The Perfect Ad: Leading With Content
By Michael StelznerWhat makes the perfect ad?
When a message meets a prospect where they have a need, the result is often success.
Take a look at this ad:

My pal Howard Sewell recently wrote about this excellent advertisement.
What makes it great?
It pitches content, not the company.
Howard said it well:
Hoovers could have developed an edgy, multi-frame, animated ad and used it to sell you on the virtues of how you should use Hoovers to find names of target accounts.
But no. Instead, they asked the question: why do people need our product? And what is a prospective customer looking to improve that would betray a likely need for that product?
Answer: better cold-calling.
Solution: create a compelling offer (in this case, a white paper) that appeals to the very audience segment most likely to be potential customers for Hoovers - salespeople and their managers looking to improve the effectiveness of cold-calling.
What do you think about advertising the white paper, not the company?
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