| Three Simple Ways to Make Your Classifieds
Sell
By, Dr K. Nunley
Target your best prospects.
While this might sound like marketing
mumbo-jumbo, it's by far the most important
way to make ads work.
Every newspaper, newsletter, and website has
its own particular kind of audience.
Your ad won't sell unless your product or
service is something that the publication's
particular audience would buy.
To figure out the audience a publication is
reaching, look at their articles and ads.
What kinds of businesses are advertising?
What sorts of things are they selling?
What group of people would buy these things?
Think about age, gender, lifestyle, income,
& education. It won't take long before you
have a pretty good idea of what kinds of
prospects the publication reaches.
The Wall Street Journal attracts a large
multi-national audience of well- paid
business people.
Your local bargain shopper newspaper
probably focuses on working-class folks
looking for inexpensive bargains.
The daily newspaper tends to do best with home
owners. A mail order tabloid often goes to
thousands of individuals interested in making
money through the mail.
Many of these readers live in small,
rural towns. The Internet, by its very nature,
appeals to up-scale, well-educated audiences
that tend to be in their 20s and 30s.
. Write a good headline.
With classified ads, the headline makes
or breaks the ad. Think about how you read
a page of classifieds.
You skim the first few words of each ad
(often printed in bold type) to get a
split- second idea of what the ad is about.
Internet ads give you a subject line of
four or more words. This means your
headline has to get the prospect's attention
and tell them what your ad is about.
Pack as much key information as you can into
just a few words.
For example, if I'm selling a computer,
my headline would vary depending on the
audience.
For a general family audience I would write:
COMPUTER, POWERFUL, CHEAP.
In three words I've told prospects
1. What the item is,
(computor)
2. Something about its quality and benefit
(powerful),
3. A clue to the price of the product.
(cheap)
If I were advertising the same computer
on an Internet newsgroup used by computer
enthusiasts, I would change the headline to
reflect their more advanced understanding:
PII333, NEW, UNDER 2K
(a good deal at the time I'm writing this.)
Keep the body of your ad short.
Shorter ads cost less.
Even if you can stretch out with a 50 or
100 word ad, make your writing concise.
There's no need to write in complete sentences
in classified ads. Lay out the essential
information on your product or service,
show the prospect how it benefits them,
and give your contact info.
To write that same sentence in ad-blurb form:
Essential information,
incredible benefits,
call now 555-1212.
Here are some words that work best in
classified ads:
free, new, amazing, now, how to, and easy.
Veteran copy writer Bob Bly adds:
discover, method, plan, reveals, simple,
advanced, and improved.
I always try to use the word "you,"
often in all capitals "YOU."
Track your ads. You're poking your money
down the drain if you don't know which
ads are working and which aren't.
Key your ads when you can. Good classified
advertisers always code their ads so they
know which work and which publications pull
the best.
If respondents are writing to you to buy or
get more information, include a "DEPT-A"
in your address.
The "A" is code for a specific ad in a
certain publication. When prospects are
responding by telephone, have your ad include
an extension number for them to ask for.
Web entrepreneur Kevin Needham advises a
clever tactic for coding on-line classified ads.
He creates a separate web page to correspond
with each ad. Then he counts the number of
visitors to each page to see which ads pulled
the best.
By using these three simple techniques in
your classified ads, you'll reach more of
your best prospects, sell more, and reduce
the money you spend on classifieds.
Good Luck!
By, Dr K. Nunley
Article obtained at The Article Archives http://articlesarchives.netfirms.com
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