How to Write Killer Ads to Increase Sales (and Be Fit for Life)

There is a craft to writing ads that many shy away from, but it can actually be quite fun.  Here’s how it’s done:

The Prelude

Jumping directly into writing an ad first is not the way to go.  Before getting the ad, it’s important to do initial research.

1. Find a Niche: If there’s no market for a product, there’s no point to try to sell to it.
2. Select a Product for the Niche: Meet the market demand.  Give them what they want, not what you would like to create.
3. Define the Exact Type of Buyer: Know and understand the demographic that will be buying this product.

The points above are covered extensively in our other trainings.

The Creation

Creating the ad begins by building off of the third research step above.  Once you have the knowledge, it’s time to get creative.

1. Get in the Right Mindset: Do what it takes to get yourself in a creative mindset.  Whether it be a fast moving workout with loud music or quiet meditation, do what works for you.
2. Be the Buyer: You must truly get inside the mind of the buyer.  Be that buyer.  Give them a name.  Know and understand their problems and issues and their greatest desire.
3. Know How Your Product Gives Them What They Desire: Clearly define the benefit that your product is going to give to solve their problems, issues and pains and give them what they desire.
4. Model the Best: From the earlier market research, you know what type of ads are most effective for this market.  Borrow from the best examples and emulate them.
5. Grab Attention: Headlines are great for grabbing attention. They do not need to give away everything the product is about, but rather just give enough to catch the eye of the prospect and make them want to look further.
6. Engage the Prospect:  By having a headline ask a question or start with “How to…” or “Secrets…” or “Learn…” prospects are more likely to explore further.
7. Combine Ideas: For example, look at the headline of this blog post.  Did it get your attention?  If you’re reading this, I’d say yes.  The main focus here is writing an affective ad, but below highlights an example of an ad for a book on ‘How to have incredible sex,” and that certainly grabs people’s attention, so combining the two topics creates interest.
8. Include a Call to Action: Tell the prospect what you want them to do.   Is it, “Click here,” or “Enter your Email,” or “Sign-up Now,” etc.
9. Find eye-catching images:  Going back to what the prospects want, find an image that looks good and shows them what they want.  Remember, people most often buy for what they want rather than what they need, so show them what they want.
10. Put it all together:  If you are a designer, use your favorite program to make it look great.  If you’re not, outsource it to a designer who can make it look great for you.

…and have fun throughout the process.

The Testing

You’ve heard it said over and over, TEST, TEST, TEST.  You can never know what works until you test it.  Try several different combinations and see what works best.  Fine-tune the top performing ads to create the very best and roll them out.

Here are a few of the ads we’ve created that we are in the process of testing right now (and yes, these ads are live, so feel free to click on them if they are of interest to you).

These are 4 of the 8 that are currently being tested for a new book.
Edit: Update: See test results here.

Note: The above ads are for The 4-Hour Body by Tim Ferriss as part of his latest experiment.  See the book review here.

These are 2 of the 8 that are currently being tested for an updated program:

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Tags: 4-hour-body, increase sales, tim ferriss, writing ads