[Advice] Yellow page ad opinions

Hey guys, just posted this on a forum thread over at GKIC

Shawn wrote:

"I will be placing a 1/2 page ad in the section of Chiropractors. I also have the inside front cover of the book this year. I want to specifically go after work comp and car accident cases with this form of media. I'll be using a free report hotline. Any feedback on my rough drafts will be considered and appreciated. I'm having an issue attaching the images. I get an error that says we are unable to attach your image at this time."

Hey Shawn, Probably the best advice I could give you with writing your ad without being able to see what you’ve already got is to remember the AIDA guideline. To use that when writing your ad.

A - Attention – You need to create attention with your ad. Make sure your headline is grabbing your readers eye balls and it’s something that’s gonna cause them to read the rest of the ad. I see so many times in the Yellow Pages, these big huge company logos which absolutely do nothing for getting attention. So focus on getting their attention and a headline that will actually cause them to read your ad.

I – Interest – So you want to create interest in what you’re offering for them. Get them interested in the free report that you’ve got or your company, focus on them, focus on what them keep up at night. What are they’re pain points, what are the things that would appeal to them the most. Use that method for that.

D – Desire – So you want to have them desiring this free report. You need to put in copy that would make them absolutely feel that they must have this free report. They must feel like, this report is going to answer what all their interests are, why they even looked at your ad in the first place. And it’s going to help them solve this problem they have.

A – Action - You need to have a call to action that’s going make them call that number. A very clear, precise call to action. If it’s a hotline, clearly state the number and that this the number to call to get this free report.

I think if you follow that method your ad is going to work. As far as design, one of the things I tend to do with clients when designing an ad, as far as color scheme or graphics. I try to look at the other ads in the book that are already there.

You can sometimes get a good idea by looking at past advertisements that are in the yellow pages. But take a look at some of those ads and then try to do the opposite, I mean if there’s a lot of white ads with black copy, change that up, go with a black ad with white copy. So that yours stands out, try to be different from what’s already in there.

Hopes that helps you out, good luck with the ad.

- JR

JRGriggs.com || RedWallMarketing.com