A salesman calls you up and wants to sell you advertising in their newspaper, on the internet, in the yellow pages, or some other publication. They tell you how other customers have gotten a great response and they’re sure yours will too. So, you say what the heck and try it – only to get no response. What happened? Should you leave the ad in longer? Buy a bigger ad? Try a different publication? Or give up altogether? Here are some ways to increase your advertising response.


Who Reads The Publication?

Often, firms pick publications at random, going with whichever sales person happens to catch them at the time. This is not the way to find advertising. You should start with publications your prospects and target audience reads. From magazines to newspapers to newsletters – what are your prospects interested in? Do they go to the yellow pages to find an attorney? Will they search lawyers.com? Will they read the Philadelphia Inquirer or a local neighborhood newspaper like the Northeast Times? Do they read trade publications for their industry? If you don’t think a high percentage of your target audience will read the publication you are advertising in, don’t bother. Instead, choose a publication they are more likely to read.

Often, salesmen use number of readers to get you to buy. They may say something like our publication is read by 100,000 people. That doesn’t mean a lot. Find out how many papers they circulate (print and distribute). Ask what their subscribers demographics are. Ask clients if they’ve ever heard of the publication and if they read it. You should be advertising in publications your clients actually read (& that includes specific sections of the newspaper – very few people read every section word for word).

Also, ask how much people pay to receive the publication. People tend to read publications they pay for more often than publications they don’t.

Have a Clear Objective

Your ad should have a single purpose. Anything more will confuse readers. What do you want your ad to do? Promote your next seminar? Drive people to visit your website? Call for a free information kit? Without a clear objective, you confuse people, and confused people don’t call.

Use A Call To Action

If you want to make sure you receive a response, make sure you tell prospects how to take action. Give them a clear way to respond – visiting your website to sign up, call to schedule an appointment, etc. If you don’t tell them the next step, they probably won’t put much energy into guessing it.

Give Prospects a Reason to Take Action

Your ad must contain enough information for your prospect to take action. A picture, tagline, and ‘call us for more information’ might not be enough to motivate people to contact you. The best ads offer something of value for free if prospects call you or visit your website. Often, a free consultation isn’t enough of a motivation. They may not be ready to meet you yet, or feel they don’t know enough about their problem to make an educated decision. Your ad should explain why they should take action and how they can find out more information if they still have questions.

Offer Free Information

The best way to increase any response is to offer something free – a tip sheet, information kit, white paper, case study, free subscription to your newsletter, etc. The information must be more than a sales plug for your firm and should offer valuable resources to your prospect.

Use Attractive Graphics That Reinforce Your Message

Graphics are usually the first thing people notice about an ad. They pull readers to your headline. If your graphic doesn’t reinforce your message, or it’s just a bit too ‘cute’ or ‘comical’, your ad won’t be as effective. The purpose of your ad is to get people to respond, not to entertain your audience.

Stress A Benefit in Your Headline

The headline is also extremely important to the success of your ad. In fact, modifications to your headline can change your response rate by several times. Good headlines entice readers to continue reading the copy below. If your headline doesn’t grab your reader’s attention, he won’t continue reading.

Test Your Ad

Only through testing your ad will you be able to determine what people really think of the ad – and many times that may not be what you’d expect. You should continue running ads that get good response – possibly tweaking them slightly to see if you can improve upon the response rate further. If the ad works well, then add the bells and whistles of color, size, etc. Ads that get little to no response should be pulled and you should try something else.

Why Didn’t My Ad Work?

For ads to work they must get the reader’s attention, entice him to read the ad, and motivate him to take action now. If your audience doesn’t have a need for your services or isn’t convinced by your ad copy, they won’t take action. When this happens, going with a bigger ad, continuing the ad for a longer time frame, or adding color probably will be a waste of money. It’s better to scrap the ad and try something new – either a new ad, a different offer, or a different publication.

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