Gone are the days when people looked through phone books to find a Plumber. These days, people use ‘The Googles’ for anything and everything, including finding home service providers. In order to be found online, you need to have a website, paid advertising, and a healthy digital presence. But even if you have those things, you still need to let people know what kind of characters they are working with and why you are the provider of choice. This is where home service ads come in. Have you come upon the task of writing home service ads? Or approving the ads written by others? Then you should know hard it is to write a great ad.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. - Leonardo Da Vinci
Not just any ad will do. There are two essential elements that make up a successful home service ad. Keep reading to learn what they are! But first... We should probably talk about the elephant in the room. Ya know, the invisible ads that don’t actually live for more than 7 days, tops (because, you know…science).
Invisible Ads
You know the ones. They list every service you offer in minute detail and they read like a laundry list of features, hours of operation, location, and huh. What? What was I saying? Oh right. The ads that tell people how long you’ve been open, the friendly and knowledgeable staff who all have passed a background check (except for Bruno. We don’t talk about Bruno, though, no no no). These ads are often created by a committee of people who think more is better. They want to make sure the reader knows everything about the company and how and what they do, never why they do it. But here's the thing... Nobody cares. I mean, literally nobody. The only thing any given person cares about is making the pain go away, and a return to peace…order…calm…normalcy, if and when that pain ever were to arise, which, in their minds, will likely not. So boring them with this ASMR patter is simply white noise. Wizard of Ads® understands that funny little gatekeeper in the brain known as Broca’s Area. We know how to kick down the door, bust past that little tyrant, protecting the brain from the mundane. If you don’t have a clue what Broca’s Area is or how to persuade your way into the imagination, the only thing you have to do next is book a call, cause your nonsensical adspeak isn’t getting you anywhere. You're probably wondering how we do it. We won't write feature-heavy ads because we know they don't work. Instead, we focus on creating ad copy that is new, interesting, and different, so that your incredibly entertaining message takes up residence in the echoic retention of the brain. Trust me, I’m a nerd.
Clichés are Déjà Vu
Look, you’re not writing the script for Groundhog Day. Clichés are cliché for a reason. They are too familiar.
#1 best! Friendly and Experienced! Better prices! 40 years in business! World-famous!
**STOP IT!!!**We've all seen ads like this before, and we tune them out instantly. Why? Because they are unsubstantiated claims that literally anyone can (and often do) say. Not only do they blend into the background, they make you look like a bit of a knob. If you want your ad to be memorable, you have to say something worth remembering. Since only a fraction of 7% of your marketplace needs your thing at any time (that hasn’t been spoken for), you’re going to need advertising that entertains people far before they ever need your thing. This opens you up to 68% of your marketplace and gives you the time to build an earworm inside their heads with an evolving message that they WANT to recall. Cause it’s funny. Or interesting. Or downright different. And when your thing makes them look more funny, interesting, and different, you win. Listen to this: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1J47Rbo2BQmhGtIRL6MJPWnWCVKVvr0jB/view?usp=sharing Now that's entertaining! And it's something that sets this plumbing company apart from ALL the others.
If you want an ad that people will remember, you need to say something worth remembering. -Ryan Chute
2 Essential Elements for Successful Residential Home Service Ads
When it comes to creating successful residential home services ads, there are two key elements you need to keep in mind: Impact and Frequency.
IMPACT
Impact means that your ad needs to be new, different, and interesting. The best way to do this is to say things that nobody else would say, speak to the real felt needs (money, energy, and time) and entertain the trousers off them until they need your thing.
- Targeting Strategy: The truth is that you can target a prospective buyer in 2 ways. You can target them by dialing into demographics, geographics, and psychographics, cutting out all the other potential listeners or viewers. Alternatively, you can target with copy, saying things that will naturally be shared by both the ‘right people’ and ‘wrong people’. Bought right, you will spend a fraction of the cost with copy targeting.
FREQUENCY
Frequency of the right message is key when it comes to effective, long-term advertising. You need to make sure your ad is heard by as many people as possible, and the only way to do that is to repeat it at a very specific frequency for it to seep back from the electrical memory into the chemical memory. The more people who hear your ad (reach) at the correct frequency, the more people who will sell you real estate in their heart and mind for that faithful day that they need your thing.
