ber as well that good advertising works when a reader's needs or wants are fulfilled by the ad. In other words, does this reader have ants or know sombody who has ants. If they do, this ad will be 100 percent effective over them turning to the yellow pages.

If you're selling a shoe store for example, your ad could read, "Smith Shoes. We have them all. Women's, Men's, Children's. Stop by anytime." The reader of this ad is probably thinking that any number of big department stores have shoes too and even the grocery store down the street sells thongs. By being this general, the ad will most likely be unsuccessful.

However, if the same sho

What is the key factor in good advertising?

With any small business, trial and error is often frustration. Strapped with a small amount of money to spend, errors in judgement or a simple lack of research into advertising often make it easy to walk away from advertising completely. Or worse yet, your small business ends up feeding some big advertising firm. And we all know that without advertising or with high overhead advertising, you risk putting up the closed sign for good.

In this article, I will be sharing the key factor in good advertising. Some articles will tell you all kinds of interesting and different ways to do it but here is the key factor.

Make sure you are advertising a specific item or service. We've all seen countless advertisements done by a company with a smear of information on the ad. For example, when you see a drywall ad, they are also advertising that they bronze statues and do ceilings as well as paint. This kind of advertisement has little or no effect on the reader.

The reader is probably thinking, "Wow, these people are like a jumble sale. When I want to get my turkey basted by a professional, I'm going to call this Drywalling, Painting, Bronze Statuing, Ceiling Painting organization." The receiver of the information is overwhelmed with all of the various choices they have in employing you. Chances are, you're not going to get the call based on this kind of ad.

It's like this. You're laying on the couch late at night and you're exhausted but you want a snack. If you get up and go to the fridge without any specific idea, chances are you'll just shut the fridge or you won't even make it off the couch in the first place. On the other hand, you might think of the chip dip you have in the fridge and how that would taste great with a bunch of chips. That'll get anybody to the fridge right away. The more specific you are, the more movement or action you get out of even yourself. Same with ads.

Advertise specifically. Advertise one thing in a soft sales copy type of way.

If you're selling a book that will help you kill all the ants around your property, then it should read "Ants on the Move Off of Your Property. With our chemical free, pesticide free ant removal system, there's no way they will want to come back. This book tells all." And onwards it will go.

In a regular type of ad, this would have had the Seller's name at the top with some details about all their services and nobody out there would have been interested. With this kind of ad where one service is being advertised, the reader is at rapt attention. Remember as well that good advertising works when a reader's needs or wants are fulfilled by the ad. In other words, does this reader have ants or know sombody who has ants. If they do, this ad will be 100 percent effective over them turning to the yellow pages.

If you're selling a shoe store for example, your ad could read, "Smith Shoes. We have them all. Women's, Men's, Children's. Stop by anytime." The reader of this ad is probably thinking that any number of big department stores have shoes too and even the grocery store down the street sells thongs. By being this general, the ad will most likely be unsuccessful.

However, if the same shoe

e key factor.

Make sure you are advertising a specific item or service. We've all seen countless advertisements done by a company with a smear of information on the ad. For example, when you see a drywall ad, they are also advertising that they bronze statues and do ceilings as well as paint. This kind of advertisement has little or no effect on the reader.

The reader is probably thinking, "Wow, these people are like a jumble sale. When I want to get my turkey basted by a professional, I'm going to call this Drywalling, Painting, Bronze Statuing, Ceiling Painting organization." The receiver of the information is overwhelmed with all of the various choices they have in employing you. Chances are, you're not going to get the call based on this kind of ad.

It's like this. You're laying on the couch late at night and you're exhausted but you want a snack. If you get up and go to the fridge without any specific idea, chances are you'll just shut the fridge or you won't even make it off the couch in the first place. On the other hand, you might think of the chip dip you have in the fridge and how that would taste great with a bunch of chips. That'll get anybody to the fridge right away. The more specific you are, the more movement or action you get out of even yourself. Same with ads.

Advertise specifically. Advertise one thing in a soft sales copy type of way.

If you're selling a book that will help you kill all the ants around your property, then it should read "Ants on the Move Off of Your Property. With our chemical free, pesticide free ant removal system, there's no way they will want to come back. This book tells all." And onwards it will go.

