How To Write Effective Solo Ads That Sell
copyright 2001 by Bob Silber
It is a rarity when you see an effective solo ad. It makes me cringe whenever an ineffective ad hits my e-mail because these are marketing people, just like the rest of us, trying to make a go of their Net business and spending money to do it.
By placing ads that don’t work the marketers are just wasting their money. Then, because they don’t know any better, they can’t figure out what went wrong. Rather than analyzing and testing, some take the easy way out and blame the publication the ad was placed in.
One, well known online marketer places ads and then gives the results in his membership site, giving a thumbs up or down to the publication. The problem is, those ads are usually trying to sell something right from the ad, rather than utilizing the proven marketing technique of using a two step marketing approach. That is not an effective ad.
Although there is a chance that his conclusion, may at times, be right for the wrong reason, it isn’t the stuff business decisions should be made on. Selling from your ad goes against the fundamental concepts of marketing.
Even worse, many place ads that haven’t been tested and tweaked for maximum response. While a good response under these circumstances is very good, a bad response doesn’t necessarily place fault anywhere else, except with the ad.
With so many valuable, free marketing tools available online, such as sequential responders, web sites, teaser books, and product samples, to name just a few, it is foolish not to utilize them. All of these tools can improve the profit bottom line.
Most marketers are missing the whole concept of a solo ad. They think a solo ad is better because they can put much more copy than a newsletter classified ad. Wrong!
A solo ad is more effective because it isn’t placed with other ads. Period!
Think about it. A full page ad in a magazine isn’t a page full of copy. It is short on copy and big on being visually pleasing or easy to read. Short copy gets the message across.
When an ineffective offer hits your email box you won’t even open it to read it. You simply hit the delete button. There are several components to an effective ad. A headline grabber and compelling copy are a necessity. Never try to sell from the ad itself and that includes the solo ad.
People are in a hurry and won’t read long copy. Readers want to receive a benefit. Whether the benefit is being entertained or solving a problem they have such as making more money, they want to know what is in it for them, right away. They won’t search for that information.
That is true for any product. You need a grabber headline, with your best benefit in the headline if at all possible, and at a minimum in the beginning of the short ad copy. You only have a second to grab their attention.
Once you have their attention it is short lived. You quickly need to get them to act using short teaser copy in the body of the ad. You need something to get the reader to your Web site page, auto-responder or other method to deliver your message.
Take e-books. People don’t buy e-books. They buy what the e-book can do for them. So buying an e-book “on writing ad copy
