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Marketing a small business - write ads that sell your benefits

By Kaye Dennan

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 07Jul2008 Word count: 524 Viewed: 344 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

Don't waste your advertising money! Write attention grabbing headlines that will stop your buyers in their tracks. Get them to take action immediately!

Writing ads is an art. But, it is one that can easily be learnt with a little bit of discipline. Most small business owners need to learn this skill to successfully market their business. If you are working at home you will need to tailor your ads to suit how people are going to contact you and try to make that as easy as possible.

Small business marketing is not a lot different than that of a larger business. The first thing is, 'don't rush writing your ads'. You can work all day rushing around doing all sorts of jobs, but when it comes to writing your ads, stop and clearly focus on what you are doing. This is a very important money making job!

Using Keywords. Keywords are words that describe your products or services and align with your USP (Unique Selling Point). For example, 'candles guaranteed to throw a perfume' as opposed to 'candles', and the keyword is 'perfumed' and will attract buyers wanting perfumed candles. Another example would be 'home based business' as opposed to 'business', and the keyword would be 'home based'.

In reality 'candles' and 'business' are both keywords in their own right, but they are very broad, so by defining the broad keyword you are really bringing the ad right down to your target market.

Selling Benefits. So, when writing your ads, describe your product or service specifically with a keyword, and then focus on the benefit. Your ad must state the benefit of your product or service to the client. Solve their problem! Like, 'your room will smell so romantic'. That is what you are doing when stating the benefit.

The Attention Grabbing Headline. Now that you know how you are going to focus your ad, and what you are going to promote, you must write an attention grabbing headline. You must get people to stop and read the rest of the ad. Write at least 10 headlines (better if you do 20+) and see which best suits the product and the benefit.

Use words like: Announcing..., Who Else Is Interested In..., Stop That (Backache)..., 9 Proven Ways To...., Have You Tried...., New In This Week..., Exposed..., Discover...., For This Week Only..., For This Week's Bonus.... There are many more, of course, but you see how these make you stop and think about what is being advertised.

Placing Your Business Name. This should always go at the bottom of the ad. If the people want to buy what you are offering they will look for your address. Don't forget to put in all your contact details. Don't detract from the heading by adding your business name at the top.

A really good point is to sit down and write up a dozen or so ads at a time while you have clear focus and you can then work those ads to suit your particular promotion at the time.

Learn from looking other ads and keep a grab file full of ads that you like.

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