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How To Use Classified
Ads To Build Your Business
by
Janet Attard
 Classified ads are a major source of customers for small businesses,
even in today's digital world. If you need to find someone to repair
your computer, write a resume, fix your dishwasher, or take down that
huge tree that looks like it's splitting, what do you do?
Chances are you'll look at classified ads in one form or another to find
a service provider to get the work done. You may look at the ads
in your weekly shopper-type publication or weekly town newspaper. And,
you'll probably online. (The short, listings you see to the right of
search results and sometimes on top and/or the bottom of results are
pay-per-click [PPC] ads, which are really just
another form of classified ad.).
No matter what media classified ads are viewed through, these small
text ads are a significant source of customers for many home-based and
small businesses. An inexpensive three- or four-line ad placed in print, in an
online yellow pages ad, or through search engines can deliver customers
who need your product or service now. More importantly, if the ad is run
regularly, it builds future business by making your name familiar and
establishing your credibility.
Although classified ads are brief, getting
good results from them takes some thought. A well-written ad placed in the wrong publication
or displayed online to the entire country won’t bring in much business.
A poor headline or a poorly written ad, no
matter how carefully placed, is a waste of money.
To
get the most mileage out of your classified advertising dollars, keep
these suggestions in mind when you write and place your ad.
Understand
your customer
Many products and
services can be sold to different types of customers. But each type may
have different needs. Your ad should stress your ability to meet those
specific needs. For instance a job seeker may need your help not only
writing their resume, but also distributing it to online sites where it will
get found. The owner of a small business
may not know they want a "virtual assistant." They may only know they need
a freelancer to do their bookkeeping and/or help them build a social presence
online. To work, your classified ads need to speak directly to what the customer
is looking for.
Choose the right media outreach
An ad for pool
maintenance services is likely to attract more responses in publications
that circulate in upper-class communities than in a weekly shopper that
gets distributed in a blue-collar neighborhood. Similarly, you'll waste
a lot of money on your ad for your landscaping service if you advertise
on search engines and don't geo-target the ad (I.e., have the search
engines only show your ad to people from the geographic area you're able
to serve.)
Be aware that
individuals often read the classified sections of several different
publications, but read each with a different mindset. A business executive
might look in the local newspaper for someone to paint her house, but turn
to a regional business publication to find a contractor to perform similar
services for her business property.
Do
some homework
Study ads that
appear consistently week after week. Determine what makes such ads catch
your attention. Do they mention a benefit? Are they set off in some way
from other classified ads on the page? Are they easy to spot because they
fall immediately under a category heading in the classified section or
near the top of the ads on an online search?
Make
the first few words count
The first couple
of ads in your classified ad work like a headline does on a display ad.
They must stop the reader's eye from moving down or across the page and
make them want to read the rest of the ad. To do that, those first couple
of words must tell readers the most important benefit your product or
service offers. In online pay-per-click ads the ad should reflect as
closely as possible the terms the searcher typed into the search engine.
Keep
the ad brief and explicit
A good classified
ad is like a telegram: short, clear and commanding. In as few words as
possible, tell what you sell, who should buy it, why they should buy it
from you today, and how to contact you.
Be careful,
though, not to cut too many words out of an ad that will appear in
print. The reader won 't be able to click to get more information in a
print ad.
Get someone else's opinion about the ad.
Whether you're
creating an ad for a newspaper or for online use, ask several people who will be honest
with you to read the ad. After they've read it ask them to tell you what
you are selling, whether the ad would make them want to contact you. If they have
difficulty answering those questions, rewrite the ad.
Make
it believable and appropriate
Today's consumers
are more educated and more skeptical than consumers ever were in the past.
If your ad sounds like you are offering something too good to be true,
most people will skip right over your ad. Furthermore if you make
unfounded income claims or health claims that are not substantiated by
scientific evidence, you could get yourself in trouble with the law. To
win customers and avoid trouble, sell with facts, not hype.
Look
for your competitors
Advertise in the
same publications and same online media that your competitors do. Look through a year's worth of back
issues of a publication. If competitors have been advertising consistently
in that publication for a year, it's likely to be a good place to put your
ad, too. Try to determine what keywords your competitors are using to
promote their business online. Use similar keywords in your own ads.
Test
your ad in several publications
Two publications
that seem to be aimed at the same readers won't necessarily produce the
same results. A Long Island painter who got no response from ads placed in
one weekly newspaper, for instance, got numerous responses from ads in a
competing publication in the same community. The only way to tell which
publications are the best for you is to test your ad in several.
Test your ads in several places online, too. An ad that works on Google
may or may not work on FaceBook, Bing, or LinkedIn.
Don't
plan to make a killing with one ad
Run each ad long
enough to give it a fair try. Having your business ad appear on a regular
basis builds name recognition and convinces prospects your business is not
a fly-by-night firm.
Proofread
carefully
Be sure you
include a phone number or other contact information in the ad. Have
someone other than yourself proofread your final version for typos and
misspellings.
About the author
Janet Attard is the founder of
the award-winning Business
Know-How small business web site and information resource. Janet is
also the author of The
Home Office And Small Business Answer Book and of Business
Know-How: An Operational Guide For Home-Based and Micro-Sized Businesses with
Limited Budgets. Follow Janet on Twitter at
http://www.twitter.com/JanetAttard.
Copyright 2011, Attard Communications, Inc
Disclaimer
Business Know-How is a trademark of Attard Communications
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