All ads you are planning on publishing MUST be about your potential clients. Not about you, your business, hobbies, likes and dislikes. This might come to your surprise but, besides you, nobody else cares about them.

Any prospective customer will always ask this: “WIIFM?” Translation: “What’s In It For Me?” The rest is just noise to them.

Advertising Mistake

So how should an advertisement look like?

1. Let Testimonials Speak for You
   If you make a direct claim, you better be prepared to back it up strongly. People don’t trust companies that make the claims themselves. Just look at Enron, Lehman Brothers and others alike. People want to hear other people; just like them what they have to say about you, your business, service or product.

   I even found myself many times, when shopping for a book or a laptop that I head directly to the customer reviews. Not that I am looking for the negative but after reading 1 or 2 glorious reviews I immediately move to the “thumbs down” section to see what others are saying.

   Also, whenever you construct an ad, stop with the clichés (i.e. “we are the best in business”, “we care about our customers”, etc.). If you have to say that it is obvious you are insecure about it and have to repeat it in an ad to convince yourself of its authenticity. Consumers don’t buy this approach anymore, plus you might sound just like another telemarketer and that’s plain naïve.Instead, ask others to give you testimonials. Coming from a third party that’s usually a bit more palatable and people would tend to believe that more than you tooting your own horn.

   People love stories and in a very compressed format, testimonials are just that. They are powerful and easily identifiable with your audience.Whenever allowed add a picture of the person who wrote the testimonial. That way the reader can put a face to what they are reading and become convinced of the authenticity of the testimonial. Also, if possible, include location and/or occupation of the testimonial author.

2. Body of Text
   Within the body of the ad text you should accomplish 2 things:
   • Emphasize what the testimonial already stated. In other words you will create an agreement between the reader and the text of the testimonial.
   • The text should indicate the benefits to why the reader would use your services or product over others. Again, this is about the client and not about you or your company, so pay special attention to this section. It will build the client base you always dreamed of.
3. Generate Urgency
   Engage the readers and through calls to action make them to act immediately. Include some kind of offer that will decisively convince the audience that the offer is too good to miss and would prompt them to respond as soon as possible.
4. Offer Several Ways for the Audience to Respond
   With any ad or piece of advertising you should include at least 3 ways for people to contact you:
   • By Phone – regular local phone number or a toll free number if you are national
   • By Email – create a generic email address you can use for this reason only. You can delete it after your ad has run its time otherwise you’ll be hit with a lot of spam.
   • Through Your Website – include a “contact us” form directly on your website or better use a custom made landing page where you can keep track of all the hits and you can also measure the success of your ad campaign.

 Claudiu Geanta is a serial entrepreneur and founder of Design by Satori Inc. & Satori CG Inc.. He helps businesses promote their presence on and off line. He is also an accomplished web designer, book writer and photographer. You can follow him on Twitter.
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