here are three main points to consider when crafting a compelling advert, whether in a facebook group, on a flyer or on google ads:
- The Offer
- The Copy (Words)
- The Creative (Image)
Lets look at each of these in turn to discover the most effective way for you to drum up more engagement and business.
1. The Offer #
This is the single most important thing to consider when you want to advertise. What are you actually giving someone, and in return for what. Usually the basics of an offer is a service in exchange for money. For example – a 60 minute massage for £50. That is a basic offer.
A compelling offer however is made up of three parts – the features, the benefits and the cost. You can make the offer more compelling by increasing any one of those 3 things – providing more features, at greater benefit to the customer or for lower cost, and remember the cost to someone is not just the monetary cost there is also a cost in time and in mental energy. You can also make an offer more compelling in two ways – by communicating the offer more effectively (60 Minute Massage vs 60 Minute Stress Buster Massage) or by actually changing the components of the offer (15 Minute Stress Buster Taster Session Only £5).
Feature – 60 minutes
Benefit – Release all the tension from your upper back and leave you feeling top of your game again.
Cost – Money & Time & Energy – (£50 plus 90 minutes of my life and a little bit of hassle to book)
What About Discounts #
In general, discounting is usually a bad idea. If you discount your service up front you are communicating to the customer that your service isnt actually worth what you say it is worth.
It’s easy to think that discounts are a way to get more people to sign up for your service which is true in the short term as it creates a compelling incentive but in the long run your customer will be less likely to want to pay your full price, often expecting this discount forever, or worse never coming back because they can’t ‘afford’ your service.
A better way to compel people to take action initially is to create a “Special Offer” that is exclusive to Hustle Members using a technique called offer splintering: taking a tiny piece of your full service and offering it at a much reduced price – so instead of a 60 Minute Stress Buster Session for £50 try offering a special 15 Minute Stress Buster Taster Session For Only £5.
The best way to then monetize this taster session is to provide the service – the 15 minute session – and at the end ask the customer if they enjoyed the session. If so, ask them would they like to book the rest of the session now for only £45 (the remainder of what they already paid). This can either be delivered immediately if you have time available or else scheduled for another day. This is also known as service upselling and is a much more effective way to gain new customers than discounting.
Offer Examples #
Bad Offer – 60 Minute Massage – £50
Better Offer – 60 minute Stress Buster massage, to release all the tension in your neck, back and shoulders and leave you feeling top of your game again for £50.
Great Offer – Hustle Exclusive – 15 Minute Stress Buster Taster Session – Release all the tension in your shoulders and leave you feeling top of your game again. For only £5
2. The Ad Copy #
This is the actual words that you write about your offer. How you communicate the value to your potential customer and how you cause them to take action on your offer.
A very basic copywriting template for creating advert copy is:
- Problem
- Agitate
- Solution
- Solve
Problem: #
Do you have neck and back tension caused by all the stress of running around to auditions every week?
Agitate: #
Do you even find it difficult to sleep at night because your neck and back tension is making lying down uncomfortable and you cant stay asleep for long because you keep tossing and turning in the night?
Solution: #
A Stress Buster Session with me can alleviate all the tension in your neck, back and shoulders, give you back your precious nights sleep and leave you feeling on top of your game again.
Solve: #
Click the link below to book a 15 Minute Stress Buster Taster Session with me for only £5 and start feeling yourself again.
3. The Creative (Image) #
The Ad Creative (Image) is an extremely important part of any advert especially online because attention is so fleeting. The average person will spend less than 2 seconds looking at your ad and your image has to do the job of stopping them in their tracks.
A good image should not simply be used as more space to write advert copy. In fact the best ad images will use no words at all. The image should broadly communicate the “feeling” of your advert – either the “before” or “after” state of your customer. It should either depict the “Pain” the person is feeling before your service, or the “Joy” they feel after your service. Anger, Pain, Fear, Humour, Novelty, Excitement, Pleasure, Mystery are all the most powerful motivators and you should pick one or a combination of those to be depicted in your ad image.
