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What is an ad? Newsletter June 2009
In the ad workshops I present to media companies, ad agencies, marketing firms and business owners, I start by asking a question that sets the stage for creating more effective ads.
It also catches people a off guard because they really haven’t thought much about the question before. Or the answer.
I’d like to start by asking you the same question. Here it is…
What’s an ad?
No, it’s not a trick question. And no, it’s not a question many people have a good answer to. (A fact proven by the overwhelming majority of lame and ineffective ads across all media).
But the right answer, as you’re about to see, is a strategy that will dramatically boost your ad response rates.
Before I tell you the answer, look at some of the definitions of “advertising” I found by Googling the same question. Here are 5 definitions from 5 different sources:
- Advertising is attempting to influence the buying behavior of your customers or clients by providing a persuasive selling message about your products and/or services.
- A public promotion of some product or service.
- The business of drawing public attention to goods and services.
- A form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service…
- A communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong…and Wrong.
The definitions are wrong because none provide insight that will help your ads generate more leads and sales.
So “What’s an ad?”
An ad is an ETHICAL BRIBE so irresistible it causes prospects to stop thinking whatever they were thinking and to stop planning what they were planning today in order to take advantage of your bribe offer-NOW.
By applying this answer to your advertising, you’ll be able to:
- Attract more prospects to your business faster than you’re attracting them now.
- Dramatically lower your customer acquisition costs.
You have to be wondering why, if bribes are such a powerful strategy for growing your business, so few businesses use them in their ads?
Two answers: One, you simply don’t know the power of bribery to attract new customers. Or, Two, you’re turned off by the thought of having to “bribe” customers to do business with you.
I hope you’re in the first group. Because if you are and you use a powerful bribe in your next ad, you’ll see an influx of new prospects immediately.
If you’re in the second group; you need to get past the self-esteem issues involved here. Bribery doesn’t make you look cheap or scammy. In fact, good bribes make you look smart-because by using them, you are!
Why else did Mrs. Fields give away free cookies?
Why else did King Gillette give away millions of free razors?
Why else would AOL give away millions of free 30-day trials?
Why else would Denny’s give away a free breakfast?
These brilliant bribes quickly exposed new products, exponentially grew the customer base and dramatically lowered customer acquisition costs.
No matter what industry you’re in, bribes work to grow leads and sales. And there are numerous types of bribes-such as the “guilt” bribe; the “scare tactic” bribe; the “scarcity” bribe to name a few.
My personal favorite is the in-your-face bribe. Such as:
- Buy one dinner, get one free
- Free Round of golf includes cart and lunch
- Test drive any pre-owned luxury car for 30 days-love it or bring it back no questions asked
- Free VW Beetle with purchase of Condo
- Free bookkeeping services for a month
- FreeTheatre Tickets and Dinner for 2 to the first 20 callers…
Contrary to what some think, you don’t need to be overly CREATIVE to find a good bribe to drive massive leads. Just steal or re-purpose some of the ones I just shared.
But here’s a key piece to the puzzle: before you come up with a bribe, start by getting inside the emotions, the wants, concerns, problems and desires that occupy your prospect’s every waking hour. Then work backward to arrive at a bribe. Remember your particular fish must find the bait irresistible.
With that in mind, here are some tips for using bribes effectively:
- Starting with your prospect in mind, make your bribe a “WOW”; big, audacious, daring. Bold bribes generate bigger response.
- Use a bribe your prospects CAN’T say “no” too; in other words match bribe to desire.
- Tell the dollar amount of the bribe-prospects like knowing how much they’re getting away with.
- Consider using a bribe as a premium in conjunction with your core product.
- Bribes don’t always have to associate with your core product. For example, one famous bribe gave away “A Free Set of Steak Knives” to sell a yearly newsletter subscription.
- Use the bribe as the lead offer in your ad…don’t bury it in body copy.
Use these ideas and watch your ad’s performance soar.
Okay, so now I have a bribe for you.
If you send me a list of “ethical bribes” you’ve used or made up, I’ll post them on my site and pick a winner. I’ll reward the winner with FREE AD COPY AND A ROUGH LAYOUT. (Ya, it’s a pretty big prize because I charge $3,000 for full page ads and $2,500 for half page print ads). It’s also a great prize because the majority of my newspaper and magazine ads drive thousands of dollars new business.
The winner will also get some penetrating insights and on-target advice about how to better market their business-so what’s that worth to you?
