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Advertising:   Now that you've completed your planning and development stage, how are you going to promote your business? - Remember?.... advertise, advertise, advertise! You are competing with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of other marketers all over the world. You'll need to promote and expose your business/s  in every conceivable legitimate way to be ahead of your competitors. 

Your objective in advertising is to promote a perception of your offer's value and benefits to your prospects! You are not initially promoting the product, but - what's in it for your reader. After you have a positive reaction from the prospect, then you provide more detail .....  Then prompt your reader into taking some form of immediate action! 

What's In It For Me?

It's the single-most question on every one of your reader's minds!

Give your most powerful answer to that question in your headline and beginning paragraph and you're on your way to making money. Neglect answering that question and you'll lose them before you even get started!

Every reader is silently looking for what he or she can get, have, be or do. They need to know immediately what's in it for them or you will lose them to someone who is telling them what's in it for them!

The word 'You' should be used in your copy 10 times more 'I'.

The reader's  interest in not in your qualifications or your achievements....their only concern and immediate focus is how they are going to profit by reading what you say. Your entire ad needs to reveal what your reader 'gets' when they order!

Online classified ad submissions are a great way to get exposure to your site - many are free! 

Classified and Free-For-All  advertising  should be a component of your marketing and advertising strategy. FFA advertising, while at no cost, does have it's draw-backs - you will need to submit and re-submit often as your one-liner will drop down in position quickly as each new ad is submitted. FFA ads are not permanent. You can also advertise on many business opportunity programs  that you may  join. Look for every opportunity to expose yourself to the world!  (not intended literally) 

The Marketing process begins with short, powerful classified ads.

What Type of Ad should you use? - there are three key ad types: Qualified - Partially Qualified and Blind.

Your Headline:  In Internet marketing the first and most important element that can help turn your website into a compelling , extremely efficient, lead-generating  mechanism is the Headline. A headline is more than just a summary of your site's content. For one thing it's the first thing that people see in the section "above the fold," which is the the uppermost portion of the front page that appears in browsers, without any scrolling. Unique visitors are often unaware of the sites they  visit, they respond because of the impact of headlines.

If  a headline doesn't instantly give an indication of not only what the site is all about but also the reasons why visitors should browse further the moment they hit it, it will actually deter prospects! In fact, headlines that do not communicate any benefit in navigating the site will dissuade visitors from browsing deeper, which is where most online sales are made. 

The true purpose of a headline is not to advertise the website or the business behind it. It's simply to promote the idea of surfing further. It is an " Ad for an Ad ." A website headline is meant to land the visitor's attention and arouse their curiosity. If the headline doesn't achieve this quickly, efficiently and effectively, people will just simply click away!

You may have heard of the famous " AIDA " formula which is an acronym for:

     Attention

     Interest

     Desire

     Action

Ads must follow this formula in order to be successful!  They must capture the reader's attention, arouse their interest, increase their desire and lead them to take some kind of action. The first part of the formula consists of the headline. If the headline does not command enough attention (or does not command it effectively or rapidly, then the rest of the formula will fail. Usually, there is a gap between the prospect's problem and its solution (or a gap between where a person happens to be at the moment and the future enjoyment of a product's benefits). But many prospects either do not know that there is in fact a gap or, because it is one, try to ignore it as a result. Therefore, a headline that communicates the presence of such a gap or one that widens it will likely appeal to those who can immediately relate to it -- people within that site's target market.

Using a headline that immediately conveys either a problem or a potential benefit not only makes the reader aware that there is a gap but also reinforces it in the mind. After reading the headline visitors will want to know, by browsing further, how they can close the gap. Famous sales- trainer Zig Zieglar said that people buy on emotional logic. In other words, they buy on emotion but justify their decision with logic. Therefore, emotionally-charged headlines also help to  widen those gaps. The wider the gap is, the greater the desire to close it will be.

