Lawrence Creaghan is The Write Stuff

Proven advertising principles will increase the power and impact of your communications by 200% to 300%...or more!

With more more than $500 billion spent on advertising in 2011 alone, it’s essential for businesses to use proven principles that deliver the biggest bang for the buck. Start applying these principles for yourself in all your communications or send to creaghan@videotron.ca and let Lawrence Creaghan do it.

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usinesses spend hundreds of billions of dollars on advertising every year (more than $500 billion in 2011 alone) selling everything from hamburgers to jumbo jets. And while there are few campaigns that really stand out in all of this, all advertising is carefully measured for its effectiveness in pre-tests before it’s run and in post-tests after the campaign is over.

Why not use these proven principles in all your communications?

Notwithstanding Lord Leverhulme’s (or some would say John Wanamaker’s) famous observation (“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. The trouble is I don’t know which half.”), you don’t spend money consistently on a scale like this without making sure you get a very big bang for your buck. And there is absolutely no reason why you can’t use these proven advertising principles in all your business communications...internal and external...from memos, letters and PowerPoints to business proposals, product specification sheets and webpages. In fact, it would be a huge waste of time and money, as well as a lost opportunity, not to do so.

How a simple change of headline in two similar ads increased sales by 1950%
Advertising legend John Caples – a man who relentlessly tested copy from every angle to find out what worked best – surprised even himself with how a simple change of headline in one ad sold nearly 20 times more than a similar ad with a different headline.

“I have seen one advertisement actually sell not twice as much, not three times as much, but 19½ times as much as another. Both advertisements ran in the same publication. Both had photographic illustrations. Both had carefully written copy. The difference was that one used the right appeal, and the other used the wrong appeal.” – John Caples, Tested Advertising Methods
Always use headlines no matter what the media
It’s obvious where the headline is in a print ad. In TV, your headline is what the viewer sees in the first frame. On radio, it’s what they hear in the first sentence. On the internet, it’s the first sentence they read. But no matter what media you use, from billboards to online, the most important element is always the headline. That’s the bottom line!

Guidelines to writing good headlines
    • A good headline makes a clearly stated promise of a well-defined benefit. (Most hard-selling headlines mention the product or service.)
    • Readers are turned off by headlines that call for mental effort. (Headlines that play games also turn readers off.)
    • Most good headlines spring out of the product itself. (But don’t let the headline brag about the product.)
    • If a headline is good, it can be short or long. (Don’t set a long headline in capital letters.)
– condensed from Mature Advertising by Robert B. Parker

Why captions are so important
On average, twice as many people read the captions under photos as read the body copy. So never use a photo without putting a caption under it and make sure you use your captions to sum up key selling points with a call to action.

Write copy that sells (and sells) in a totally compelling way
Deliver the facts. People like specifics: dollars and cents, percentages and real statistics. Avoid all adblah and all unnecessary words. Short sentences and simple words work best. And no matter what you’re selling...a product, a service or an idea you want people to buy into...never forget the punch line...the “call to action.”

Advertising great David Ogilvy’s Top 7 tips for writing copy that sells
David Ogilvy is widely considered as one of the greatest minds in modern advertising and certainly one of the best judges of what makes good copy. Here are his Top 7 tips for writing good ad copy...which could apply to all written communications.
1. Go big or go home. Don’t bunt. Aim out of the ball park. Aim for the company of immortals.
2. Do your homework. Advertising people who ignore research are as dangerous as generals who ignore decodes of enemy signals.
3. Never talk down to your customers. A consumer is not a moron. She’s your wife. Don’t insult her intelligence, and don’t shock her.
4. The headline is 80% of the ad. On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.
5. Don’t get distracted from making the sale. If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.
6. Explain why they should buy. The more informative your advertising, the more persuasive it will be.
7. Your copy is important. Treat it that way. Like a midwife, I make my living bringing new babies into the world, except that mine are new advertising campaigns. – David Ogilvy

Start putting proven advertising principles to work in all your communications...today!
Outstanding advertising may have a special creative element to it but there are basic, down-to-earth principles to ensure that all ads do the job they’re supposed to do:
    • Provide information not entertainment.
    • Use copy and visuals to spell out benefits prospects can instantly understand.
    • Concentrate on making the sale with a clear call to action.
    While the principles are simple they are not easy. It takes rigorous honesty, discipline and total commitment to selling...always be selling and always be closing. But nothing is more important...because nothing can really happen in any endeavour until there’s a sale. And even if you don’t get 19½ times the results, just doubling or tripling the impact of what you want to communicate is a pretty good deal!
    Put these proven advertising principles to work in all your communications and you’ll see an immediate and significant difference in the impact you make. Start applying these principles for yourself today...or send your documents to creaghan@videotron.ca and let Lawrence Creaghan do it for you.

Lawrence Creaghan is The Write Stuff
514-775-8283 · 2 Place Ontario Montreal QC Canada H3G 1E9