I’ll be picking a winner in the next 5 days. So hustle if you want in.
And even if you don’t win the big grand prize, you still win-because you’ll see lots of bribe ideas to inspire your next ad campaign.
Send your list of “bribes” with my contact form
Accelerating your sales,
Use the following list of “ethical bribes”
to create powerful offers in your ads
The “FREE” bribe offer
- Free teeth cleaning while schedule openings last”
- Free Low Fat Yogurt Dish Topped with Fresh Fruit”
- Free Storage for 2 months and we pick up and deliver free too”
- Free Report: 6 Steps to Immediately Stop Foreclosure, Save Your House and Your Credit
- Free Ad Critique
- Free Bookkeeping Service for 60 days
- Receive a free sample of _________________
- A free checkup
- A free membership for 60 days
- A free audit
- A free catalog
- A free analysis
- A free engine diagnostic
- Your first 2 lessons are free
- A free consultation
- Free information packet
- A free information video, CD or DVD
- A free e-book
- A free booklet
- A free dinner
- A free lunch
- A free breakfast
- A free newsletter for 3 months
- A free room cleaning
- A free cookie
- Free eggs, butter, or milk
- First month free
- Free 60 day trial
- Free case studies
The bribe offer that side-steps the word “FREE”
- Complimentary dinner
- Complimentary e-book
- Complimentary 1-hour consultation
- Complimentary survey results
- Complimentary massage
- Complimentary seminar
- Complimentary DVD Report sent overnight to you
- Dinner for 2 is on us at ___________
- I’ll pay for dinner at ___________
- Let me pay for dinner at ____________
- Let us pay for dinner
- Be our guest for a complementary sample of _______
- You’re invited to be our guest and receive a complementary_____________
- Sample ________; no cost to you
- You pay nothing for a _________
- Your cost? Absolutely nothing for this____________
- As our guest, you pay nothing for this incredible ____________
- I invite you to sample _________ at no cost to you
- Tour these luxurious rooms and receive a complementary facial massage at ____
The free or discount offer with free premium
- Buy 2 tires, get 2 tires free.
- Half Off Sandwiches and get a FREE soda
- Buy 2 Get ______ and Get 1 _____Free
- Free Guine Game Ball with
- Free Steak Knives (a $195 value) with your 12 month subscription
- Buy 1 Bottle of Wine for $7. Get a Second Bottle for 5 Cents
- Fly to San Francisco for only $39 and get a Free Garment Bag
- Suits Are Half Off and Your Choice of 2 Italian Silk Ties are Yours Free
- Free _______ with every order of ______
- Free half-hour massage with any order of $60 or more
The discount offer
- “$79 Down and $79 a month. Buy before Feb 7 and get a free $100 gas card” (Used car dealership)
- Choose your savings–$3 discount up to $10, $5 discount up to $30, $10 discount up to $50
- 60% Off Stero Equipment Because of Our Recent Fire
- 50% Off all cakes, pies and cookies after 4PM
Have an ethical bribe that’s worked to attract new customers to your business? Share it here.
Check Out My Related Posts:
Want to improve your ads? Expand your comfort zone.
Over the years I’ve learned that there is an interesting connection between a business owner’s comfort zone (defined in one Wikipedia definition as “the limited set of behaviors and environments that a person can engage in without becoming anxious“), and the results their advertising produces.
Sound strange or a bit too woo-woo for your taste?
Hold your judgment. At least until you’ve read the stories I’m about to share.
The first story dates back a few years when I ran one of the largest retail ad agencies in the New York, New Jersey and Connecticut region.
During that time my agency was hired by a large, established retail carpet store in upscale Westchester, New York. Our assignment: create an ad campaign to grow sales by 20% over a given period of time.
Not many businesses are that clear about their advertising objectives; so I was intrigued and inspired by the challenge.
What further inspired me was the store owner seemed to be doing the right things to support his revenue goals: he beefed up the sales, marketing and ad budget; he initiated a staff training program; and he hired a seasoned sales manager to lead the charge.
All good things, right?
In our first meeting with the sales manager we hammered out a production schedule and media plan and discussed the need for the ads to have strong offers to accomplish the sales goals we had to meet. Everything was positive.
In a week we met again, this time we had ad concepts in hand. Each half page, black and white ad in the campaign featured a powerful, irresistible offer in the headline, lots pictures, lots of product listings with price discounts and a premium gift offer with purchase.
The sales manager loved the ads and approved them on the spot.
