Three things every advertisement MUST have!

Before buying My Maid Service I spent 12 years working at Procter & Gamble in sales and marketing.  P&G is considered the world's best marketing company with over 40 Billion-dollar brands including Tide, Pampers, Gillette, and Pringles.  Grab your latest advertisement and review it as you read this article to see if it measures up.

At P&G they taught us that all effective advertisements must contain three things.  There are lots of cute things you see in ads like catch phrases and humor but if you do not do these 3 things the advertisement will fail.  Don't get lost in the cute.

1. Make a Claim. - You have to tell your consumer why your product is going to make their lives better. For examples right now Pampers makes the claim “Helps maintain the natural healthy look of your baby's skin.”  In our industry we may claim things like “We will give you back your weekend.” Or to quote The Maids Home Services “Nobody outcleans the Maids.”  That is a great claim.  I really wish they did not have it trademarked.  
2. Provide a reason to believe - You just told the consumer how great you are.  Now back it up. This is why right after the claim on a TV advertisement there is almost always a demo, some cool technology explained, or some back up piece of data.  For example Pampers will often say “Pampers Swaddlers with absorb away liners are the #1 choice of hospitals.”  In My Maid Service advertisements I always include the phrase “Voted the best in Cincinnati for 3 years in a row.” If you cannot use a third party endorsement you can talk about the cleaning products you use, the 39 item check list, or the experience of your employees.  Use whatever explains how you will deliver on the claim you made above.
3. Call to Action – You told them what your are going to do and why they should trust you.  Now close the deal.  Tell the consumer what to do.  For example, “Call 513-934-3254 for $20 off your first cleaning” or “Join our email list to receive great deals.”

Look at all your advertisements and make sure they have all three of these.  Even the professionals make serious mistakes.  Just last month I paid thousands of dollars to be in one of those direct mail coupon envelopes like Val Pak.  When they sent me my advertisement it looked great and I showed it to all the people in my office.  No one noticed the error, including me.  Then I sat down and made a quick check for my 3 key elements.  There was no phone number or web address.  I had this great ad that the designer, my entire office staff, and even a 12 year marketing veteran did not notice had no way for the consumer to contact us.

So does this technique work?   Well it did for this article.  I convinced you to give me your valuable time to read my article.  Read the first paragraph again.  Claim  - I will teach you how to grow you business.  Reason to believe – I worked for 12 years in marketing for the world's best marketing company.   Call to Action -  Read this article and apply it to your latest marketing piece.