If you use seminars for selling there is one question that always comes up. “How long before the seminar should you promote it?”

In my experience for half or one day workshops, the best is about 6 weeks before the event. Any earlier than that and people forget about it or end up with conflicts. Any later than that and they already have conflicts. However once you start promoting at 6 weeks keep promoting every week until the seminar. This always encourage a few laggards to sign up.

Myth # 7. Your Advertising Must Sell To A Market

One common mistake is writing to a market as opposed to an individual. I believe all forms of direct response must be personal and relevant to an individual in order to generate a response. Before writing an advertisement, spend some time with salespeople, calling on customers and listening to what they have to say.  Pretend you are writing to one of the people you met–this keeps it personal and provides the individual with clear, concise solutions.

When writing this kind of advertisement, it is important to use colloquial language –pretend you are having a face-to-face conversation with someone. Do not worry about using big words, but do focus on connecting with your reader.

Do you write your ads to an individual or to your market? What impact would it have on your response rate if you wrote to someone you know and care about, rather that a faceless group of prospects?

Myth # 6. You Have To Sell Sizzle

Many marketers confuse sizzle with “graphic design sizzle”. They produce fancy brochures with attractive layouts and include clever slogans instead of powerful headlines.

What you want to do is sell the outcome of using your product or service. This means understanding the prospective buyer’s frustrations and develop a powerful description of how your product or service can solve the reader’s  problem.

You have to market solutions for problems and you have to show the benefits of working with your solution.

In a direct mail situation, often, a solution-oriented personal letter will generate a response that is one to three times greater than the same letter accompanied by a brochure.

Prospective buyers are attracted by sizzle, but do necessarily respond to it.  When an interested buyer reads a flyer or opens a letter, they will read it if it has a good headline, is engaging and answers all their questions. When the same letter accompanies a brochure, the brochure gets read first. If the brochure does not supply adequate information or provide solutions, the prospective buyer will quickly discard both.

Myth # 5: You Have To Keep Your Marketing Fresh

Many people change their marketing, not because it is not working, but because they personally become bored with it.

For example, one company I worked for was preparing a new advertising campaign. The project had been doing its rounds at the company for weeks. When it was finalized, it was presented to the president for his approval.  Even though the campaign never went public, the president commented he was tired of it and wanted something fresh.

The fact is we get bored with our advertising long before our customers do.  Many successful programs run for years with little or no change. If a marketing program continues to work, stay with it. Of course, you only know how well it is working if you constantly monitor the results with each wave of activity. Take note of how many people received the advertisement, how many responded, what the revenue was, what headline was used and what product was offered.

Presently, very few businesses do run controls and measure every change against them. The only reason to change an advertisement are if it stops making a profit or you find a way to improve on the results.

Myth # 4. Flyers Can’t Sell Big Ticket Items

You can sell virtually anything by direct response. Some well-known big-ticket items can be moved fairly easily with a single step program. For example, if you are selling a product with a big brand name, you do not need to include a lot of education on the product—the manufacturer has done that for you. You do, however, have to give prospects a compelling reason to act and to act quickly.

Less well-known big-ticket items require a more complex, sequential multi-step approach.  The goal is to get your prospective buyers to trust you, as if you were a friend.  In order to do so, you need to take small steps to educate your readers about who you are, what you do and how your products can solve their problems.

You have to understand your prospects well– understand what they need before buying from you. If you provide it, you can sell almost anything via direct response.

The key is making it easy for your customers to buy.  Offer free consultations, seminars, appraisals, samples and demonstrations.  Each step takes them closer to the point where buying doesn’t seem like such a big deal, as they already know you, like you and trust you.

If you sell a big-ticket item that still requires face-to-face time with customers, this kind of marketing makes it easier to sell and creates more efficient customer relations.

If you dig down into almost any business growth problem, you nearly always find something relating to a lack of new customers or insufficient sales at the root!

Sometimes you are not doing enough marketing, sometimes your marketing isn’t working the way you would like; maybe the people you reach just don’t seem interested and sometimes you just don’t know how to reach the people you need to reach.