The first ad ran in the Sunday edition of The New York Times.
On the Monday following I got a call from the sales manager. He was ecstatic. “The ad produced the most one-day traffic the store has ever had. We broke all sales records”, he said.
When the next ad ran in The Times, it was even more successful than the first one.
“We had to hire traffic cops to direct traffic”, the sales manager yelled on the phone over the noise of busy shoppers in the background. “This place is crazy”.
The third week of the campaign he called to say the campaign was on track to generate “better than a 30% sales increase.”
We had hit a home run and I was feeling good.
But those good feelings were short lived. Because just as I was getting accustomed to these ego-boosting weekly phone calls, something strange happened.
The phone calls from the sales manager stopped.
When I called the store I was told the sales manager wasn’t available. Each time I called I got the same answer. It was weird and disconcerting.
Then I got a call from the sales rep at The New York Times. “The store manager just called and pulled the plug on the ad campaign. They want to stop advertising altogether”, he said. “What happened?”
Finally a week later the sales manager called. His once positive, confident voice now sounded sheepish, small and defeated.
“I have to let you and your agency go”, he said in a near whisper.
“What’s wrong?”, I asked in total disbelief. “Didn’t we produce the sales you wanted?”
“What’s wrong”, he said, “is the store owner is uncomfortable with all these people in his store. He’s uncomfortable with our success…he won’t even come into the store anymore.”
Then he put his finger on what I suspected was the real issue: “The owner wants his old store back. He’s completely out of his comfort zone right now.”
I later learned that the store manager quit; the sales training stopped, and the store shrank back to sales below where they were before they hired us.
But I’ll bet you the store owner was “comfortable” again.
Now contrast that story to this one: I was conducting an ad workshop in San Diego not long ago. During one of the breaks a young man, the new marketing director of a local casino, approached me with his current newspaper ad in hand. He wanted to know what he could do to dramatically improve revenues.
I asked him if he had “the guts” to massively grow his leads and sales.
He was a bit shocked by my question.
I told him to come up with a specific number of leads he wanted the ad to produce. I further told him the number should make him “uncomfortable”. And when he knew to come back and we’d talk about his ad strategy.
As the session ended, I saw him walking toward me. “I have an answer”, he said. “I want the ad to generate a thousand new leads.”
“Then you need an outrageously compelling offer”, I answered. “And to come up with one, you need to get outside your comfort zone.”
A couple of days later we met and together came up with an offer that was outrageous enough his palms were sweating. He would advertise a “Free Prime Rib Dinner for 2, plus $25 of Free Gambling Money”.
A few days after the ad ran in the local newspaper, he called. His voice was filled with excitement.
“You’re not going to believe it” he said. ”The ad pulled just over 10,000 responses in 3 days. And we generated over $500,000 in revenues to our bottom-line.”
‘That’s good news”, I replied.
“Ya, but there was a problem. The Food and Beverage Manager complained that they couldn’t handle all the new customers. They ran out of food, we didn’t have enough servers, and parking was a nightmare. So we had to stop running the ad.”
Okay, so being prepared for success is critical. And I’ll cover it another article.
But here’s the point: like the casino’s marketing director found out, your ads cannot deliver bigger sales results until you demand bigger sales results.
To improve sales, set your “lead and revenue targets” higher than you’re comfortable with.
You’ll be able to tell if you’re setting goals outside your comfort zone because if you are your palms will sweat.
Try this right now. Set uncomfortable goals for your next ad campaign. And then check your palms.
If they’re not sweating, do the exercise again until you do.
And if you are sweating, take a look at your ads again. Does the primary offer have the necessary fire power to accomplish the results you want? I think you can tell. We all know if an ad’s offer is “lame” or not. Be honest. And keep pushing the envelop out until you come up with strategies that will accomplish the mission.
Allowing yourself to think outside your-comfort-zone-box will not be easy if you’re not used to it.
But it’s the only way to quickly grow your leads and sales.
Like it or not, the results your ads are delivering are the ones you’re comfortable with. No, you may not be “intellectually” comfortable with your present results. But as it applies to your comfort zone, you are where you want to be. It’s familiar there.
So if you want sales at a higher level, challenge your present comfort zone and push your mental borders further out. It’s in this new, unfamiliar mental zone, that breakthrough ideas occur.
Albert Einstein summarized it best: “The same mind that created the problem cannot solve the problem”.
Outside your comfort zone you’ll discover a “new mind”, capable of powerful ideas you haven’t entertained before.
