Tony Attwood's Blog

I keep trying to reduce all the rules I have for how to write adverts, down to a simple list of two or three.

Each time I do it I come up with something different, but the requirement to be unusual in one’s advertising, to be different from what the competition is doing, and basically to stand out from the crowd, is always there in my top three.

The fact is that we are all swamped with advertising, and given that in most forms of advertising we are able to switch off from the advert and move on to something else, the need to grab the reader or viewer’s attention is paramount.

And because of the nature of the society in which we live, the simplest way to make this happen is by being different.

I have to admit that I don’t know why many people don’t follow this advice – but I think often it is, in essence, because they get trapped.   Some people say that they want their adverts to look a particular way, because that is what their more successful competitors do.   But generally in my experience this doesn’t work.   After all, why bother to read your advert if it looks similar to someone else’s – especially if that someone else is already established in the market?

So I try to be different when I create adverts.  Not necessarily hugely different, but different.   I focus on interesting open questions, I use the conversational style rather than the more formalised style that most direct mail is written in, I break quite a few rules, and sometimes I write stories.   Some stories are just one page long, some run on for weeks or months, a bit like a soap opera only without all the shouting.

If you would like to talk about making your advertising a bit different, do give me a call – or alternatively send me a copy of one of your adverts and I will tell you how else you could have done it.

There’s no charge, no obligation, and you don’t have to take any notice of what I say, but you never know – it might give you an insight into how to raise your response rates and sales.

Tony Attwood – call me on 01536 399 013.

You can subscribe to our daily news and suggestion service by sending an email to direct-mail-secrets-subscribe@yahoogroups.com