How to Create Powerful Ads

June 9, 2003
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in this issue
-- A New Best Seller!
-- Answer to Last Week's Brainteaser
-- This Week in Pictures
-- The McDonald's Close
-- At your service 24/7
-- Breakfast of Champions
-- From the "Beating a Dead Horse File"
-- This Week's Brainteaser

A New Best Seller!
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I recently read a best selling book.

You won't find it on the New York Times Bestseller List, because it's not that kind of bestseller. This bestseller advises lawyers how to create Yellow Pages ads that effectively sell their services to the right clients.

"Effective Yellow Pages Advertising for Lawyers" by Kerry Randall published by the American Bar Association. (Honestly, I expected to find a copycat rehash of our old sales training manuals). Boy was I wrong.

This is an absolutely fabulous, focused book that effectively accomplishes its goal. It's an easy read, in which Randall's breezy writing style keeps the reader engaged.

Kerry Randall is a marketing consultant and not a Yellow Pages salesman. As such, his book focuses on designing better ads rather than selling bigger ads. He's been designing ads for years, and distilled his experiences into a wonderfully useful, 150-page guide.

Why most attorney ads stink

The content for most Yellow Pages ads comes from a few brief meetings between the Account Executive and the advertising lawyer. The trouble is that most great lawyers are not great marketers.

Despite the best intentions of the Account Executive and the attorney, too many Yellow Pages ads lack the crisp focus of a marketing guru.

The typical Yellow Pages ad is a mile wide and an inch deep. The contents of one ad are pretty much the same as the other ads in the heading.

Information is crammed into the ad without fully considering the buyer's wants.

Divide and Conquer

Randall instead directs attorneys to divide their client base by type. Then the attorney should analyze the Yellow Pages directory to identify which groups of his clients aren't already being targeted by the competition and create ads that focus entirely on that narrowly defined client base.

By communicating directly with a narrower client base, the odds of success skyrocket.

In other words, "If you're trying to be everything to everybody, you'll end up being nothing to nobody. To market effectively, be one thing to one body."

One of the messages in the book that I loved is:

Nobody cares about what you have to sell. People only want to buy what they want to buy. So stop trying to sell more and focus on helping people buy more.

Anyone looking for a lawyer will look through ads until he finds one that satisfies his needs.

If you look at most Yellow Pages ads, they try to sell a firm's attributes. Turning the table, Randall skillfully shows attorneys how to:

1. Identify a precisely defined segment of a firm's client base
   
   
2. Understand the wants, needs and concerns of those clients
   
   
3. Develop an effective ad that will appeal to those clients

1. Strong headlines that command attention and engage readers
   
   
2. A laser-sharp focus; a willingness to ignore most readers
   
   
3. Arresting, eye-captivating illustrations or photographs
   
   
4. Clearly identifiable differences (from competitive advertisers)
   
   
5. Relevant copy (text) that covers less than 50% of the ad space
   
   
6. Professional-looking, clutter-free design

Get your own copy of this great book!

Answer to Last Week's Brainteaser
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What combination of quarters, dimes, nickels or pennies will give you the most money without being able to make change for a dollar?

I received more wrong answers this week than usual.

From now on, I'm going to count my change!

Check the answer and this week's winner

This Week in Pictures
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Successful communication begins with speaking your customer's language.

Why I put pictures in my newsletters . . .

The McDonald's Close
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One of my first newsletters showed how to use McDonald's technique to generate add-on sales.

They ask a beautiful question. . .


You want fries with that?


Recent McDonald's management decided that question was passe.

Read the article "The McDonald's Close"

At your service 24/7
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"What the heck . . . call collect!"

Read Dick's sure-fire tips for using the telephone like a pro.

Breakfast of Champions
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Marketing lessons of the Ginsu Knife

From the "Beating a Dead Horse File"
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OK, we're officially done with this slogan now.

This Week's Brainteaser
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Buford's cousin Schlumpy is a smuggler living in France.

Every day, he bicycles across the border into Germany with his backpack. Although the customs officials search his pack every day, they've never found his illegal booty.

Do you know what Schlumpy is smuggling?

Email your answer to puzzler@dicklarkin.com

We'll select one entry to receive a pump action bottle-popper.