WRITING AN AD THAT GETS RESULTS

ByTedJanusz

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promotional piece for your parking facility or another serice or you might sell? Begin this process by taking a look at an advertisement from $Vroduct yot;r favorite publication. Really look at it. I k o*, your brain usually spots an ad and immediately thinks, "oh, an ad!" and tells you to quickly flip the page so you can continue readingthe articles, but slow down this time.

ffioyorneed

to write

Sources tell us

thatthe average consumer

is

inundated

with between 1,500 and 5,000 advertising impressions per day. To help you understand how you can break
through ail ofthis clutter and get some attention for your messagg please consider the following story:

I was riding along in the car with my teenage son and started to say something I vowed I would never say:'nVhen I was your age..."
Stephen's eyes rolled to the back ofhis head. you seg Stephen doesn't particularly care to hear his old man,s reminiscences ofthe good o1d days, yet again, so soon.

Now, count the number of times a sales letter in your mailbox begins, "Our companywas started by my great-grandfather back in 1905. We now have 10,000 installations and 25,000 satisfied clients...,, For a potential prospect, such a lead-in fails to grab and sustain attention. Potential prospects are arrested by, "What's in it for me (WII-FMX" I was recently asked by ar-r accounting firm to review tl-reir new marketing materials. They handed me a professionally-designed, glossy folder that profiled each

RethinkYourAds
Advertisingguru David Ogilr,y once said, "There
ments. Roughl1, six times
as

is no 1aw

which says that advertisements have to look like advertisemany peopie read the average

oftheir

partners-where theywent to school, degrees earned, and

TED JANUSZ is a professional speaker
on the topic of

awards won. The accounting firm was very proud ofthese

new (expensive) materials.

Guess what?Aprospective client doesn t reallycare about

"Social Media for

Baby Boomers," authoL and marketing consultant. He is the author of the Socral Media Marketing Guide for Parking Professionals, which
is a free publication for lPl members and

the number of degrees conferred or awards won. Rather, it's al1 about, 'aVhat can you do for me? How well do you
understand my pains and rny issues? What steps can you take to solve them?" In an increasingly competitive rnarketplace, companies able to demonstrate

article as the average advertisement.,, Consider usingyour ad as a regular column in which you give advice to readers. You don't need to be al author. Simply include a qpical question that.vou hear, and answer it as you normally do. After you write each piece ask yoursel{ "Will my readers, who are my potential prospects, somethingin this piece that directly relates to them?,, (Always remember WII-FM.) Better yet, approach your community newspaper and tell them that you would like to write a regular column.
see

\A{I-FM win business.

My favorite four-step formula for writing result-producing marketing materials is:

will respond. In that

can be downloaded from parking.org/ socialmediaguide.

He can be

reached at t;d:
jar: Lrspresei:ie lini:s.

Identifirthe Problem. Whatwere the circumstances that caused the customer to initiate contact with you? E. Implement the Solution. What was the remedy you proposed and implemented for the customer? G.Document the Results. What were the quantifiable benefits the customer received as a result?
3,

Readers can submit their questions on parking and you way, you can look like an expert in

the community, free of charge. Let's get back to that adveftisement you originally looked at whenwe began this arlicle. you may askyoursell

c*m
.

S.Recordthe Testimonial. Have the customer explain

in his own words the ways you helped.

or

61 4

.440 .7 487

"I{, in order to be successful, an advertisement needs to contain a \ArII-FM, why did this company write this ad? After all, it doesn't even mention their customer. Instead. the ad is all about them." But nowyou know the secret! o

O o ts

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