- Sleep: Sleep is the ultimate eraser. The average person is exposed to over 25,000 sensory inputs a day, and most of them are forgotten within seconds. If you have something really worth remembering, and the receiver has made an effort to retain the information, the longest your message can ride it out is 7 days. This is any and all information with low impact that is residing in the electrical part of the brain. Essentially, this is the working RAM of your brain, where you typically can retain up to 7 things at any given time. That's why it's important to make your high-impact ads follow a very specific frequency. With a great message and sufficient frequency, you can make your way into the chemical area of the brain when you’re brand is put into long-term storage. The high the impact, the easier it is to recall. The higher the frequency, the more likely it is to retain.
Beware the lawyer who takes himself as a client. There are many many more ways to get taken advantage of in a media buy than there are to get it right. Do not be fooled into believing that you will get the right frequency, at the right time, with the right crossover traffic of listeners, at the right price, with the right advertising copy, from your media buyer. They simply have no idea how to build the right frequency, let alone the right creative, to get you the results you deserve. Always leave your media buy and creative to the experts, like us. Call for a no-obligation conversation to see what I’m talking about.
UNRESOLVED: The Silent Assassin of Advertising
Bad advertising is about you and your company. Great advertising is about your customer and their life. But how do you go about telling your story in these little episodes you are putting on the air? Ads that poop out a bunch of uninspired information about your business or try desperately to entice the audience to answer your Call-To-Action (even though they don’t need your thing right now) are stupid. There, I said it. You’re wasting your money. It is heartbreaking. But this time it’s different! This time you have something interesting to say. This time you have a story about your customer that you want to tell. But what is the best way to tell it? Try this:
- Problem: Your hero (the customer) has an insurmountable challenge. A villainous foe that is eating up their money, causing them stress, or devouring their time (keep it to one thing).
- Transition: Oh No! What shall they do? I know…
- Resolution: At your company, you solve this one terrible thing, use this potion, elixir, weapon, process, or service, and live happily ever after.
If you don’t tell the story of the problem, you’re not saying anything interesting. If your message is all resolution, you’re not eliciting an emotional response trigger for the felt need. THE PAIN! These ads feel incongruent and limp. These ads are not worth remembering. You in no way can tell them something new, interesting, or different if everything is ONLY coming up Millhouse. The assassin? You tell a great story but don’t leave room for the resolution. Your ad feels…unfinished. Unresolved. Ads shouldn’t have cliffhangers. The more your ad resolves things in a satisfactory way, the more you resonate with your audience.
Are You Starting to See Why Successful Branded Advertising is So Rare?
Are you?If not, let's take a step back and examine what we've learned so far. First, we know that to be successful, an ad must be impactful. It needs to stand out from the rest and capture people's attention, certainly, but most importantly, it needs to lead to an eventual appointment with your company, not your industry. Second, we know that the ad must be delicious to the marketplace. When you entertain the socks off of people, EVERYONE will be chattering about you. The more buzz you create with a highly repeatable and referenced ad, the deeper your embed into the chemical long-term memory of your marketplace. And finally, we know that your ads have to run at a very specific frequency. If your ad doesn’t get HEARD at least 3 times a week, every week, 52 weeks a year, for the rest of their lives, they forget about you. When we buy media, we use software that calculates the optimal mix for your frequency and reach based on all channels. The last media buy presented over 5.2 billion possible combinations to choose from. Our 40-year veteran expertly traverses these options to create media buys that you would think required a certain amount of divine intervention. So there you have it. All you have to do to run a successful branded advertising campaign is say something incredibly interesting, select the right frequency from literally billions of options, and reach as many people as your budget will afford. Simple, right. #geeshThere always comes a time when you will need some help in designing the right marketing strategy for your business. If you’re interested in a true partner in crime. A ride or die. A real wingman in all things marketing, give Wizard of Ads® a call. We partner with business owners who are looking for accelerated growth and deliver a world-class buying experience. We are not a supplier. We are not a vendor. And we see ourselves as the Anti-Agency for a number of fascinating reasons that serve our clients exceptionally well. If that sound like your jam, book a call.
Ryan Chute
Helping small businesses become BIG brands with a holistic marketing strategy that speaks the same language across all sales and marketing channels.
Share this:
Nothing to see here!
Nothing to see here!