the photo and that kind of speaks
to a younger audience who might be in
this situation and then as you can see
below they've got their different
offices which is again more credibility
and the different certifications
you
