How to Dominate Your Competition with Great Advertising
Consumers and business buyers are frustrated by the level of noise from an overwhelming amount of promotion that communicates little of value to them. They're tired of lies and false promises made by advertisers. People are also less likely than ever to respond to an advertisers' claims that sound the same as their competitor's.
Your products or services need to be better than your competitions'
If you want great response from your advertising, start by offering a product or service that is clearly better than you competitors'. In today's world, making a strong claim that what you have to sell is superior to what others offer, and backing that claim with believable facts, gets people to listen. Your product or service must be superior in terms of what your target market considers valuable. But beware. If, for example, you present your furniture to be more durable than your competitors' but your potential buyers are much more interested in comfort and design, promoting durability may leave your bank account empty.
How to determine the right superiority to promote
Survey. You survey your potential buyers to determine their hot buttons, their hierarchy of values, what their frustrations are with similar products or services, and what would make your product or service superior to your competition's in their minds. This superiority must be in terms of the quality of your product or service and/or customer service.... preferably both.
Is change needed?
Falsely promoting that your product or service is better than your competition's will haunt you. Be honest in your advertising. Either your product or service has the required superiority or you must create it. Therefore, becoming better may require an investment. The payoff, however, will prove huge if you have the right superiority and your marketing campaign is developed and implemented effectively. Once you have the right superiority, you can launch your campaign, but not until then.
Your ad's headline
Vital to the success of your advertising are compelling headlines that captivate your audience. Your headline is the ad for your ad and can make or break your entire campaign. It takes work to create great headlines. Spending four or six hours to prefect one is typical. Receiving second, third and fourth opinions are always valuable.
The headline you write must make use of hot buttons and voids uncovered by your surveys. The headline must state your superiority and refrain from using generalities like quality, dependability, honesty and caring. Instead, be specific. Over 90 Percent of Our Customers Report 82 Percent Greater Satisfaction with Our Product will clobber the results of a headline that states, Our Customers are More Satisfied with Our Product. Just make sure the headline you choose is true because you will need to provide a convincing argument in your ad copy.
Advertising copy
Use the copy of your ad to demonstrate that your argument is true. Your surveys will help you determine what kind of proof is necessary. Plan your promotional copy like an attorney prepares a case for a jury and you will succeed. Provide an abundance of believable evidence. Testimonials can be effective. Studies by independent third parties can be great. If your business category has a suspect reputation, emphasizing membership and a perfect history within consumer organizations or trade associations is usually convincing. Some service businesses achieve success by demonstrating their knowledge through ad copy.
You must also make sure you have the right answers to the crucial questions potential buyers have in the back of their minds before they decide to make a purchase. These questions include: What is your product or service, what does it do, what problems does it solve, how easy is it to get, how easy is it to use, how do you get it and how much does it cost. Again, your surveys can ensure you answer these questions effectively.
The lower the risk on the buyer and the higher the risk you are willing to take, the greater the response will be to your promotion. Your surveys can also determine the most effective low-risk offer for your business.
Be willing to give something away and offer a great guarantee. If you have made a bold statement of superiority and backed it up with facts, these may be all that you need to dominate your competition.
Follow-up
Many will not respond to your offer until they’ve seen it several times. Therefore, frequency, repetition and consistency are keys to making your campaign work.
Also, not everyone who responds to your promotion will be ready to buy. Therefore, executing a follow-up plan is essential. This plan must reinforce your superiority and evidence, and be timely. Again, frequency and repetition is a must.
Just Do This and You Will Be O.K.
The path to dominating your competition includes: 1) surveying your potential buyers to uncover opportunities, 2) having a product or service your target market would consider to be better than your competition’s, 3) offering a compelling argument of superiority, 4) proving that argument to be true, 5) making a great low-risk offer, and 6) providing consistent follow-up.
