Wordpreneur.com

BY CHARLES BROWN

Would you keep a salesperson on your payroll very long who never made any attempt to close the deal? Not unless you are an advertiser.

Most businesses today keep running ad after ad that doesn’t even attempt to close the deal. And yet, for most of these businesses, their advertising costs far more than this hypothetical salesperson they would fire in a minute.

Take a look through your local Yellow Pages. Chances are, you will flip through page after page and never see a single ad that makes an offer. Do the same with your local newspaper… no offers there either. Unless you live in a city that is an oasis of advertising enlightenment, less than 1% of the ads you see actually makes a concrete offer.

An offer is simply a call to action. It gives the reader a reason to act now. An offer can urge the reader to contact you for some sort of free information, or a free sample, or a buy-one-get-one-free deal. The offer can be anything that prompts the reader to do anything but put the ad down and think, “Well, if I ever need those people, now I know where to find them.”

The advertising field is divided into two camps. The Brand and Image Camp, and the Direct Response Camp. The Brand and Image Camp sees its purpose as enhancing the reputation of the company the ad represents. These ads can have pictures of serious-looking people who are very important. These ads can discuss in very general terms that this would be a good company to do business with. But in the end, you simply put the ad down and say (again), “Well, if I ever need those people, now I know where to find them.”

Why would any company spend so much money on advertising that gives the reader no reason to act right now?

Go back to the example of the salesperson who can’t bring himself to even try to close. Zig Ziglar calls these people “professional visitors” rather than “professional salespeople.” Brand and Image ads are the “professional visitors” of advertising. They may win awards, but they don’t encourage people to take action.

If you want to see immediate and dramatic increases in your company’s profitability, just make the switch from Brand and Image advertising to Direct Response advertising. You will see instant results. I guarantee it.

Charles Brown is a Dallas, Texas based freelance copywriter who writes Web copy, advertisements, white papers and direct mail. Visit his blog, Dynamic Copywriting, to subscribe to his “Freelance Copywriter Secrets” and download your free copy of his 99 Ideas for Writing Irresistible Web Content.

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