When it comes to outrageous advertising there are four words guaranteed to give me that sinking feeling... "I don't like that!"
Sometimes I have to bite my tongue to stop something rude and inexcusable from slipping out; and sometimes I don't bother and just say it anyway.
And if you are strong enough to ignore them when you hear them or utter them yourself, then it will transform your small business advertising beyond all recognition.
Because the fact is YOU are not (necessarily) your target market. What's more, your own estimation and recollection of what you DO respond to and what you HAVE responded to is likely to be inaccurate (human memory is SO fallible it's just not funny).
I remember a long time ago when I was first dipping my pinky toes into Direct Response Marketing and Advertising Copywriting I had a client who insisted, yea, INSISTED on running a full-page ad in one of the national dailies.
OK, so... maybe it was worth a test if you're rich enough to have money to lose on this, because there was no indication whatsoever the readership comprised her target market.
Then when I actually SAW the ad she wanted to run I almost fainted. I forget how much the ad alone cost, but along with the creative costs and what not it came to over £15,000.
And it was £15,000 the company couldn't afford to lose.
And lose it they surely did.
Why?
Because the ad was atrocious. It was the picture of some cute (actually nauseating) child holding out its hand to its parent with the headline (if we can dignify it with that name) "A Legacy of Love".
I can't remember any of the other details. I think I was too shocked.
Seriously, it was rubbish.
Anyway, the ad bombed. In a big way. Just 35 responses and not a single, solitary sale.
Now, what was my part in all this?
Well, I didn't play one.
Why not?
Because MY ad was rejected in favour of the other one, the one that bombed so spectacularly.
MY ad was 1/4 of the size and was full of tight, persuasive copy driving the reader to a website where they'd leave their details in return for receiving through the post a glossy and sexy booklet which was packed with useful information and advice.
It's easy for me to say this and I have no proof, but I'll bet my left kidney mine would have outpulled the other one by an order of magnitude.
But WHY was mine rejected?
Because she "liked" the other one. It appealed to her sense of aesthetics. She liked the colours. She liked the pictures. She LOVED all the white space.
And... she thought it looked "professional". High-class. Sophisticated.
I thought it looked like a dumb ad, and so did umpty-million other people, too. And they voted with their wallets.
The mistake she made - and it really compounded all the others - was to assume her market would like what she liked (as if that was even relevant).
You see, your readers respond to your marketing not because they "like" it but because it smacks them between the eyes and promises to solve a problem they've got.
It can be ugly, hard to read, even risque, and on occasion, downright offensive (I've done it and done it successfully, to the tune of $150,000 in 9 days filling a seminar using a sales letter replete with four-letter words rhyming with "buck", "wit", and "plastered").
But it doesn't have to be "liked".
And it especially doesn't have to be liked by the client.
So long as it's true, honourable, honest and has integrity, then liking has nothing to do with it (and clients of mine soon come to realise how inflexible I am on this - they pay me for RESULTS not platitudes or approval for dumb-ass ads).
Remember: the market decides... and hands down its judgement in your profits and losses.
Never, ever forget this.
For it will cost you dearly if you do.
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Jon McCulloch is Ireland's top direct response advertising copywriter. Hit his website http://www.jonmcculloch.com today and grab your free business boosting tips. There is NOTHING to buy on this site - only effective free tactics to grow your business.
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