The Most Important Part of Your Ad...and Why!

- by Mark Hendricks


Is there a most important part of your sales message?

Absolutely.

Why is it more important than the other parts?

80%+ of the effectiveness of your ad depends on it...and if it's good, it can increase your response up to 1700%.

Why does a good one get these kinds of results?

Like everything in effective marketing that you've learned here, it's all tied to human psychology and emotions.

What is this one thing that can be so hard to come up with, yet so very easy to find an effective one?

It's your headline.

Direct marketing studies have tested and shown that 80%+ of the success of your ad is the drawing power of your headline. And by testing headlines, one against another with the same sales offer included, a good one can increase your ad's response up to 1700%!!!!

That leads to a seemingly simple question..."why?"

See if what I'm saying makes sense to you.

At the subconscious level, each and every human is wanting to self-improve (move toward feeling good) or interested in solving a problem (avoiding pain).

By the way, avoiding pain is a much greater human motivator than self-improvement. Just look how fast someone wants to take action when they are having a major problem or are in great emotional, physical, or financial pain.

And interestingly, self-improvement is many times full of emotional, physical, and financial pain, isn't it?

You're trying new things to expand and many times there are stumbling blocks along the way that can be difficult to overcome...you see, actually positive growth can be painful.

So many times the human spirit will give up because they are experiencing pain...when they were promised feeling better!...emotionally, physically, financially, etc.

Now you can understand why it's hard to get someone to try something new, even if it's positive and good for them.

They are currently in their "comfort zone", not feeling any pain, and you try to get them to move ahead and "risk" feeling new pains that they haven't dealt with yet...with the hope of doing better, and not feeling these new pains in the future.

The result...they do nothing.

Now sit back for a moment and think about what you're feeling.

I've just described your frustration and pain as a marketer.

You've made an offer to someone, an offer you believe to be of great value and importance.

Unfortunately for you, your prospect didn't take notice or respond at all.

Why?

One of two things.

They were either in their "comfort zone" and did not currently have the pain you described, or...the good feelings that you offered were not "perceived by them" (their only reality) to be worth the emotional, financial, physical and time cost (risk/pain) they may endure to achieve the end result...so they do nothing.

Ouch, you feel your pain and frustration.

Okay, here's where your headline comes in (finally, you say, he's getting to the point).

Your headline has the ability to break through to the lower levels of the emotional brain of your human prospect.

As you've heard me say time and time again, all humans (you and I included) make all decisions on an emotional basis first, and then justify that decisions to ourselves and others with "logic".

Therefore, your headline must appeal to the emotional brain, not the the "logical" brain.

Your headline must provoke curiosity in your reader by bringing up a problem (pain) they are having, or by promising a great new benefit or solution to their problem...or here's the best kept marketing secret...BOTH!!!

Always try for both...but as always...test, test, test.

So here's what you do...

Start analyzing all the ads and newspaper/magazine articles (they have headlines, don't they?) you read and figure out whether they are offering pain avoidance or new comforts, or both. See how the headline draws you in with the benefits of reading more.

Mark Hendricks is the author of "How To Make Your Ads, Sales Letters, And Websites Sell Like Crazy". This ebook package reveals the jealously-guarded secrets of world-class marketers of the last one hundred years, and how you can use these time-tested secrets right now to increase your marketing results exponentially. For more information see...
http://www.hunteridge.com/sales.php?offer=YOURNICKNAME&pid=1

(use your shortened link like I showed you above to "hide" the affiliate look)

Three Words Guaranteed To Make Your Sales Letter Fail...Get Rid Of Them And Watch Your Responses Skyrocket! - by Mark Hendricks

When reviewing clients' ads, sales letters, brochures, and other sales pieces there are three words that always need to be deleted to make the letter more effective in generating responses.

Before you hear what the words are, let's make sure that you know where the emphasis of your ads or letters should be. The emphasis, of course, should always be on your customer.

You'll want to speak to your readers needs, wants, desires, and fears.

That's how you'll be able to get your message into your prospects' emotional level brain so that your customer will take action. Remember, all decisions are made on an emotional basis first and then justified by logic later (see "How To Make Your Ads, Sales Letters, And Websites Sell Like Crazy" book for more details).

And the best way to get to your prospects emotional brain is to speak of the benefits your customer receives by purchasing your product/service...not the features...but the benefits.

As a reminder, BENEFITS are the RESULTS your customer will receive by doing business with you and features are the distinguishing characteristics of your product/service.

It's great that your product/service has distinguishing characteristics (features) that separate you from your competition, however, if you show your prospect the desired RESULTS you can provide, then you're showing your customers the BENEFITS received by purchasing your products/services.

Okay, so what are these three words guaranteed to make your ads and sales letters fail?

They are the words that completely take the focus off of your customer...these three words do not speak to your customers' emotions...these three words do nothing to instill desire in your prospect for your product/service...the three words to get rid of in your ads and sales letters are, "I...Me...My".

These three words put the emphasis and spotlight on you, the writer, instead of your customer/prospect. There is no way for you to communicate to your reader's emotions if you only speak about yourself ("I, me, my"). You've got to be writing to your reader, about your reader and your reader's hopes, desires,. wants, dreams, and fears.

That's how you get them to respond to your offer.

Now here's something that you may find interesting.

Have you noticed that in this discussion, that the words "I, me, or my" have not been used?

YOU...have been the complete focus of this discussion...YOU and YOUR customers and prospects.

And at first it's pretty hard to get the words "I, me, my" out of your writing.

Why is that, you ask?

Well, it's because of...you guessed it...your own emotions.

All humans, "way down deep", are only interested in their own wants and desires. That's "way down deep" on the subconscious levels (see the discussion in the "...Sell Like Crazy" book about the three brains and how to communicate with each).

So that's why it's hard at first to get rid of these three words.

But fortunately for your bank account, you can learn to delete "I, me, my" from your vocabulary and learn to turn phrases into "you, your, and yours" that put the spotlight where it belongs, which is on your customer/prospect.

This one little change in your ads and letters will increase your effectiveness and your results immediately.

So here's what you do now.

Go through your ads and letters and re-write any sentence that has the words "I, me, my" in them. By doing this, you'll automatically have to place the spotlight on your customers, which will help you communicate the desired results (benefits) of your product/service to your customers own wants and desires.

Now sometimes it just seems impossible to get around using an "I, me, or my" in a sentence (but make sure you don't give up too easy). When this occurs, use the words "we, us, our" instead. This will soften the focus on "I, me, my" and give you a little springboard to get back to using the words "you, your, yours". But make sure that you've tried every which way to phrase the sentence using "you, your, yours" first.

Give it a try and YOU will see YOUR results skyrocket..from YOURS truly,

Mark

Mark Hendricks is the author of "How To Make Your Ads, Sales Letters, And Websites Sell Like Crazy". This ebook package reveals the jealously-guarded secrets of world-class marketers of the last one hundred years, and how you can use these time-tested secrets right now to increase your marketing results exponentially. For more information see...
http://www.mikeseroveyenterprises.com/crazy.htm