By Martin Howey

There are only two reasons any business (including
you) advertise...

1. To either get someone to buy the products or
serves you're offering, or...
2. To generate interest in potential customers so
they will contact your business (either call or
visit you) to obtain information that will enable
them to make a buying decision.

The question you need to be asking yourself is... how
effective are the ads you're running at accomplishing at
least one of these two objectives? Are your ads
getting you all the clients and customers you hope for
when you place them?

It's no secret that clients and customers are the
lifeblood of your business, no matter if you run a
service-oriented business or you operate a
professional practice. And it takes a steady stream of
new clients and customers to keep your business alive
and prosperous, and to replace the customers you lose
through attrition.

In order to gain more new customers, your ads and
promotions have to be strong enough to convince your
prospects (your competitors' customers) that it is more
advantageous for them to do business with you than it
is for them to continue doing business with your
competitor.

Your competition isn't going to let their best customers
(your best prospects) go easily. They're going to do
everything they can to retain those buyers... to keep
the money in their pockets rather than letting it flow
into yours.

On the flip side, your competition is at this very
moment, making plans and actively taking steps to
take your clients away from you. So not only do you
have to be proactive in the protection of your clients
and customers, if you want your business to grow you
have to also be proactive in aggressively recruiting
more new clients away from your competition, and
convincing potential clients who may be shopping for a
business to buy from why yours is the best choice.

You can't afford to be complacent in this area. When
you allow your competitors to hang on to their current
clients and you let potential clients slip into the hands
of your competition, you lose in two ways. First, your
competition picks up the money that those customers
could have spent with you. And second, your
competition will use those dollars to strengthen their
relationships with their current clients, and in their
marketing efforts to attract your clients away from you.

For most businesses, advertising plays a big role in
helping bring new customers in to your business. But
advertising isn't free; it costs money. Sometimes a LOT
of money; especially if you run a decent size ad, you
run more than one ad, or if you send a lot of direct mail
with multiple contacts.

It stands to reason then, that to be an effective
marketer and get the greatest return on your
advertising dollar, that you should know the best
techniques possible to make your ads and sales letters
stronger, make them stand out, and produce the
greatest number of responses.

Your Ads MUST Bring You New
Clients And Customers

The entire reason you run ads is to bring you new
customers. Your ads have to produce results that are
measurable, quantifiable, predictable, trackable, and
more importantly, profitable.

As a smart business owner, you must realize that if
you are investing your money in advertising, it's critical
that you know how many leads or responses your ads
are pulling and decide whether it makes sense to run
the same ad again.

Or if you need to make appropriate changes before
you repeat the ad in order to make it perform better.
You may even decide to stop running the ad altogether
if it didn't get the result you hoped for or that you
expected.

Ideally, as your potential clients read your ad they
should learn how their problems can problems can be
solved, minimized, or eliminated by doing business with
you; be enticed by an offer they can't refuse to take
advantage of; and then be presented with a
compelling reason to contact you to either buy or to
learn more about the benefits and advantages of what
you have to offer.

A "Catchy Ad" Isn't Enough. You've Got To Give Your
Readers A Compelling Reason To Contact You

Here's a quick checklist to help make your ads more
effective:
? Do you have an attention-arresting headline
that tells the reader specifically who you're
targeting, and why they should read the rest of
your ad?
? Can you take your name, address and phone
number out of your ad and insert the same
information from one of your competitors and
have the ad work just as well for them as it
does for you?
? Does your ad take full advantage of the
available space, and make it easy for your
readers to focus their attention on your offer?
? Do you make it very clear what you can do for
your readers (potential clients)?
? Is what you can do for your readers different in
a beneficial way from what your competitors
say they can do?
? Do you give clear and persuading reasons for
them to do business with you as opposed to
your competitors?
? Do you make a compelling offer that they can't
refuse?
? Do you tell them exactly what you want them
to do and what steps to take next?
? Do you make it easy for them to respond or to
contact you?
? Does your call to action include a sense of
urgency to get them to respond now?

In other words, does your ad not only stand out from
the others, but does it give your readers the
information they need, and sufficient reason to rush to
the phone or jump in their car and come to your place
of business? That's what an effective ad does.

Look at your competitor ads. How do they compare?
Do ANY of their ads answer the above ten questions
positively?

Gaining The Upper Hand In Advertising Doesn't Have
To Be Complicated Or Difficult

It really doesn't take much to create an ad that out
pulls your competition. And if you want to capture a
larger share of your market, that's exactly what you're
going to have to do. But before you jump into creating
an ad, here are some questions you should consider
concerning the products you're selling or the service
you're providing:

? What problems or challenges does your
product/service solve for your prospects?
? What specific benefits does it provide them?
? What distinguishes the products you sell from
those your competition sells?
? Why should your prospects choose what you
sell or provide over those your competitors
provide?

These questions are designed to get you thinking
about what your products, your services and your
business has to offer that will be of benefit to your
prospects and customers, and more importantly, why
they should buy from you as opposed to any other
options they have.