What message do you convey to the consumer while you are advertising?
Our years of advertising to customers have given us a few insights, that we would like to share.
You can tell them how good you are, how fresh you are, what kind of ingredients that you use and all that. We tried that - did work a little but not wildly successful.
Insight 1: Then we thought about the real reason why customers take action - because they need something. They either need something, or have some pain points that your products can help them with. You need to figure out what the customer is thinking at that point of time. What needs do they have. And talk about the solution to those needs, not the product.
Insight 2: Humans are inherently a) prone to inertia, and b) we want quick results without too much effort. Hence we need to create a solution that is easy to use and can deliver quick results. Instant gratification is what we crave for all the time.
Insight 3: Google adwords trick 1: Have the heading of the ad similar to what the customer is searching for. They are much more likely to click your ad if your heading is similar to their search process. You can do this by grouping similar keywords into a single ad group, and creating the ads based on that adword. For example - we have a ad group for cupcake delivery, and people see that headline and click the ad. Our click through rates are much higher after we changed our ad heading.
Insight 3: Google adwords trick 2: Your second line should be about the product, and the final line should be a call to action, or some promotion that helps to make the customer's decision process easier. Try it out!
Finally - what works for us is trying to figure our what the customer's end objective may be. It might be to have a good office party, a memorable birthday party for their kids, or gourmet cupcakes for a wedding. It is never about the cupcakes, but it is about the event and how cupcakes are a part in making that event a success. One of the ads that we wrote was about -
Cupcakes In Singapore
Surprise Yr Guests-They'll Love em
Free Delivery - Use Voucher XXXXXX
This ad had much better click through rates than the ones which talked about the ingredients that we use etc. Hence the takeaway is that we need to think about what the customer's real needs are, and help them have a wonderful occasion. We need to highlight the thought process and the big need, rather than highlighting about the product itself.
If you want to learn more about advertising - it is very simple.
Exercise 1: We get bombarded by advertising everyday. You can make out the good ads from the bad one. See the message the good ads are sending - they will talk about the experience, the goal, the destination etc, never about the product's UV levels.
Exercise 2: Ask your friends why they like certain products - it will never be about how complex the products are - it will be about the outcome. One comment about a high end car from my friend - "comfortable seats, and nice aircon", for a face lotion - "makes my skin smooth". That's what customer's perceive. If you selling beauty products - talk about "smoothness of your skin/makes you feel younger" etc rather than product details - types of ingredients in the skin etc.
These are our initial learnings from our adwords campaign on google - we just thought we would share them with you.
Have a great day!