5 Profit-Draining Mistakes You Make In Your Advertising Every Day And What You Can Do About It.- Part 2

Furniture World News Desk on 10/13/2013

By David Love Love Furniture Profits

Let’s re-cap first. Last week I told you that whenever I say “ad” I mean any means you use to communicate with your customers and prospects. ROP, circulars, web site, direct mail, whatever. We talked about the most glaring and damaging–to-your-profits mistake you make: failure to talk about BENEFITS in your ads. That people buy for one reason and one reason only; to get Benefits. Never for any other reason. Never.

I said that since most salespeople do a pretty good job about talking benefits in their sales presentation, why don’t we do it in our ads? I promised to tell you why.

Here’s why; and it’s mistake #2. The reason your ads don’t talk about the benefits your prospect can derive from the products you sell is that you have little or no copy in your ads. The reason you have little or no copy in your ads is you think people won’t read a lot of copy. Let me repeat. You believe no one will read copy. Because this is what you’ve always been told. Most agency people, most furniture people (whether manufacturers, reps, or retailers), most ad reps think folks are too busy to read. Even in today’s fast paced world is just not true.

This common misconception is responsible for robbing furniture and bedding retailers of millions upon millions of dollars in available sales and profits every day, every month, every year.

What you're going to read next will shock you but if you can’t accept what I'm about to say, your ads can never be the powerhouse profit producers they need to be and you want them to be.

Here it is. Your prospects are hungry for information and will read any amount of copy - if it is interesting, helpful, and serves the interest of the prospect. This is not something I just thought up. This is something which was proved and codified by the great advertising genius, pioneer and results-researcher Clyde Bedell. He called it one of his Foundation Truths of all advertising. It’s also been proved to me by my own experience.

True, the public won’t read your ads. But the public doesn’t buy your furniture. You can only hope to sell a small slice of the public. Those who are PROSPECTS for what you have to offer. And before they shell out precious dollars for a major purchase (or go through the hassle of visiting your store) they want information – the more the better.

Think. Would you tell your salespeople to just yell “Sale” and “50% off” when they greet a customer? I think not. So why do your ads do that? Your salespeople can't sell a sofa or a dining set or a mattress with 30 seconds of sales talk. And no ad can do a fully effective job with only 30 seconds worth of reading. Most of today’s ads don’t have even that much. It takes words – the right words and enough of them – to sell. In person. In your ads.

Capitalize on this little known or understood Truth. You can't begin to approach getting maximum results from your advertising until you learn to use plenty of persuasive selling copy.
Your friends in the business may laugh and tell you you're crazy. But you'll have the last laugh – all the way to the bank.

0nce you accept that prospects will actually read copy, how do you write effective sales copy? Next week I’ll tell you how.

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David Love is the owner of Love Furniture Profits. An advertising consulting and coaching firm that shows retailers how to get more traffic, more and higher ticket sales and more profits using long-lost scientific advertising secrets unknown by about 99% of all of today’s retailers.
 
David is a 41 year furniture/mattress, in the trenches, industry veteran. His unmatched-by-anyone background includes retail furniture sales. Manager of a retail furniture store. 22 years on the road making money for companies like Sealy Mattress and Best Chairs. His territory and his retailers achieved sometimes remarkable sales increases due to the expert advertising and sales advice he gave. He has also owned and sold his own profitable furniture store and was a highly regarded sales manager of a top 100 furniture store.

With his front-line experience he has a passion for passing it on and sharing that experience to help furniture and mattress retailers cut advertising waste and maximize sales and profits.

To find out more get your free copy (a $29 value) of his just released, Special Report for Furniture and Mattress stores, “5 Long Lost Scientific Retail Advertising Secrets that work like magic in today’s economy for any furniture or mattress store to get you more customers, more sales, more profits” go right now to www.lovefurnitureprofits.com. David can be reached 707-580-3415. david@lovefurnitureprofits.com.

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