5 Profit-Draining Mistakes You Make In Your Advertising Every Day And What You Can Do About It.- Part 3
Furniture World News Desk on
10/18/2013
by David Love, Love Furniture Profits
Mistake #3? Accepting the erroneous notion the no one will read copy. This is sort of an expansion of Mistake #2, talked about last week. It is so important it warrants more explanation.
Let’s be sure we agree on a couple things before we get started this week.
People buy for one reason and one reason only: to get the BENEFIT of what they buy offers. Right?
Your salespeople do a pretty good job of explaining benefits to the customer in the store. Right?
You don’t do a good job of talking benefits in your ads. Right?
Prospects and customers are hungry for information and will read any amount of copy if it’s interesting, helpful and serves their self-interest. Right? Once you accept this advertising Truth, how do you write effective ad copy that sells?
Last week I promised to tell you how. First though , understand this. This is not a course on how to write effective ad copy. That is way beyond the scope of these little articles. I can help you with that but not here.
Before you can expect anyone to even get to your copy you have to interest them enough to draw them into the ad. How do you do that? Since people buy to get benefits, the best way is to promise a benefit in the headline. This is one of what the great advertising genius, pioneer and results researcher Clyde Bedell called his Five Great Proved Headline Ingredients.
Here some examples of benefits besides “Sale.” Comfort. Attractive home. Good night’s sleep. Relaxation. Improved health. Feel better. Be proud. Show your good taste. Store benefits would include things like selection. Design help. In stock. Careful delivery. You get the picture. These are all things you talk about in your store so it’s now time to talk about them in your ads.
Don’t forget this, however. Benefits must be supported by product points, commonly called features. It does no good to say, for example, a Tempur-pedic mattress eliminates pressure points on your body, without saying it’s because there are no springs pushing back, among other reasons.
How to weave features and benefits together is a whole nother topic. Again, outside the scope of this short article.
To give you an idea, here’s a headline and copy I wrote for a sale flyer for a small regional mattress chain. It was Item copy for a featured Sealy Posturpedic.
Headline: “Is a tired old mattress robbing you of sleep and energy?” ( I call this a negative benefit or reverse benefit if you like. Makes the reader think about the benefits they are missing out on.)
Then the copy went like this: “Let this special Sealy Posturpedic help you get a full measure of sweet, deep sleep by night. It’s nature’s way of making your waking and working hours pay off with zest and energy; rejuvenating your mind and body. If your current mattress is soft or lumpy, the discomfort level robs you of the rest you need. You wake up achy and tired, feeling like you hardly slept at all. That takes a terrific toll on your energy and your overall health and wellbeing. That’s a price you can’t afford to pay. Come in today sleep better tonight. Feel better now.”
There were many other elements (too numerous to talk about here) working in the ad but you get the idea. The traffic generated by this ad prompted one of the store managers to comment, “nobody’s ever actually brought in an ad before.” For the long weekend promotion, his store did 43% more than in a typical four day period.
Mistake #4 next week. Your failure to make advertising accountable.
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, breakthrough 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 david@lovefurnitureprofits.com. 707-580-34315
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