Freelance Copywriter Secrets: 15 Ways To Increase Your Ad's Inquiries

By: Charles Brown
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:43:25
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I just don’t understand the point of advertisements that are only intended to build image and brand awareness. An ad can generate leads and enhance image and brand awareness.

Here are X ways you can increase the pulling power of your ads to generate leads:

1. Offer free information. Make it useful, informative and use the information, not your ad, to enhance your image.

2. Describe your free brochure, booklet, CD or whatever your free information is.

3. Tell readers the benefits they will receive by reading this marketing piece.

4. Show a picture of the free booklet.

5. Give your booklet a title that conveys its value. Planning Kit,” “Needs Analysis,” “101 Ways To ___,” are all better than “brochure.”

6. Include a toll-free number on your ad, AND train your operators to handle the incoming calls. Don’t fumble the fall on the one yard line with untrained, discourteous employees answering your phone.

7. Create a hotline and name your telephone number. If you sell accounting services, your phone number could be 1-800-TAX-PROS. Print your telephone number in large font and in bold.

8. Coupons on full page ads have been demonstrated to increase response as much as 100%.

9. Repeat your contact information (telephone number, address and website) on your add in case a reader picks up an ad after someone else has clipped out your coupon.

10. A reply card bound into the seam of the magazine can increase response again by another 100% to 200%.

11. Offer a free consultation, analysis, estimate, study or whatever your business provides. However, you might choose to offer this as one option, such as one box among several that can be checked, since it implies that a salesperson will call.

12. Give readers who do not want contact from a salesperson the choice of getting the free information without being contacted.

13. Mention the word, “FREE” in the headline, along with the name of your booklet.

14. Make your headline a direct, straightforward promise of a benefit to be received when they request your free information product.

15. Test different ads, see which headline, benefits, booklet title, or other variables pull in the highest response.

The number one job of every advertising dollar you spend must be to generate leads and add to your database of potential customers. Only these kinds of ads can be measured to determine their effectiveness.

You can enhance your brand and image indirectly with such direct response ads, but why not make your ad do double duty?

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

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