P.P.P.P.P.S. and Hide & Seek Ads

Today is the last day of March and so ends Business Month here at Communication FUNdamentals.  Here is the last two issues from my article, "12 Deadly Communication Sins of Advertising."  I pray these have helped you to  increase your business success in 2011! Pushy Postscript Once you have made your point, back off, Buster! It is one thing to bring home a point; it is quite another pushy matter to pound your customer over the head with it. You goal should be to present the information so that the intelligent thing for your customer to do next is to call or visit your site to get more information. Long sales copy with different fonts, colors, sizes and six P.S.'s are an insult to their intelligence. If you can't make them interested enough to want more information in five pages of ad, you won't succeed by adding a P.P.P.P.P.S. These always remind me of what I felt as a kid when I asked my dad to explain things like why was the sky blue.  I was expecting an enlightening yet succinct answer, but what I invariably got was a two hour science lecture about the atmosphere, wavelengths and gas molecules.  I must admit it was intriguing...for about 20 minutes at which time I suddenly remembered some homework I had to do.  What I remember most is sitting there fascinated that my father new so much, but hearing and retaining only the image of a learned man who was keeping his daughter from watching Star Trek! What in the world IS this? Another area of controversy is the website or sales letter or call that gives a long involved presentation before it ever gets to the point of telling you why you are reading or listening. Many of us will not stand still long enough to read a book unless we believe it will be worth our time. If you can't tell me who you are and why I should be interested, I may think you are hiding something or don't have a case. Don't waste your time.  Playing hide and seek with your product or service won't make me more eager to find out what it is.  It just frustrates me. Additionally, email ads with no signature are likely to be filed in the eRound file. Surprisingly, I see a good number of email group ads come through on Ad Day with no company name, no web address, no signature of any kind. You should program your signature line in your email client (e.g.: Outlook) to appear on all of your communication to your groups, but especially on your ads. Not only can't they order if they can't find you, but they won't remember you when they are looking for that item. More importantly, they won't get the impression that your company has staying power enough to want to find out what you left off. I'm a busy author, speaker, business owner, and homeschooling mom.  If you can't tell me in the first paragraph why I should read further, I'm gone.  And if you tack on a bunch of afterthoughts in the form of a post script that goes on for more than half that paragraph, I'm gonna delete it. Keep in mind that many of these techniques might have worked when they were new, but your customers are much more savvy than you think they are.  They know a technique when they see it.  They don't want to feel sold.  They want to feel as if you have the solution for their need.  Do THAT and you will have communicated exactly what you need to in order to have a successful business in 2011. If you missed the Business Communication Seminar with Jill Hart and a cast of CWAHMers, click here to listen to the audio. x *SUBSCRIBE HERE*: for More Communication Fun, FREE Gifts and Exclusive Offers! x