I'm always amazed at how little original thought many advertisers put into their ads. And how they consequently throw away money. Right now I am looking at several full-page Yellow Page ads for local law firms. These are mostly general practice firms who handle the usual
plaintiff's cases: personal injury, personal bankruptcy, family law and criminal defense.
They aren't blue chip firms on Wall Street, their business is on Main Street. There is a need for these types of firms and they don't appear to be ambulance chasers. But there really is nothing about their ads that set them apart from thei.competitors. In fact, each ad says essentially the same thing as the next ad:
1) a laundry list of the cases they handle,
2) how much experience they have, and
3) grim, no nonsense photographs of lawyers who mean business and are ready to go to war on your behalf.
One thing is for certain, all of these full-page ads cost these firms a lot of money. But what if they could greatly increase their response rates from these ads, and make their ads outperform all of thei.competitors' ads, without spending an extra dollar?
Here's how: By offering free information. Free information lowers the bar for a person to respond to your ad. Instead of having to call, set an appointment and meet with a lawyer, the person can just call or send an email for a free booklet (or you can send a free white paper, a free ebook, a free audio CD, a free DVD, a free tip sheet, a free interactive software program or anything you like as long as it is genuinely informative).
What kind of free booklet? Let's just focus on criminal cases for now. What if your ad offered the following free booklets:
10 Things You Must Do If You Are Accused of A Crime,
Know Your Rights! What You Must Know If the Police Want to Search Your Home or Your Car, or
What To Do If Your Son or Daughter is Arrested?
Before people make a serious decision they want to gather information. They may ask their friends or coworkers, they may do a Google search or they go to the library. If they see your ad offering free information, along the lines of the booklets listed above, while they are in the information-seeking mode, they will respond.
But guess what? Not only does offering information lower the response bar, it also generates a lead. Now you have captured an interested person's name, telephone number, address and email address. You also know something about this person's need, which enables you to recontact this person in the future. This means that you can turn that single exposure of the person skimming through the Yellow Pages into multiple exposures through your free booklet and your follow up letters or email messages. You.competitors won't have a chance.
But most of all, the information you provide in you booklet (or article or white paper or ebook or whatever) enhances your perceived level of expertise in that person's eyes. You have transformed yourself from an advertiser to an expert. And nothing could be better than that.
COPYRIGHT (C) 2005, Charles Brown
Charles Brown, the Biz Writer, is a freelance copywriter who is skilled at turning the written word into profits. He is located in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area (USA), and is available to clients worldwide who want to generate more revenue and new business from their website content, advertising and marketing materials. Visit Mr. Brown's weblog,
bizwriterstudio.blogspot.com Writer Studio: Professional Copywriting Solutions at
bizwriterstudio.blogspot.com.
