I bet you hate those ads that make huge promises…
They FEEL like a lie.
Your guard goes up immediately.
And you don’t want your prospects to feel that way.
But it’s the best thing you got.
So you go with the crowd and you get average results.
You know there is a better way, you just don’t know what it is.
Here it is…
Differentiation.
Being different is better than being better, when it comes to your ads.
The mistake most advertisers make is trying to be better.
So they make bigger and bigger claims… bigger and bigger promises… and get less & less respect in the market.
That is not what prospect’s want.
They don’t even care about your product.
They care about themselves.
They care about how your product can help them.
Not about your product itself.
It’s just a tool to them.
If you buy a screw gun, it’s because you want to save time & energy… not because you want a screw gun on your shelf.
You care about the product can do for you, not about the product itself.
If all you do is talk about your product or your brand in your ads, you are making a mistake.
The purpose of an ad is to get attention & keep it long enough so they take the action you want.
The most effective ads never mention the product.
Rather, they talk about something unique, compelling, fresh, interesting, exciting, etc. that is related to the product, in an attempt to begin the conversation, with a good first impression.
If you sold houses, you would be better off talking about their family life, how to gain respect or how much money they will save.
But what most Real Estate brokers do is say “look at me, look how many awards I have won, i am the best broker in town”.
Prospects don’t care about that stuff.
They care about how the house will improve their lives.
If you talk about what they really want, they will really respond.
And the best way to determine which message is appropriate is by understanding what your competitors are saying, so that you DON’T say the same thing.
Differentiation.
You must be different, if you want different results.
So you look where you will be advertising, pull up a spreadsheet and record the headline & anything else that is noteworthy from every ad.
You may find some of them talking about the prospect, but most likely you will see the advertiser talking about themselves.
You don’t even need to record that.
If they are talking about themselves, they are not even your competition, as far as that campaign is concerned.
What you want to know is what the smart marketers are saying.
You want to know the hook/angle/idea of their ads.
And you want to track them over time, because the longer something runs, the more likely it is working for them.
If you keep a great log, and they don’t, you have an advantage. They may think “this ad doesn’t work anymore, so let’s cancel that ad and start this one”.
And then they forget about it.
So everytime you run a new ad, all you do is see what the competition is running today and compare it the list of all of the hooks that you think will work, and pick your best one.
This always keeps you fresh.
This always keeps you different.
This makes your dollar earn more dollars.