Suppose you were in the cabinet-refacing business trying to sell
your services door-to-door. You walk up to a residence, ring the
bell, and when the surly homeowner comes to see who's
interrupting his ballgame, you utter only two words: "Cabinet
refacing." That's it. Or maybe you make it into a
question: "Cabinet refacing?" Either way, you're
going to get a door slammed in your face and never again believe a
welcome mat.
I exaggerate to make a point. Merely identifying what you're
selling is no way to sell it--yet many entrepreneurs take this
route in their advertising, claiming that creative advertising is
not their forte. I'm here to tell you that shouldn't be a
concern. Early last year in this column, I did an emergency
headline transplant on a brochure that had the cover heading
"Corporate video services." I found out that the company,
among other things, tries to interest medical professionals in
promoting their various procedures via video. So I recommended a
new headline that asked "Doctor, have you ever considered
waiting-room videos to promote your services?" It's not
cute, clever, witty or creative, but it piques the curiosity of the
prospect in a way the original brochure never would.
So the message is this: If you start your ad or brochure by
merely identifying your business category, you risk getting a
salesperson's brushoff in the form of a turned page or crumpled
brochure. But if you give prospects a few provocative words,
you've got a far better chance of getting them interested in
the rest of your message.
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That's my recommendation to Michael Caines, who wrote
recently. Caines operates First Class Inc., a "letter
shop" service in Chicago that handles laser printing,
inserting, mail sorting and managing mailing lists for direct-mail
advertisers. This is an invaluable service for direct marketers who
want to hand over the copy for a personalized sales letter, along
with a list of prospects it's going to, to a company who can
handle the rest; First Class sees to it that the letter is
word-processed, stuffed and mailed.
But I'm afraid Caines is not going to attract a lot of new
clients with the title of his current brochure. The cover headline
merely reads "Direct Mail Services," followed by the
subhead "to help you succeed." Inside his brochure, he
makes a decent case for giving First Class a call. But prospects
may not care what's behind the curtain if the opening act--the
cover headline--falls flat.
Jerry Fisher is an advertising copywriter, consultant and
author of Creating Successful Small Business Advertising
($39.95), available by calling (800) 247-6553. If you'd like
Jerry to consider your materials for a makeover in this column,
send them to "Advertising Workshop," Entrepreneur,
2392 Morse Ave., Irvine, CA 92614, or contact Jerry via America
Online at Jerry228@aol.com
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