How to Boost the Chances Your Ad Will Be Successful

Recently I was reviewing competitors' websites in preparation for meeting with a client and I made an interesting discovery.

Of the ten websites I reviewed, not one made any kind of compelling offer to get visitors to take a most desired action.

By that I mean, not one of the websites gave people any meaningful incentive to call, complete a web form, or visit the place of business.

These companies had invested money in having a website built and maintained but had missed a great opportunity to capitalize fully on their investments.

They were spending money to drive traffic to their websites but were letting the ball drop there because they hadn't provided a good reason for visitors to take the next step.

Unfortunately, the lack of a compelling offer is an all-too-common marketing mistake made by the vast majority of advertisers both online and offline.

To prove my point, just pick up most any magazine or newspaper and take a look at the display ads.

I'll wager that nine out of ten of them have no compelling offer of any kind.

What's a compelling offer?

A compelling offer is a meaningful incentive for a reader, listener or viewer to take the next logical step, called a most desired action, or MDA.

Your MDA could be to call, complete a web form, or visit your place of business.

In today's highly cluttered world, competing for and holding attention has become more difficult than ever before. Once that has been accomplished, if you aren't able to get people to take your MDA, your ad dollars will be wasted.

It's not enough that your product or service does great things. Many products and services do that. If you want to motivate people to choose you, you must give them additional reasons to do so. That's where a compelling offer can help.

Compelling offers can take many forms, the most common of which is a price offer. However, when your main drawing card is price, people may come to expect price concessions from you and delay purchasing until your next price promotion.

Another form of offer is a free trial or free sample. Another is a free bonus with purchase.

One of the most cost-effective offers to make is for free information that solves a problem your target market has. This can be accomplished via a special report, tips sheet, booklet, ebook, CD, MP3 download, or DVD.

When properly positioned, free information can have a high perceived value to the recipient, but a low cost to you to deliver, making it the ideal form of compelling offer.

It's easy to determine what kind of information might be appropriate for your target market. Just ask them. This not only can provide the basis for creating your free information, it can also tell you more about what your customers, clients or patients really want.

Remember, if you don't give people a good reason to take action, they probably won't.

For assistance with advertising copy and marketing strategy that can help you reach your goals contact Ben Edwards today at 617-670-1888, ext. 1. Visit our website now.