Moving Company Yellow Pages

This moving company's original Yellow Pages ad contained the usual, expected kind of stuff... "we move residential & commercial, local & long distance..." blah, blah, blah. The ad pulled average results of about 70 calls per month. Using the MYM Principles, the ad was redone to educate the prospect about some of the pitfalls of moving. For instance, ad #1 says "Fully Insured," but did you realize that "fully insured" can mean that they'll pay you a between 20 and 60 cents (yes, cents!) per pound if they break your stuff? Ad #2 explains that, among other things, and gives an example of your TV getting broken and receiving a check for $30 to replace it. Victory goes to the one with superior forces at the point of contact. In this case, since the prospect is in the Yellow Pages and therefore ready to buy RIGHT NOW, you'd better educate as much as possible! Not all ads require as much text as this one... but in cases where prospects are eager and ready to buy, you can't wait until they call to educate--because you may never get the call! The result was an increase to an average of 955 calls per month.

Manufacturer Trade Journal Ad

This company manufactured a beautiful, upscale pool table that they sold to companies (known as "Operators") who placed them in bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, etc. Ad #1 shows the new table and tells how great it looks compared to regular pool tables. This ad ran in Replay magazine for six months without a single response--probably because it has no specific offer! Notice how ad #2 follows the "Marketing Equation" to the letter... First it interrupts with a headline that's relevant to the target market... Command $1 Play. This is a huge statement for Operators who are used to their tables earning only 50 cents per play. This table offered them a chance to literally double their revenue. The ad goes on to educate some, and offers a FREE report that proved that the table is in demand, and will make the Operators more money. This ad pulled more than 350 responses in less than a week... from a magazine that only has a circulation of 5,000 (that's 7%!). This is the power of the Marketing Equation and Monopolize Your Marketplace.

Treadmill Store Newspaper Ad

The first ad is a typical ad you'd see in the paper for fitness equipment. It shows a few pictures of the stuff that's for sale, lists a few bullet points about each item, and then gives a price. All a prospect knows after seeing this ad is that the store has stuff for sale at a certain price. What they don't know is how on earth to make a buying decision for fitness equipment. It's a safe bet to say that the majority of people who are interested don't know how to distinguish a good treadmill from a bad one... so they do what we all do when we don't know--we make judgments based on price. The second ad understands that John Smith isn't an expert and endeavors to educate him about treadmills. We show him that we've done all his homework for him, and made it easy for him to make a choice. The offer is clear and desirable. This type of ad will typically out-pull a regular ad by a margin of anywhere from 2 to 1 to 100 to 1. Time to get on the MYM program!

Chimney Sweep Yellow Pages

In a classic Yellow Pages blunder, these "normal" chimney sweep ads only think to put a predictable list of stuff they do in their ads, but give the reader no reason to choose them over the other competitor. I know, it's hard to believe that a chimney sweep actually (pause... for effect) cleans chimneys, but thank goodness the ad clarifies that. It's also nice to see they play up the cheesy Dick Van Dyke image of the top hat fool as a chimney sweep. Our "after" ad eliminates all that... we show a real chimney sweep who looks friendly, and give some concrete reasons why you'd want to call this company over their competitors. The Marketing Equation wins again... for Yellow Pages, you can normally expect a 2 to 3 times increase in calls by focusing on real, concrete reasons you're better. Just follow MYM for instructions how to pull this off!

Closet Organizer Postcard

This postcard was sent in a deck with several other cards to upscale homes. The before version only caters to the "now" buyers, evidenced by it's lack of any kind of substantial offer. The back of the card has the all-time most vague offer, "best prices of the year, offer expires soon." What exactly was the offer again? Oh yea, there isn't one. The revised card still uses the same picture on the front, but includes a headline that utilizes a key word for people with closet problems: CLUTTER. Then it has an information offer right there on the front where everyone can see the darn thing... "Free Storage Solutions Idea Guide." Brilliant. The back of the revised card isn't the best in the world; in fact, it's really just a quick revision of the original. But look what a big difference a minor tweak can make! The two offers are clear, concise, and reach now and future buyers. The second ad is a winner by a country mile!

Lasik Postcard

If you want to be sucessful in marketing, follow this extremely simple formula: Find out what's important and relevant to your target market, then talk about that in your ad. I know, pretty obvious stuff. Then why do all these ads NOT do that? Look at the BEFORE postcard for the Lasik dude... "20/20 or it's FREE?" What the crap?!?!  People with bad vision are in two distinct camps: Those who already have had Lasik, and those who are scared to death of Lasik. Do you really think that giving a scared person FREE Lasik is going to do the trick? Are you stupid!? The second ad follows my simple little formula by talking about what's actually important to the target market--THEIR FEAR. Then it gives them a low-risk offer so they can find out more. Guess which ad works best? That's right, #2, by a factor of approximately 10 to 1. For a complete case study of Lasik marketing, check the MYM 2 CD set; you can download it here for free.

Healthcare Flyer

This ad was placed in a directory for services for senior citizens in the San Diego area. The original ad is a classic case of "the curse of knowledge," which means that the person who wrote the ad knew exactly what their service was, how it worked, and why somebody would want to buy it... and assumed that everyone else already possessed that same level of knowledge. The fact is, it's nearly impossible to even tell what this company does by reading the first ad. Is it a nursing home? Is it a hospital? Is it a referral service? What the heck is it!?!?! There's a huge coupon on one side of this that appears to be for nothing in particular. MYM, help me!!! Look at the ad on the right (front and back). It immediately identifies the problem and the solution offered by this company. It's clear, concise, and easy to understand. It follows the marketing equation exactly, and a result, works much better than the original!

