Arran Events, Advertising and Marketing

Want a fast way to get customers? Do you want people to really pay attention to your ads and read them all the way through? Here is a tried and true ploy that has earned its tried and true status because it works.

Put an ad in your local newspaper with a headline like this: “There’s a Spelling Error In This Ad – If You Find It, We Will Give You $__.” The dollar amount can be anything, but this ad will work best if it is proportionate to the cost of your products or services.

Within the first paragraph you will tell readers that the dollar amount will be given in the form of a gift certificate to anyone who finds and circles the error and brings the ad into your place of business.

Don’t make the gift a coupon or a discount. Your customers will feel cheated if they get anything less than a real gift certificate that can be used to buy any of your products or services.

Then write a really compelling ad, but place the single error late in your copy. You want people to read all or most of your ad, so make sure they must read at least enough to really understand your offer.

Combine this promotion with a really enticing offer with a very strong benefit. Don’t combine it with a discount, however. You will already be giving away a gift certificate so you don’t want this ad to cost more than the face amount of the certificate.

This tactic forces readers to do something they don’t ordinarily do – read your entire ad carefully. Take advantage of this by making a truly exciting offer. You want readers to be glad they read the ad and feel they are getting more out of this promotion than merely the face amount of the gift certificate.

Increase the effectiveness of this campaign by capturing their contact information for future mailings. Not only do you want to get traffic through your door, you want to build a database of customers to send out your future offers.

And by the way, don’t make the spelling error too hard to find. Your goal is for everyone to be able to spot the mistake. They just have to read 90% or more of your copy in order to find it.

Obviously you can’t run this same campaign every week, but you can run it once a year. And each time, you will see tremendous results.

What makes this ad work is the motive of getting something for nothing. It not only appeals to a little greed, but it also makes the whole thing a game in which you have challenged readers to match wits with you and find your error.

COPYRIGHT(C)2006, Charles Brown. All rights reserved.

Download your free copy of 99 Ideas For Writing Irresistible Web Content, written by Charles Brown, a Dallas, Texas based freelance copywriter who writes web copy, advertisements, white papers and direct mail. Subscribe to his “Freelance Copywriter Secrets” at http://dynamiccopywriting.blogspot.com or contact him at 817.715.3852 or **charbrow@gmail.com**.

Tags: copywriting tips, freelance copywriter, ghost writer, writing web content

After 15 years in the sign business, I can usually tell which new business will fail within minutes of meeting with the client. I can tell when I hear what percentage of their total budget has been set aside for signage. I can also tell when they show me that they have more interest in getting a low price than getting a sign with a design that is compelling enough to draw people into their place of business.

I want to ask them, “Is a $1000 sign really cheaper than a $10,000 sign”. When they say “Yes, it is”. I want to explain to them that if their business fails because of poor signage choices, then how much did they really save on that $1,000 sign? On the other hand, if their business succeeds beyond their wildest expectations and it is due in part to their clever and effective sign content, then wasn’t they extra $9k the best decision they could have made? It pays for itself and then makes them money if it helps keep them from “going under”.

Signs are best looked at as “advertising”. It is arguably the most effective and most important advertising purchase a new business owner will make. IF you purchase a $10,000 neon sign or a $10,000 electronic scrolling LED message board sign and you get 10 years out of it; you just paid $83.84 per-month (plus any upkeep needed or electricity used) for that point-of-sale advertising. How does that compare to what your business spends on other forms of advertising like the “yellow pages” or Radio or NewsPaper advertisements?

The final point I would like to make about giving your business sufficient signs is that you should continue the branding thought your business. Don’t stop at one large entry sign. Put signs on every side of your business that is exposed to traffic if your local sign code allows it. If your town allows sidewalk signs, then put out a “sidewalk sign stand” to get the attention of the foot traffic. Be sure to put logos on each parking sign and a vinyl or etched logo on your front door and put some branding on the custom printed “welcome mat” that your customers wipe their feet on. I don’t know how many times I have heard a customer say “we just had our best month ever” on the very month proceeding the upgrade of their poorly designed and insufficient signs. There are many sign advertising opportunities available and the best decisions will be made with the help of a sign design professional. When in doubt, just look at the size and quality of the “complete sign package” that you see at the biggest retail chains. Look at both the interior and exterior signs and ask yourself if you are as well represented with your signage. You can be sure that their accountants have researched this to death before approving such a large sign budget. So, if it wasn’t “good for business” to have an extensive and complete sign package, then you would see very small sign packages with just one or two “low end plywood signs” at most of your top retailers ….and you just don’t see that happening very often.

My name is Tom Dalton. I spent 10 years as the primary sign designer for a commercial sign company in Normal, Illinois. I am now part of Signs Direct, Inc.. SignsDirect’s web page is at http://www.signsdirect.com and we specializing in mail order delivery of both retail advertising signs and DOT approved traffic signs. SignsDirect has been doing business online since 2000. We also sell products other than signs; such as sign hardware and sign stands and sign installation tools.

Tags: led sign, neon sign, no parking sign, parking sign, sidewalk sign, Signage, signs

I watch a lot of stuff on Television in India, particularly the ads that make me think. Now hold on. I don’t mean that in a good way but the fact that they bring the thought, “What the hell was that all about?” speeding in to my head.

You know the stuff that makes you wonder what were they thinking? Well I am sure there will be constant supply of this stuff in the coming months and years so I am starting this article as a series.

To open this 1st episode if you like I would bring the ad for the Bajaj Pulsar motorcycle to your attention. They used the song, “These Boots were made for walking” as the soundtrack. The first fifteen seconds or so you think it’s a shoe ad. Then for the next ten you feel it’s a Ray Ban commercial and then out of nowhere wham – It’s a Bike! Great.

Next up is an ad that still sends shivers down my neck every time I see it. It’s the one for HP Pavilion Desktop. It features a boy that seems interested in this girl that’s always surrounded by other guys. It’s the geek gets the girl routine and that’s fine. The chink in the “amore” so to speak here is the fact that the boy and girl chosen look so much like each other they could be brother and sister. Ouch! I know but look at them, they even feature in the press ads and it’s shocking stuff. Quick get that out my mind!

That’s better. Now to cool things off lets have a look at the latest ad for the Mahindra Scorpio SUV set in a very snowy part of the world. You know the funky looking Helicopter ad. Where this chic looking lady, pilots the helicopter that blows the snow off of Scorpio that belongs to the very chic looking dude in an overcoat. Well look at it – something’s not right. And you know what it is? No its not the MCP concept of the guy getting all the work done by the gal but in fact the Helicopter is a R/C model. Not the one that the lady is sitting in but the little thingy that is shown flying around the SUV. Come on guys you can do better!

Finally to round things off we go back to another beauty from Bajaj. This time for the motorcycle called Discover. I am sure you’ve heard that Time Warner is suing Bajaj for using the “Harry Potter” look-a-like to sell their bike. To make matters worse it got heavy exposure on tele and also print. The only “Jadoo” [Magic] was that they thought they could get away with it. Hey who knows they still might!

Sasha Masand the founder of Indian Voice Overs is an award winning Television Producer who has been part of the Indian media industry for over twelve years.

Tags: India Advertising