Earlier this week I was pulling my hair out trying to convince a customer the advert he sent over to us wasn’t going to help him win more customers.
He is a plumber who took out a half page advert but used three quarters of his allocated space to feature his logo.
99.99999 per cent of company logos mean nothing to potential customers. Yeah sure they are nice to have but for small businesses they’re neither a deal maker nor breaker.
What this chap couldn’t get his head around was that people weren’t looking out for his logo – they are looking out for the problem his service solves.
Boilers fixed, taps mended, bathrooms installed, showers repaired – these were all far more important messages to get across in his advert than an oversized logo.
The same applies to any business when it comes to advertising effectively.
You’ve got to sell the benefits of your service before the features of it and getting your logo in the advert should come way down on the checklist of creating a really great advert.
One of the best examples I’ve seen of selling benefits over features was from a travel agent in a south coast town.
It was back in the gloom and doom of mid January.
I was shuffling down a street trying to keep warm when I saw the light.
Well the neon lights of a message illuminated across the travel agent’s window.
‘We sell sunshine.’ I don’t think it could have been more simply, timely and brilliantly put.
Back then people weren’t looking for the features a travel agent provides – bookings, tours, insurances and glossy brochures. They were looking for mid winter sunshine and the benefits that brings them in terms of health, mood and simply taking a break from the winter blues.
As a magazine we sell advertising spaces BUT more importantly we provide opportunities for people to get noticed by prospective clients and to win more business.
Our VISION franchise magazines offer people a chance to change their lives for the better by becoming their own boss and becoming a franchisee supported by a team of experts.
The features VISION offers like training, support, content and systems is what’s behind creating the massive benefits above.
Whatever line of business you’re in it’s always better to promote what will benefit the customer by them choosing your service / products’ features.
Thanks for reading,
Nik
0 Comments