Rental Services Ad

This is a mailable brochure for rental equipment from a Caterpillar dealer in Texas. As you can see, the original version basically says "we have equipment for rental" and left it at that. As you open the original brochure (not shown), it has a listing of the things that are for rent, and a map to their various locations. It's basically more of a catalog--but doesn't do much to sell! The revised brochure is much more BOLD! We wanted to differentiate their facilities from some of their competitors by highlighting the heavy caliber of equipment that they rent, and position the company as the solution for people who need serious equipment. You can then see below that, we allow the reader to get a glimpse of what's inside... including why they should rent (vs. owning), why their stuff is higher quality, the extent of their selection (large), and why the company should be trusted. The catalog pages and map are still included--but they're not doing the heavy lifting any more. The new piece does a much better job of helping prospects understand why Holt is the no-brainer choice.

Sunroom Newspaper Ad

The before ad here is a good example of the kind of CRAP that typical agencies come up with. It's all about the mood, the feeling, and the aesthetics. Problem is, the ad seems to be for Viagra, not a sunroom. Anytime the product you're selling isn't reasonably obvious, that's a problem. For the "after" ad, we focused on the Benefit of Ownership hot button that a sunroom will look great on your house. We're trying to either put the idea into somebody's head for the first time, or reinforce the idea for somebody who's already on the Educational Spectrum. The text in this ad is light because the offer is going to do the heavy lifting of educating the prospect. The offer is also important because it allows us to capture the prospects' contact info so we can proactively market to them on an ongoing basis. The new ad outpulled the previous one by a margin of more than 3 to 1.

Retail Bank Ads

Gotta love bank marketing. They find the most creative ways to say absolutely nothing. The first series of ads, designed to run in the newspaper, is attempting to show that the bank is focused on the community. The slogan, Fewer Branches, Deeper Roots, is an attempt to defer attention from the fact that they only have three branches and turn it into a strength; ie, "we focus on you as a person." The problem is that all of the images are sappy and lame, and the text is even lamer. Click on one of the before ads and read the text and you'll see for yourself. It sounds like what Charlie Brown's mother says when she's talking to a kid. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The after ads are based on several innovations the bank could put into place that people actually care about... that all show that the bank actually cares about people. They just do a much better job of communicating the point. Notice the colors and layout stay about the same, and we've left the slogan in place. The new ads are just a lot more interesting and relevant to John Smith's banking needs. There is no specific offer because these ads are designed to run daily in the newspaper (there are actually 16 ads in the series) to brand the bank and educate on the innovations.

Financial Services Newspaper Ad

This before and after is actually a mock up, not a real ad. We made these to prove a point--that you can take a totally sucky ad and make it into a pretty good ad just by adding a good headline (interrupting) and an obvious information offer. The lame picture stays the same, as does the boring text. But look at the ability of the headline to transform the ad! The problem is that a company like Prudential would never run these kinds of ads in a million years because... well, they're Prudential! Note that both of these headlines (and 15 others we stuck on this same ad) came straight from our headline bank tool.

Computer Hardware Postcards

Does MYM work for big companies, too? Heck yes it does! And believe me, the big guys need MYM the most. Look at the original mailers that Dell was sending out to schools trying to sell them hardware. They basically suck. The simplest rule of marketing is "find out what's important and relevant to your target market, then talk about that in your ad." Look at the words they highlight: AVAILABLE (yea, I hope so!), PERFORMANCE (wow, a server that performs!), MANAGE (whatever), DISCOUNTS (nothing like training your prospects to demand the lowest price!), RELIABLE (uh, really?), and HELP (very nice). Here's a better idea: talk about what school administrators really care about: using the technology to improve educational outcomes and maximizing the usefulness of the technology. These "after" postcards are 4 in a series of 20 that speak directly to the issues that administrators are concerned about, and offers solutions. The free offer is a way to engage the prospects in the sales process.

Builder/ Owner Ad

Another good example of the "curse of knowledge." When you hire this company to help you build your home yourself, you essentially become the general contractor, and are responsible for managing the subcontractors, material deliveries, inspections, and so forth. And guess what? You can manage all that with your cell phone. Get it? It's so obvious, isn't it! But even that's not as bad as the world's worst advertising phrase, "you owe it to yourself." If you ever find yourself writing that into one of your ads, just save your time and burn your money in your fireplace instead of spending it on an ad. It will be more fun, and at least you'll produce some heat. The after ad is a good one... because most people aren't familiar with the concept of builder/owner, the ad takes the time to describe the benefits of ownership (ie, why would you want to even do this in the first place) and DOES NOT get into any kind of discussion about why this company is better than their competition. The prospect isn't ready for that discussion just yet. Then a strong offer gives the prospect a way to find out all the details. Other versions of this ad contain even more information, including an FAQ that answers common concerns people would likely have about building their own home, like how much experience is required, how much time it takes, and so forth. These offer-heavy ads outpull their predecessors by a margin of 2 or 3 to 1.