How to Make Your Ads Impossible to Ignore
You can have the best marketing campaign of all time, but if no one sees it, it all means nothing.
So, how do you get people to read your ad?
Sure, the headline and lead are important, but it’s much deeper than that.
Let me give you an example.
Have you ever heard of the book “Outsourcing Mastery” by Avery Sinclair?
Ya, me either.
But I bet you HAVE heard of a book called “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss. That book spent four years on The New York Times Best Seller List, was translated into 40 languages, and sold around 2.1 million copies.
The concepts in both books are the same (how to outsource your life), but Tim’s “Big Idea” around the 4-Hour Workweek made it so powerful and resonate with millions of people around the world.
What gets people to read your ad is the idea behind the headline and the lead.
How you package those up sets you apart from the competition and gets the prospect’s attention.
It’s what is called The Big Idea.
Legendary ad man David Ogilvy said,
You can do homework from now until doomsday, but you will never win fame and fortune unless you also invent big ideas.
It takes a big idea to attract the attention of consumers and get them to buy your product.
A big idea is an idea that is instantly comprehended as important, exciting, and beneficial. It also leads to an inevitable conclusion, a conclusion that makes it easy to sell your product.
Simply put, The Big Idea is a new and interesting way to say what everyone else is saying or has said many times before.
If done correctly, it will make the reader stop and want to learn more.
And with the information overload that a person deals with, it is more important than ever.
You need to assume your market is going to be skeptical. Everything is starting to sound the same. They have likely seen a similar message from another company already. Prospects have tried another solution to their problem already and were left looking for more answers.
Because of this, simple benefit-driven headlines are the new floor.
Paul Hollingshead of AWAI says:
No, if you want to get your promotion read, it needs to be anchored in a strong, unique, and compelling Big Idea. Keep those three keywords in mind. Strong, unique, and compelling.
To illustrate this concept, take a look at one of the most successful ad campaigns of all time.
In 1997, Apple wanted to position itself as something completely different than its competitors. It didn’t do so by listing the benefits of buying its products. Instead, it launched the “Think Different” campaign.
The campaign encouraged consumers to challenge the status quo and embrace innovation (and won the Grand Effie award for the most-effective advertising campaign in America.)
Or what about M&M’s Big Idea that our chocolate “Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” They could have said, “Our chocolate is delicious,” but you can see how easily that would get dismissed in the sea of other promotions.
So how do you come up with your Big Idea?
My friend and one of my favorite copywriters, Csaba Borzási came up with the “10 Commandments of the Big Idea”.
1 — Rule of One
Just ONE idea. Not multiple. ONE Reader, ONE Promise, ONE Emotion
2 — Bold (but believable) Promise
Hints at a Transformation / Gives New Hope
3 — Simple, Easy to Understand
Instant appeal and doesn’t need more context. PRO TIP: Avoid the “Curse of Knowledge”
4 — New / Different / Fresh / Unique
Different gets attention / Pattern Interrupt
5 — Specific
Helps in focusing attention / Acts as Proof point
6 — Shocking / Startling / Big
Shocks people out of their “zombie state”. Stimulates something “big” in their life
7 — Intellectually Interesting
It logically “makes sense” and seems legit
8 — Curiosity-Inducing
Opens up a gap of knowledge (natural desire to fill it)
9 — Timely
Related to current world events that are on the prospect’s mind. Big Ideas exist in a context and in a place in time and space
10 — Unique New Mechanism
Big Ideas often reveal a new “mechanism” to achieving the promised result
As Apple said, with your marketing, you need to start to “Think Different.”
If you say the same thing as everyone else, you will be in the same category as everyone else. And in marketing and life, that is not where you want to be.
-Max
P.S. It is one thing to get people to read your message and another to make sure they understand it.
That it is clear and simple.
That is when it truly becomes powerful and gets people to take action.
If you need help clarifying your message, grab some time on my calendar. I have been helping clients, one-on-one, build messaging around their brand and company that makes it super easy to explain, what they do, who they do it for and what problems they solve.
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