INTERNET RESEARCH: ADVERTISING STRATEGIES

Address your ad to a typical customer.

Each sentence or paragraph must be aimed at that typical shopper. So many ads are not motivation enough
to tell the consumer what he needs using a profile of what is necessary. Write down the profile of the
customer and emphasis when writing your ad. Make sure that you don’t miss what the patron wants as
opposed to what you as the seller wants.

There must be a feeling of urgency for the buyer.

Tell your customer, “You need the product today because it will make you reach your goals.” Don’t tell your
customer tomorrow; they must buy today! Urgency! Study how successful ads make the customer act now.
Another tactic is to limit the quantity available so that people will feel the need to take advantage of your
offer before your product runs out. It’s not unusual to see offers stating, “while supplies last”, or “only 50
available, first come, first serve.”
If you use scarcity tactics (and you should), make sure that you hold true and keep your word by rescinding
the offer when you say you will. If not, you will lose credibility and the tactic will backfire on you.

There must be a list of benefits.

Will you be smarter using the product? Or richer, or healthier, or faster? Focus on the client, not the
advertiser. Most benefits are skillfully integrated into the ad. IT IS A WASTE OF TIME AND SPACE IN AN AD if
you don’t work in benefits.
Tell people how your offering will help them either gain pleasure or avoid pain by expressing them in the
form of benefits. Don’t confuse this with listing the features of your product or service. People aren’t
concerned as much with features as they are with what the features will do for them personally.
To do this, list each of the features of your product and then determine the benefits, both the potential of
gain or the avoidance of pain, your prospects will receive as a result of each feature. Hint: Studies have
shown people respond better to the fear of loss (pain) then they do to the promise of gain.

The customer must be told what to do.

Tell your customer to order now. So many ads assume that the customer will guess to write, email, or
telephone for the information, or product. They may because publication ads charge by the word, but on
the internet you have more words. Tell the customer what to do. Provide the customer on how to respond
today in several ways.

Study.
Advertising is a complex endeavor designed to capture the attention of your target market, get them to
remember you and make them do what you want them to do. Plus, advertising is comprised of loads of
shiny new toys. There’s a wide array of advertising mediums that you can use, from local advertising to pay
per click advertising to social media advertising to the old school newspaper advertising. Whatever medium
you use, it is important to track and measure your advertising campaigns: get hard data on what works, and
what you can do away with.