In a regular type of ad, this would have had the Seller's name at the top with some details about all their services and nobody out there would have been interested. With this kind of ad where one service is being advertised, the reader is at rapt attention. Remember as well that good advertising works when a reader's needs or wants are fulfilled by the ad. In other words, does this reader have ants or know sombody who has ants. If they do, this ad will be 100 percent effective over them turning to the yellow pages.

If you're selling a shoe store for example, your ad could read, "Smith Shoes. We have them all. Women's, Men's, Children's. Stop by anytime." The reader of this ad is probably thinking that any number of big department stores have shoes too and even the grocery store down the street sells thongs. By being this general, the ad will most likely be unsuccessful.

However, if the same sho

e various choices they have in employing you. Chances are, you're not going to get the call based on this kind of ad.

It's like this. You're laying on the couch late at night and you're exhausted but you want a snack. If you get up and go to the fridge without any specific idea, chances are you'll just shut the fridge or you won't even make it off the couch in the first place. On the other hand, you might think of the chip dip you have in the fridge and how that would taste great with a bunch of chips. That'll get anybody to the fridge right away. The more specific you are, the more movement or action you get out of even yourself. Same with ads.

Advertise specifically. Advertise one thing in a soft sales copy type of way.

If you're selling a book that will help you kill all the ants around your property, then it should read "Ants on the Move Off of Your Property. With our chemical free, pesticide free ant removal system, there's no way they will want to come back. This book tells all." And onwards it will go.

In a regular type of ad, this would have had the Seller's name at the top with some details about all their services and nobody out there would have been interested. With this kind of ad where one service is being advertised, the reader is at rapt attention. Remember as well that good advertising works when a reader's needs or wants are fulfilled by the ad. In other words, does this reader have ants or know sombody who has ants. If they do, this ad will be 100 percent effective over them turning to the yellow pages.

If you're selling a shoe store for example, your ad could read, "Smith Shoes. We have them all. Women's, Men's, Children's. Stop by anytime." The reader of this ad is probably thinking that any number of big department stores have shoes too and even the grocery store down the street sells thongs. By being this general, the ad will most likely be unsuccessful.

However, if the same sho

ds.

Advertise specifically. Advertise one thing in a soft sales copy type of way.

If you're selling a book that will help you kill all the ants around your property, then it should read "Ants on the Move Off of Your Property. With our chemical free, pesticide free ant removal system, there's no way they will want to come back. This book tells all." And onwards it will go.

In a regular type of ad, this would have had the Seller's name at the top with some details about all their services and nobody out there would have been interested. With this kind of ad where one service is being advertised, the reader is at rapt attention. Remember as well that good advertising works when a reader's needs or wants are fulfilled by the ad. In other words, does this reader have ants or know sombody who has ants. If they do, this ad will be 100 percent effective over them turning to the yellow pages.

If you're selling a shoe store for example, your ad could read, "Smith Shoes. We have them all. Women's, Men's, Children's. Stop by anytime." The reader of this ad is probably thinking that any number of big department stores have shoes too and even the grocery store down the street sells thongs. By being this general, the ad will most likely be unsuccessful.

However, if the same sho

ber as well that good advertising works when a reader's needs or wants are fulfilled by the ad. In other words, does this reader have ants or know sombody who has ants. If they do, this ad will be 100 percent effective over them turning to the yellow pages.

If you're selling a shoe store for example, your ad could read, "Smith Shoes. We have them all. Women's, Men's, Children's. Stop by anytime." The reader of this ad is probably thinking that any number of big department stores have shoes too and even the grocery store down the street sells thongs. By being this general, the ad will most likely be unsuccessful.

However, if the same shoe store advertises specifically one service or item or even sale. They will be light years ahead of the crowd. For example, "Looking for the perfect evening shoes? Come stop by and visit our 2 inch stileto heels. Stop by to try a pair of these Italian made beauties on anytime."

Keep in mind that you could have a different ad every month or rotate your ads. You could also find three affordable ways to advertise locally and have different ads going in all three.

But by going specific, you definitely will blow away the competition. Good luck.