Title: Advertising is Not About YOU
Length: 497 words
Author: BIG Mike McDaniel
eMail: Mike@BIGIdeasGroup.
Category: Advertising/
Copyright 2006
Web Address: http://BIGIdeasGrou
PERMISSION TO PUBLISH: This article may be published in
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Complete Article with Resource Box follows
Advertising is Not About You
by Small Business Advertising Expert BIG Mike McDaniel
Yuk, another car dealer standing in front of the dealership
fumbling through a commercial with wooden movements.
Now he's telling me his dealership is number one in the
district. Wow. I better rush right down there.
Why is it, people who should know better end up doing the
ego thing in their advertising. Effective advertising is all
about benefits, not features. Number one in Kansas is only a
feature and not much of one at that.
Here's an excercise:
Make a list of everything you think should be included at
one time or another in one of your ads.
Everything. Experience, staff, facility, product. The list
will be quite long. Take the time to do it now, before you
read the rest of this article.
Now, pencil in hand, take a hard look at that list. Cross
out everything about YOU. Cross out everything about YOUR
staff, YOUR building, YOUR ranking, awards years in
business, etc.
Next cross off everything that resembles a FEATURE of your
business, product or service.
The number one rule, the only rule, for great advertising is
"Sell the Benefits".
Take a poll, people don't care if you have the largest
selection in town. It means nothing that "New Stuff is
arriving daily". They want to know what you or your product
can do for them. Ease pain and you gain.
You see and hear ads everyday that miss the point entirely:
How about the newspaper ad with the picture of the funeral
home building and how they have been there for 85 years?
What benefit?
Three little girls on TV yelling an unintelligible slogan
about their daddy's insurance biz.
Giant billboards with pictures of the medical clinic staff
standing in front of a wall of awards.
Ads about "me me me" can look and sound really great, to me,
me, me. We all love to talk about ourselves.
The first time you make the list and cross out the me me
mees and all the features, you may have only one or two
points left to promote. Make a new list and think "them them
them". Advertising should be all about the customer. Think
benefits.
The ads that work, the ads that stick in your head are the
ones that promise to make your life easier, to solve a
problem.
Who cares what a financial advisor looks like, but tell
people they can retire and not eat dog food and you get
their attention. Benefit.
Funny thing, the ads about benefits are the ones we make the
mental note to remember. Hmmm.
Sell the benefits and you don't have to sell yourself.
Read hundreds of small business advertising articles at
http://SmallBusines
© 2006 BIG Mike McDaniel http://BigIdeasgrou
BIG Mike is the Small Business Advertising Expert and
author of "Business Cards - Front to Back". This book
tells you how to make your business card the most
powerful tool in your marketing arsenal.
To learn more visit http://tinyurl.
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