Find your message.  If you could only say one sentence to a prospective customer, what would it be? What is the most compelling reason to buy from you? What can you offer that your competitors cannot?  This one sentence should be the starting point for your campaign.  Build on it; don’t add to it.

Find a professional copywriter.  You sell out of a storefront or an office, not a garage.  So, don’t try to cut corners with this.  Your image and your customers perception of you is on the line.  Give this person enough time to do their work properly.

Find the emotion in your message.  The way to make the biggest impression is to seize upon the one thing that makes you memorable and actually make the listener see, feel, taste, or smell it. 

Find out if what you’re saying is really true.  Think you have outstanding customer service? Monitor what’s really going on.  New easy to follow directions? Get someone totally unfamiliar with them to try them out.   Watch customers actually buy, try or use your product. Don’t lie, fudge or spin.

Find the best medium and dominate it.  Whether it’s radio, television, billboards, banner ads, or sandwich boards, invest so that your audience sees or hears your message three or four times a day. 

Thanks for reading

Ron Harper - September 2004