Business Rules to Grow By!

Written for AutoSuccess Magazine
April 2002

By Scott Joseph

There are hundreds of ways of getting your dealership’s name and offers out to the general public. But with all your advertising, your first and most important goal is to get people to read your offer. This is also the toughest part of any advertising. The average family is now exposed to more than 1500 ads a day. This has trained us to tune out a lot of messages. So, how do we get people to listen to our message and get the best possible use of our advertising?


1. Don’t say I, me, mine, us, we, or our in your advertising. Say you or your. Listen to the difference between “We can deliver immediately” and “You get immediate delivery.” Your goal is not to sell your features, but to sell the benefits to your prospect.

2. Don’t save the best for last. State your primary benefit immediately by putting it into your headline or in the opening line of your presentation. Why wait? If you save it for last, you run the risk of the ad being discarded before the prospect discovers the big offer. The primary benefit to the prospect must dominate your ad – it’s the attention grabber. If your primary benefit doesn’t hook them, forget it.

3. Don’t run institutional ads – you must ask for an immediate response. Every ad should have a call to action: ‘call now;’ ‘mail today,’ or have some type of coupon. Surround your coupon with a broken-line box or a picture of scissors in the corner, and request that the response (be it by phone, mail, e-mail, or fax) be done today.

4. Don’t print in reverse (white letters with a colored background). Reversing-out print is difficult to read. We all learn how to read in the same way, with black letters on a white sheet of paper. We then file these letter images away in our brain. When you present the word in a way that’s different, it takes the brain longer to recognize the symbol as a letter, and negatively impacts legibility up to 35%. The reader is forced to fight their way through your ad, and that will have a negative impact on the response.

5. Never let the publication set your type or do your artwork. The world’s worst graphic artists work for the Yellow Pages. Is this person really going to put in the time to make sure your ad is unique and high quality, or do you think your ad will look like everyone else’s? Everyone spends a great deal of money making sure that they have the largest and best-positioned ad on the page. What about the message that the ad is trying to articulate? Never let the publications set your ads. If you don’t have in-house staff, hire a freelancer. It is a wise investment.

6. Don’t print in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. As with reverse type, it is much harder to read and understand. Do you really want to make your readers work for the information you are trying to give them? That doesn’t mean you can’t have an all-cap headline; but don’t run your entire ad in capitals.

7. Use premiums or a chance to win a prize – they always work. Contests and premiums improve results by 50 % or more. And, these results are seen in improved sales, in addition to improved response rates. There are much better ways to control the quality of your traffic than to reduce the amount of people that come in your door. The more opportunities your sales staff has to sell cars the more cars they will sell, and premiums and prizes will give you more opportunities.

8. Be very careful with humor. No three people have the same sense of humor, and you don’t want to risk offending or marginalizing someone with your advertising. You must also remember that advertising is a function of repetition, and humor does not always wear well.

9. Use personalization in your ads wherever possible. People love to see their name in print. In your direct mail pieces, use the prospect’s name or the city or state they live in, as often as possible.

10. Do promote to your previous customers, again and again. A two-time buyer is twice as likely to come back to you as a one-time buyer. You cannot burn out or over-mail your customer list. Does that mean you should mail them everyday? If you can figure out a way to do it – absolutely!

11. Make your special offer believable – otherwise it will not succeed. That means when you make a statement, justify it. If you have a special offer, explain why in detail. Without believability and credibility, you have no sale.

12. If you decide to use direct mail, pay attention to your mailing lists. The mailing list is one of the two most important elements in your mailing campaign. Your basic offer and the mailing list make up 80% of the advertisement. The right offer mailed to the right list will always work.

13. Use special offers to your customer lists. Make special prices, terms, premiums, or special promotions or events available only to your customers. Remember, your customers are special. Make them feel special. And tell them that they’re special, and that you appreciate their business.

14. Re-mail profitable lists. A re-mailing of the exact same piece to the exact same list two to three weeks later will still produce at least 50% over your original response.

15. Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs. Use simple and concise phrasing. And don’t be afraid of one-word sentences. They work! Honestly!

16. Underline important phrases and words. Readers naturally scan before they go back and read for clarity, and underlining highlights the important points.

17. Do use wonder words: new, how to, suddenly, now, announcing, introducing, it’s here, just arrived, improvement, sensational, remarkable, amazing, revolutionary, startling, miracle, magic, offer, quick, easy, wanted, challenge, compare, bargain, hurry, last chance, save, money, help, satisfaction, 100% guarantee, new, important development, the truth about, new and improved, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you. Why? Because they always work.


Next month: The Only Three Ways to Grow Your Business


Read another AutoSuccess article:

April 2001:
Seven Advantages of Direct Mail for the Automotive Industry

June 2001:

Testing and Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Advertising to Improve Your Profit

July 2001:

Killer List Strategies For Your Direct Mail Promotion

September 2001:
How to Make Them an Offer They Can't Refuse!

October 2001:
The Secret of Out-Performing All Your Other Advertising!

November 2001:
The Number One Strategy to Out-Market Your Competition

December 2001:
Creative That Gets Results!

January 2002:
Secrets to Improve Your Sales and Profit With Direct Mail

February 2002:
How to Sell One to Two More Deals for Each 100 Pieces of Mail You Send!

March 2002:
The Seven Biggest Marketing Mistakes Everybody is Making, and How to Avoid Them!

May 2002:
The Only Three Ways to Grow Your Business

June 2002:
Your Customers are Speaking To You. Do You Hear Them?

July 2002
How to Attract Quality Traffic

August 2002
Make Money on Your Sales Event Before it Even Begins!

September 2002
Marketing Lists That Work!