Writing an Effective Ad For Your Business

 (Feel free to share some ideas to make this a better article.) Beginning the Writing Process Writing a good ad takes a lot of thought and work. For me, I often have to do a lot of thinking and writing to figure out what I want to write. I have to ask myself, "What am I trying to say?" I may write an ad a dozen or two dozen different ways, tring different words, different layouts, all trying to find what seems right to me.

Determine Your Clientelle

 You need to advertise in a way that will attract the type of clients for whom you want to do work. Misc. Tidbits to be added Catch the eye (humor is a good one for that) Show what problem it solves (again, obvious here witht he guy panting ) Show what the benefits to the reader are (benefits are "what we can do for you", not the same as features such as "how well we can do the job" Offer an incentive to react: coupon with a time limit is good Make it easy for people to respond: phone number is easy to find here As you said, it is clear as to the services provided How about if we also say what we would change to improve this ad? For example, they should have included their area code, even if they only do local transactions.

Have a Good Business Name

I'll start with saying that a business name itself can clearly describe what the business is all about. For instance, a name like "Wilson's House Painting" both identifies the name of the business and also says what the business does. Putting the name in big letters both describes what they do and also makes the business name clear for all to see.

Putting the Owner's Name in the Ad

Thirdly, I would suggest putting the owner's name in the ad, which also adds credibility. (If the Owner's name is part of the business, then this would suffice. In years past, I never would have put my name in a business ad. But in recent years we have put not only our name, but our family portrait in our ads, and have had many positive comments about that.

Putting Address in Ad

Next, putting your address in ad adds credibility to your business. How many times do we see big ads that sound good, but it has no identifying info, no address, no name of the owner, etc. The lack of these things can make an possibly clients just a little more cautious. (Now, as I say this, I also realize that there are times when it is good not to put a person's address in an ad, such as when a single woman works from her home. There would be a safety concern here.)

Putting Your Picture in Your Ad.

 Everyone seems to be trying to find some way to have their ad stand out from the dozens of others on a page. I know that when I look through the newspaper or on the Internet, nothing catches my eyes quite as fast as a picture of a person. When a potential client looks at your picture in your ad, they have a better sense of what type of person is running the business. It also gives them a personal connection with you.

Business Logos

Some people like to have their logo in their ads. For me, as stated above, I think a personal picture, or a family picture, makes a great logo. It's also a logo that no one can copy.

The Value of Advertising 
I'm going to give another plug for advertising. I'm sold on the value of advertising. Even when we are very busy, we keep an aprox 2" X 4" display ad running year round in our local monthly newspaper. The ad costs us about $70 per month. We also have small display ads (1/12 or 1/16 page) in two local telephone books. (our newspaper classified ad looks very similar to that as well. Between the newspaper and the telephone books, we spend close to $300 per month on advertising. We do this because we have found that advertising pays. Because we keep advertising we keep having many telephone inquiries. Whenever anyone calls, I almost always insist on giving a rough phone quote. This weeds out the ones who are expecting cheap prices. I would say that about 2/3 or 3/4 of the callers are "blown away" by the cost of upholstery. But remaining 1/4 to 1/3 think the price is about what they expected. Since we have some many calls, I'm not afraid of loosing the potential sales of those expecting cheap prices.

Because we advertise so much, we keep getting lot of inquiry calls, which is the first step. Before we started to advertise, "we couldn't afford to advertise, it just costs too much." After we began advertising, the amount of clients we had increased. 

Consistent advertising over the years also builds credibility; potential clients who see the ad, month after month, know that someday they will have us do the work. I've had countless people tell us that they have repeatedly seen out ad in the paper. Some have mentioned how they have watched our kids grow up (we keep a family portrait in all of our ads).

Advertising works

Incentives?

What about giving incentives in your ads to clients? Some people like to make coupons, or give discounts to get people to come in.... .... more to be added later. 

 

Contributors: StephenW, Agnes,....