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Myth # 3. You Must Entertain Customers

I am certain that this belief comes from research that shows people are more likely to remember entertaining marketing and advertising. It is further supported by the marketing community’s eagerness to give awards based on this type of advertising.   Rarely are these awards presented based on results produced. In fact, much of the advertising that wins awards is impossible to measure, as there is a huge gap between being entertaining and being memorable and creating advertising that generates a response.

Humorous advertising is often open to misinterpretation and may simply confuse prospective buyers. While you may think something is funny, others may not and it might even offend them. This is particularly true of innuendoes and double entendres.

Clever advertising can also result in poor response. If the lines are subtle, not every one will get it and as a result, many simply skip over it.  Even interested prospects will not continue to read if they become confused.

Myth # 2. Lots of White Space is Important

In my experience, customers care much more about the information you provide them with than the amount of blank space in your advertisement.

Take for example people reading classified sections of a newspaper–they will read almost every advertisement if they are looking for something specific.

White space is useful for separating thoughts and making your copy easier to read, but do not let it be a substitute for powerful ideas or valuable benefits. You have to draw people in by the substance of what you write, not through the clever use of spacing. Always remember the goal is profits and results, not just esthetics.

Remember, white space does not make people read flyers and advertisements–it does, however, cost you money, as you pay the same amount whether or not the copy covers the whole area or just part of it. Showing customers you can afford white space is not a good use of marketing dollars. You are paying for effective advertising and promotion that will generate results and not that might win design awards or satisfy your own ego.

Myth # 1. People Won’t Read Long Copy.

One of the most pervasive marketing myths is that you should write short advertising copy because people will not read long copy. However, studies have shown this is wrong.  The truth is people will read whatever interests them–they will read long books, articles and letters.  The more you gauge their interest, the more likely they will keep reading. The key is attracting their attention with a powerful headline and using personal communication to keep them engaged.

The secret to good advertising copy is that it is nothing more than salesmanship in print. Would you tell your salespeople that once they are in front of an interested customer they only have one minute to get their idea across or that they can only tell half the story? Of course not. The same goes for copy.

The key is neither to write long nor short, but to cover all the points in sufficient detail and in a manner that encourages interested people to read on.

Your goal should always be to provide all the information a prospective customer needs to know before making a buying decision. A copy could be long if you are introducing a new product that buyers are unaware of or it could be short if it is a national brand supported by TV advertising—for this, you may need nothing more than a picture of the product and a price.

The truth is that no matter how good your flyer is, the majority of people who see it are not going to read it.  Unfortunately, most will be immediately discarded and what is left may be read by those sufficiently interested to do so. While some flyers will be read right away, others are often put aside for later reading and will only be picked up if the headline or grabber catches the reader’s eye. It is for this reason you need to find a compelling way to provide the prospective buyer with sufficient information and remove any hesitation from his or her mind.

 Hesitation lies from any unanswered questions prospective buyer may have or from inadequate information.  These lose far more sales than long copy.  If you do give the readers more than they need, there is a stronger possibility they will buy from you.   However, if you provide them with insufficient information, it is almost certain they will not buy. You have to make it easy for them to purchase items and you have to remove the causes of hesitation.

Studies conducted on how people read advertisements and direct mail show that readership drops quickly after the first 50 words, but stays high from 50 to 500 words. This means people who are not interested or engaged will discard your advertisement in a hurry, but interested prospects will read every word, trying to learn as much as they can about what you have to offer.

Similarly, I ran a test selling service contracts to householders in which I used an eight-page letter and a one-page letter.  Both letters were sent to the same audience and even though they both offered the same service, the longer letter generated three times the response than the shorter one.

The key is neither to write long nor short, but to cover all the points in sufficient detail and in a manner that encourages interested people to read on.

Your goal should always be to provide all the information a prospective customer needs to know before making a buying decision. A copy could be long if you are introducing a new product that buyers are unaware of or it could be short if it is a national brand supported by TV advertising—for this, you may need nothing more than a picture of the product and a price.