The 5 Elements Of A Money-Making Ad

As small business owners, it’s been drilled into our mind by advertising sales reps that we just need to “get our name out there” and somehow magically the customers will just come flooding in.

Well, how’s that workin’ out for ya?

I’ve built dozens of businesses for myself and my clients through the proper use of Direct Response Marketing – not just weak, general “branding” advertising that barely works for the biggest companies (can you say “bailout”?) and CERTAINLY doesn’t work for those of us that own small businesses.

Direct Response Marketing is actually very simple, as well as being affordable, measurable and extremely effective.

Here are the 5 Elements Of A Money-Making Direct Response Advertisement:

1. An Attention-Grabbing Headline
2. Compelling Copy To Create Interest
3. Compelling Copy That Creates Desire In Your Prospect
4. A Specific, Irresistible Offer
5. A Deadline

Miss any one of these elements and you’ll most likely be wasting your money.

Yup, there is a lot of waste out there. Most advertising you see every day will be missing a few of these elements. Advertising agencies and various media reps will tell you “you gotta get your name out there” without giving you any real idea of how to track your results.

But is their primary goal really the success of your ad? I hope you don’t really believe that, no matter what they tell you. Their goal is to do and say whatever they can to get you to advertise, so they make money.

Don’t believe me?

Just flip on the TV, open a magazine, heck – look up a few websites, and see if they have these five elements. Is there an attention-getting headline that compels you to read or watch more or stay on the site? Is your interest being cultivated to build your desire for the results that the company delivers?

Most of the time, the answer is unfortunately a resounding “NO!”

OK, I’ll give you this: Many ads I see can create interest and promote desire. These are usually the very creative ones. But unfortunately, they miss making an offer and setting a deadline.

Why is that important? Because if you want people to take action, you have to ask them to! Why spend your hard-earned cash just to hope someone decides to do business with you?

You have to make people an offer: “I’ll give you this, if you give me that.” To get more people to take your offer, you should offer more – make it irresistible. “I’ll give you this, this, this AND that – all of it for only the price of this.”

By improving your offer, you’ll make it easier for them to logically justify their decision later.

But you’re not done. You have to force a decision NOW. Again: Why would you want to invest your hard-earned advertising dollars, and then leave the response up to the whim of a busy, easily-distracted audience?

If you want to get your money back from the investment in your advertising, you have to get them to take action RIGHT AWAY – by setting a deadline. This one element will increase the amount of your sales faster than anything else you could do!

Put these elements in every ad, letter, email, postcard and website, and every time you connect with a prospect, and you’ll see the results start to pour in.

Also, start to pay attention to all the ads you see every day. Do they contain these five elements? Probably not – not many anyway.

Which is why so many small business owners are frustrated, confused, scared and as a result suffering during these challenging economic times.

But that doesn’t have to be you. Not if you take a little time and effort to learn and use simple but effective Direct Response Marketing.

Give yourself a shot and try it. Before you just give up altogether and let yourself become another victim of “the economy.”