Your Life in Advertising: It Starts Today

Dear friend,
Today starts an exciting, new day. Today is the day you’ll be free of bad, non-
productive advertising. I’m going to take you on a short journey to advertising profits.
If you’ve been following me, you may recall my article about firing up your inner
salesman. And I offered a free copywriting checklist to help get you up to speed.
Today I’d like to take a slightly different tact and get into the inner game or mindset of
being a “sales” organization rather than a “technical” organization.
Keep in mind I’m addressing you the business owner wanting to grow your business to
the fullest capacity. This could apply to fortune 500 companies as well but I’m primarily
talking to small businesses with sales under 50 million dollars.
What’s Your Plan?
Let’s start by talking about your basic business premises. Ask yourself “where do I want
to go”? Do you want your business to give you more free time? Do you want more
prospects, profits, how about some more sales?
These questions may seem too simple or even silly, but you’d be surprised how many
business owners I consult with that have no clue (or clear cut goals) where they want
to go or how to get there.
It’s funny that we humans can figure out some of the most complex things ever but
overlook the obvious and simple ones. Don’t beat yourself up . . . we ALL do this.
To illustrate my point consider these examples:
 Modern flushing toilets were invented in 1775. Toilet paper didn’t make an
appearance till 1857.
 The year was 2000 BC. That was great year because ice cream made its debut.
But oddly the ice cream cone didn’t come around till some 3900 years later.
So let’s look at your business and see how we can make some obvious connects that
could seriously boost your profits. Once you have a concrete idea or goal for business
growth, you can now make a plan to get there. This brings me to the point of growing
your business.
How Many Ways Can You Increase Your Business?
This one is a tricky one. Think about all of the ways . . . 50? 100? Maybe 500? Yeah,
mind boggling, right?
Here’s some good news . . .
There are only three ways to increase your business: Count ‘em . . . just three . . .
1. Increase the number of customers.
2. Increase average sale per customer.
3. Increase the number of times the customer buys from you.
Pretty cool, huh? You need only to deal with these three categories. That’s it! Your
business will grow exponentially if you begin to combine these three categories. Even
cooler, right?
Hey, if you need help with this, call me! It’s what I love doing!
Now that we have this out of the way let’s talk about how to get your advertising to pay
off. It’s really simple. It’s about salesmanship.
Here’s a little trick I learned from John Carlton, one of favorite mentors. And I forget
who taught it to him, Gary Halbert I believe.
But first, you must realize that advertising is (or should be) nothing more than
“salesmanship multiplied.” I’ve ranted about this many, many times. Advertising is NOT
about entertainment or building brands as a primary motive. It’s about selling your
stuff!
Ok. Enough!
Think about how your best salesperson presents a live, sales pitch in front of his/her
prospect and simply applying this to a print ad, or landing page or whatever medium
you choose.
The Quickest, Most Effective Way To Write An Ad
Anyway, here’s how to do it. Find your best salesperson within your organization. Have
him or her give you a sales pitch and record it! Record their sales pitch while they are in
full “sales mode” and actually selling the product or service.
It may take a couple of times to shake out the jitters of “stage fright” but it’s worth the
effort. This recording is solid gold, my friend.
Once you’ve got a decent recording, then simply transcribe it to paper or to your
computer. This is the start of a very powerful and persuasive advertisement.
The job now is to edit out of the aaah’s, um’s, stuttering and irrelevant chatting.
Clean up the copy and smooth out the bumps where everything reads coherently. Next,
put the copy in logical order. Use the prospect’s questions to overcome objections.
Again, the idea is to translate your pitch onto paper. This is one of the most brilliant
shortcuts to “writing” a good ad I’ve ever learned. And it works!
Be sure to add a paragraph that tells how to order and include your phone number,
where to send money orders, checks, what credit cards you take and so on.
Ok. There you have it . . . the “magic system” for creating a decent ad (that’ll beat your
competitors advertising) in the fast time. Plus, it’s easy to together and extremely
effective.
Emette Massey is a direct response copywriter and marketing consultant. Why not pick
up some FREE Business Growth Hacks at http://salesletterwriting.weebly.com/