People need to know that your product or service will help them. They need to know that it will solve a problem they are having. Make sure your advertisements do this. There are certain ways that deliver better results than others.
Your advertising must show people an advantage. I was at the grocery store this week and saw an advertisement that was unique because it did just this. This technique is so effective, but so rare, that this example must be mentioned.
The product was a meatloaf pan. Usually, the front of the product’s box lists several different features of the product, but not any benefits gained by buying it.
This meatloaf pan broke from that disappointing tradition. On the front of the box, at the top, was the phrase “Meatloaf will not stick to the pan!”
Aha, I thought to myself. A refreshing reason why I should buy this meatloaf pan. It singled itself out among its competition. It targeted a specific person: the person looking for a non-stick meatloaf pan.
(I think it would have been a more powerful ad had it instead said “Your meatloaf will not stick to this pan!” But perhaps they tried it and tested it, and used the one that works better.)
I then had a hunch — look for the red-and-white “As seen on TV!” icon. Sure enough, there it was, right there on the left side of the box’s front-face.
What gave me this hunch? Despite how much you may hate them, TV infomercials know how to really motivate their audience in order to sell their products. Those ad-spots are expensive, and they don’t waste their money on ineffective advertising. Any business owner could improve their own ad campaigns by studying those ads and mimicking what they do.
So remember this : What benefits do your features grant your customers? Focus on those. Give them the reason for the feature. Put the benefit up front. Then follow with the reason-why: the feature.