Who is Your Target Market?
Finding your target market is very important to your success. It's better
to find your niche market and work in it than to try to market your product
or service to a wide range of people. For example, I specialize in helping
others market their business. I want to target people who have businesses
online. I wouldn't want to advertise in a ezine focusing on parenting or
weight loss.
What Do Your Customers Want?
What do you put in the ad? The first rule of advertising - find out what
your customers want, need and fear - then give it to them. How do you find
out what they want? Ask them. Put questions out to your target market. Use
forums, newsletters, discussion lists. You may be surprised at what you find
out. Also, survey past customers. Ask them why they bought from you. You
may find out why they bought and why you thought they bought are two different
things!
Writing Your Ad
When writing your ad, you want to keep it short and to the point. Don't use
all capital letters. Don't try to sell every benefit in the ad. You want
just enough to get their attention, so they want more information. To do
this, select a few of your best benefits (I'll tell you how to make your
list of benefits a little later). Use these in your ad and title. Remember,
you want to get their attention. You will want to spend most of your time
on the title or first line of your ad. If you don't catch their attention
by then, you probably won't. Use power words like free, insider, etc. For
a list of power words, go to
http://www.jbmarketingtips.com/powerwords.htm
.
Making a List of Benefits
An easy way to make a list of benefits is to list all the features of your
product or service. Now, write down what benefit you get from each. A feature
is a quality or description of the product - what the products does. A benefit
is what you get out of the feature. What does it do for me? Don't assume
your prospective customer will think of all the benefits. They usually won't
take the time. You must point them out.
Be Specific
General statements don't work as well as specific ones. Example: Increase
your sales by 187%, instead of using 200%. It is better to use 9.8% than
10%. Don't round off your results. Keep them specific.
The Sales Letter
Once you have your ad written, you want to set up your autoresponders with
your sales letter and follow ups. Here you will give them all of the benefits
of your product or service. Make the sales letter enticing. Use exciting
words. Make sure that every point flows naturally into the next. Keep it
simple to follow. Be clear. Get testimonials and use them. Above all, write
your sales letter as though you are talking to someone. Use informal language.
When making the follow up letters, use different titles. Put your main focus
on a different benefit in each letter.
Always transfer ownership. Make your sales letter more personal by using
"you" and "your". Say "You will learn...", not "The report will...". "Your
report will be delivered in 5 days.", not "The report will be...". Count
how many "you's" and "your's" you have in your letter. There should be at
least twice as many "you's" and "your's" as "I's", "we's", "me's", "our;s"
or the company's name.
The Bonus
Always offer a bonus. Offer more than one bonus and give a monetary value.
Example: free bonus report worth $39.95.
Closing the Sales Letter
Close out the sales letter by asking for the sale. Use phrases that stimulate
the potential customer to action. Give them a reason to act now. The first
50 who respond. On sale for limited time. Be sure to give a time limit. 2
days, 2 weeks. If you act within the next 48 hours, I will send you a free
bonus report worth $29.95. Don't forget, ask for the sale. For a list of
action phrases, go to
http://www.jbmarketingtips.com/actionphrases.htm
.
* Written by Barbara Ayres, publisher, Advantage Marketing Tips Newsletter.
J & B Marketing Group has helped 1000's of people profit online. Visit
http://jbmarketingtips.com for marketing
tips, software, web services, business resources and more. No time to visit
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