In the last 25 years Dee Blick has witnessed more than her fair share of good, bad and indifferent adverts. ‘I would like to think that I’ve been responsible for writing more good adverts than bad’ says Dee ‘but in my early years I was as guilty as anyone in writing adverts that were creative but didn’t actually generate responses.’ In this feature Dee offers 9 tips that will steer you in the right direction of writing adverts that do bring home the bacon!

1. Make your product or service the hero of your advert. In a small space, it’s vital that the reader knows exactly what is being advertised
2. Don’t get in a tangle if you don’t have a genuine unique selling point. Focus on being honest and informative. You don’t have to be a market leader to get responses
3. Write as though you are chatting to the reader – informal and engaging
4. Putting your headline in quotes can increase reader recall by about 25%
5. When you advertise in a local publication you can get better results if you make a prominent reference to the name of the city or town. People are interested in what’s happening where they live
6. More people read the captions under your images than the body copy itself. Make sure your caption includes your business name and a compelling benefit
7. If you have to communicate many different sales points, number or bullet them
8. Make an offer – limited to a number of readers and add a close date to encourage early responses
9. If you don’t have a designer, ask the magazine if they will design your advert, even if you have to pay for it. Looks and content count if you want responses

For more from Dee Blick and Marketing see www.themarketinggym.org .

Are you part of Britain’s growing number of homeworkers?  Check out www.enterprisenation.co.uk A free resource to help you start and grow your business at home, they have some excellent resources and case studies.