How To Write An Ad That Gets You New Clients (Part 1)

Here’s something I discovered after being in marketing for years. 

Most ads are absolutely terrible at getting clients.

Some ads are funny. Some ads are cinematic (whatever that means). Some ads are memorable.

But if they don’t get clients… so who cares?

In this article I’ll show you how to write an ad that gets clients, gets leads, sells product.

Let’s get into it:

What NOT To Do When Writing Ads

Let’s start off with a basic principle.

If I wanted to get you to buy something, could be anything, would I:

1. Dress up like a clown so I can get you to laugh first?

2. Bring a cute animal like a puppy or a kitten to aid in the sale?

3. Play loud blaring music and use lots of visual effects and cinematography?

4. Be extremely vague and unambiguous about what I’m trying to get you to buy?

If you’ve answered NO to all of the above we’re off to a great start.

Because that’s exactly what you wouldn’t do to get someone to buy something.

The First Step To Take To Write A Winning Advertisement

So what do we do instead?

We think of our ad as a salesman. Or saleswoman. Whatever floats your boat. But I’m going to use salesman in my example.

Let’s say we spot a good prospect for your product or service and we decide to send a salesman over… what would you want him to say? What would he ask? What arguments would he use to get the prospect to take action?

Let’s try this with an example and say that we’re plumbing services. 

First thing we do is ask a simple question: ‘Who is a good prospect for this?’.

Let’s say we decide that ‘someone with a leak in their house’ is a good prospect.

Now we send out our hypothetical salesman to this hypothetical prospect. What does he say?

How about… 

“Hi, do you have a leaking pipe?”

Beating The Blank Page Problem When You’re Writing Winning Ads

When you start writing anything it’s always daunting to be faced with that blank page. A white sheet of paper staring you right in the face, challenging you to fill it with something useful.

That’s why we’re keeping things simple. We just start by asking them if they are a good prospect for our service. Here’s some examples:

“Is your roof falling to pieces?”

“Do you have a leak in your home?”

“Are you looking to improve your home in the next few weeks?”

“Would you like to install solar on your property?”

“Would you like to improve the efficency of your home?”

We start off simple because simple works. It goes to the heart of the matter. Which is what we’re trying to do. 

You’re trying to cut through the clutter and beat out the noise of all the other advertisers. So we take a straight line approach. Straight for the target. 

This is a great start for your winning ad. In part 2 we’re going to build on this and flesh out our ad. 

Talk soon,

George