PBB Best Buy Knows Marketing

PBB Best Buy has displayed thousands of ads for hundreds of businesses over the years.  Most worked, others fizzled, but a few were spectacularly successful. Here's what we've learned.

1. Start With A Great Offer.  Choose your product carefully and make sure you have a fair price.  Ask yourself, "would you buy this?"
2. Create a Fantastic Headline. Advertising legend David Ogilvy said, "On average, five times as many people will read your headline as will read the body copy." 
3. Explain: "What's In It For Me?"  Your readers don't care about you. Not even a little bit.  But they care a whole lot about themselves.  The more you make your ad about your reader, the more likely they will continue reading.
4. Use Power Words. You, Free, Because, Instantly, and New are very powerful words in advertising that never grow old.
5. Be Visual. Long blocks of text bore people.  Keep your reader going by using short sentences and paragraphs, subheadlines and images to tease them down the page.
6. Take All The Risk. Buyers don't trust you.  Remove their doubts by accepting all the risk.  That's the idea behind the (1) Money-Back Guarantee, (2 ) 90-day Free Trial, and (3) "No Questions Asked" Return Policy. 
7. Ask For The Business. This is the biggest cause of ad failure.  Advertisers fail to tell the reader what to do. If you want them to click the Buy Now button, tell them. Explicitly. Don't expect readers to take any action unless you direct them to do it.