How do you achieve that? While a website should focus on the solution rather than the problem, adding a negative (or potentially negative) situation to the headline is often more effective because it appeals to stronger emotions and motives. Granted, this may seem somewhat unusual or contrary to what you may have learned in the past. So in order to understand this concept let's take a look at how human needs and emotions work.

In the late 1960's, psychologist Abraham Maslow developed the hierarchical theory of human needs. In essence, Maslow stated that the foundation of all human needs is our need to survive. The next one in that hierarchy is our need for safety. After that, it's needs (e.g. the need for affection, to be loved, to feel a sense of belonging). The need for attention, to feel valuable or respected are esteem needs. And finally, at the top, is our need of self-actualization.

A similar principle, based on Maslow's findings, is called the "pain-pleasure principle." In essence it states that people want to either avoid pain or gain pleasure. In anything we do, we want to either move away from pain ( i.e. solve a problem) or strive towards pleasure ( i.e., gain an advantage). But when given the choice between the two, the avoidance of pain is the stronger motive, because our end need to survive and to be safe takes over. The emotions attached to pain are far superior. Therefore, a headline that communicates a problem (i.e., a painful situation or a potentially painful one that could arise without the benefits of one's offering) will have more emotional impact than a pleasurable one. It instantly communicates to those who associate to its message and thus isolates the serious prospect from the curious visitor. 

Think of a negative situation that is now present, or one that will occur without the benefits of your product or service. It would also be wise to add the main benefit of your website in the headline, following the gapper. By doing so you show the prospect that the solution does exist in the site, thus compelling them to read further. In other words, you reinforce a painful situation (i.e. capture their attention) and then highlight the solution (i.e. arouse their curiosity). Look at the way it is done at:      http://MarketingChallenge.com

The headline is a positive one packed with benefits, it starts with the words "Zoom Past the Confusion," which is a negative gapper. This headline also uses another readership-enhancing technique: it begins with a verb. In other words, it directs visitors and takes them by the hand. Other examples include headlines that begin with the words "learn," "discover," "find," "get," "read," "see," "earn," "visit," surf." "join," "sign up," "order," and so on.

But go a step beyond that.  Don't stick to  mere verbs. Use action words that help paint vivid pictures in the mind. The more vivid the the picture is, the more compelling the headline will be. For example, rather than saying "Poor management leads to financial woes," use "Don't let poor management suck money right from your bottom-line." People can picture the action of "sucking" more than they do "leading"  (now  you understand why we say  "zoom"  past the confusion.)

Ultimately, don't let visitors guess what they must do or what they will get from your site. Tell them in the headline!          

(editor: Michel Fortin http://SuccessDoctor.com)

Researchers at Yale University say the twelve most powerful words in the English language are:

The above list shows some of the attention-getting words that you should try to include in your advertising headers. Verbs and adjectives are great because they prompt for action and are descriptive.

"PROMOTE OR DIE!"  This bold ad header once caught my attention for several reasons:

       The word "die" caught my attention

       I wanted to know what the author meant

       I perceived a forceful message that if you don't promote your business it will "die"

       I believed this powerful header might lead to something that I should know

       It didn't give me any details of the product/service offered

How did you react to it?

Top Eleven Worst Things You Can Say While Prospecting; ..... Hackneyed words and clichés!

Over time, some marketing techniques and tools become less effective as they are replaced by other innovations. So the "cool tool" that was highly successful twelve months ago may now be ineffective or even redundant. Keep your eye out for trends in advertising and new mediums that appear and seem to flourish - an example is the move to ezines, ezine advertising, mailing lists, viral marketing and making your site "sticky" by adding "freebies" and interactivity for your visitors. (guest books, lucky draws etc.)

Competition?  Worried about a little competition? Why? Competition is the greatest thing that's happened in marketing since Adam was a boy! 

Who's your competition?  everyone!  i.e. everyone who markets like products and services to yours is your direct competitor.

"Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it."
Stephen Leacock