Secrets To Writing A Winning Advertisement

Its time to get ‘Back To Basics’ folks!

I want to show you the very first thing you’ve GOT to do before you write any advertisements or sales letters.

Its this…

You’ve got to put yourself in your prospect’s shoes.

You see, whether you like it or not there’s one thing that’s MORE important than your product or service. And that’s YOUR PROSPECT!

That’s why you’ve got to get inside their mind. Get inside their heart and soul. Take a walk in their shoes and feel their pain, their desires, their fears. See their enemies through their own eyes. Speak to their friends and colleagues in the language that they, and only they use.

Because once you understand these things you’ll be ready to write to them.

I remember a story I once heard. A junior copywriter was asked by his boss to write part of a promotion about a natural health supplement. And the main competitor was a dangerous drug, the name of which I can’t remember. And so the copywriter wrote about this competitor’s product. How bad it was for you, the health problems it caused, the number of fatalities it had been responsible for, etc etc.

Well, his boss didn’t think his copy really sang. Sure, it had all the right bits in the right places but it was lacking that real empathy with its prospect. This is what the younc copywriter was told:

“Imagine you’ve just come back from burying your mother today. She died because she was taking that drug, and you had to watch her die an agonising death. You’re writing a letter to somebody who’s thinking about taking that drug.”

And the new sales copy absolutely blew him away.

See why its important to walk a mile in your prospect’s shoes? See how much of a connection you can make with them?

Here are the things you’ve got to know…

What’s their day like?
What are their problems?
What 3 things would they like to change?
What are they afraid of?
What are they angry about?
Do they have any hidden desires?
What about common enemies?
Do they talk in a specific way or do they have any special expressions, lingo or terminology?

Then put yourself in their place, and start writing from the point of view of your prospect.

Not from your product.

I wrote a sales letter for a charity a couple of days ago. It was looking for sponsors to a family involvement day to get the local community involved with children with special needs.

The big problem with their original letter was that they talked a lot about their organisation, and asked for money.

And so what I did was present it as a way for local businesses to get their name and advertising in front of locals. And many of the people at this event are new to the community too.

And I said that they’d get a great feeling about helping the local community too, which was a really useful side benefit.

The point is that I rewrote it based on the prospect wanting there to be something in it for them. And in this case was inexpensive advertising. I wrote from the prospect’s point of view, and NOT from the point of view of the event.

OK. Here’s a quick and easy way to start the ball rolling.

What are the most common things that piss your prospect off about the industry or niche you’re selling to?

Write them all down.

OK. your advertisement becomes “7 Reasons To Call Thyer’s Plumbing Before Anyone Else”.

Then, just list why your prospect wont have those problems with you.

For example…
- If we’re more than 15 minutes late then the job’s free. That’s right, no charge.
- We clean up where we’ve been working and you wont see a spot of grease or grime after we’ve gone.
- We don’t walk dirty shoes into your house. We use shoe protectors to keep your floors from getting dirty.

Kinda easy, right? And BTW 7 is a good number, but if you can’t think of 7, or you think of more then just list as many as you can.

I want to do something a bit different in a couple of weeks time, and that’s put together a collection of posts and talk about their relevance in ANY advertising material. I want to go through everything you need in your sales letters and ads.

But when I looked the other day I found one thing missing. It’s the most important topic too! HEADLINES. So next week, I’ll give you some practical advice on how to write killer headlines. And then I’m going to put it all together for you with a step by step guide to writing winning advertisements and sales letters.

All the best,

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