Your Attention, Please!

The focus of Tye's seminars is to persuade attendees to adopt certain principles of strategy and success used by leaders on the battlefield. Based on that, I recommend coupling the S-word with another word for a big headline that barks out: "Military Secrets . . ." followed by the words, "that give you the weapons for success--in business and in life." The headline is then followed by copy that leads into the body of the ad and that borrows from the original headline: "History's greatest leaders have a lot to teach us in accomplishing our personal and professional goals. A new seminar reveals their winning strategies and how to use them to improve your life. For example . . ."

At this point, Tye needs to give prospects a taste of some of the secrets. He should fashion hints, or "teasers," that give enough information to entice but not enough to reveal.

This approach can and does work in promoting a whole range of products and services. Here are a few well-crafted examples I found in other advertising efforts specifically promising to reveal "secrets" you can benefit from. Use these teasers as a benchmark for your own efforts to entice but not reveal.

• "Simple weekend jobs that pay more than your full-time job."

• "How to call anywhere on earth for just 5 pennies a minute."

• "How to sleep like a baby through the next stock market crash."

• "Seven days out of the year when auto dealers are desperate to sell."

• And then there's my all-time favorite teaser: "What never to eat on an airplane."

In addition to the use of such seductive hints, I think Tye needs to cattle-brand his ad with a more powerful-looking imprint of the name of his seminar, Success Warrior. Right now it's printed in a light color and climbs up the left side of the ad, looking a bit like an afterthought. I think a strong image running across the bottom of the ad announcing "Success Warrior Seminars" would complement the bold new headline.

Finally, the testimonials and endorsements in the ad need to be more prominent. I would do that by extracting an impressive snippet from each testimonial and using it as a headline for the corresponding quote.

I think these suggestions will give Joe Tye's seminar ads a much stronger presence.

This article was originally published in the December 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Your Attention, Please!.