7 Ad Essentials - Deadlines

We’re continuing our segment on 7 ad essentials you must include in your marketing. Last week we talked about your basic business info, maps and directions and offers. In case you missed it, or if you’d like to review, visit the blog here. Today we’ll discuss a biggie, deadlines!

Last week we talk about having an offer. A deadline goes hand-in-hand with offers. Pure and simple, if you don’t have a deadline, you don’t have an offer. Most businesses that aren’t tuned in to direct response hide their deadlines in tiny sized type hoping you won’t see it. This is just the opposite of what you want to do. You want to create urgency; you want them to act now, which is just the opposite of what most big, dumb companies do.

Something to consider with your deadline is people are more motivated by fear of loss than personal gain. So often a deadline where they ‘lose out’ on something after an elapsed time is better than gaining something if they respond early. Some ways to use deadlines include:

• Response required within “X” number of days
• By a certain date
• By a date stamped in RED on your letter
• Limited to the first “X” number

Deadlines are a great way to create urgency which is what you want to do. Don’t hide them and be sure to make them very clear to your clients or prospects.

It’s always great when you can incorporate “reason why” copy as well. This means you actually have a reason why, and you explain it for both your deadline and your offer. one of the best “reasons why” is an anniversary sale. In fact for one of our businesses, American Retail Supply, we just celebrated our 40th Anniversary. When you give a reason why, people will accept it at face value. They’ll think to themselves, “Oh, that’s why I’m getting a discount” instead of being cautious or skeptical.

You can also blame a “common enemy” as a reason for both a promotion and deadline. In the past I’ve used my accountant as the “enemy.” The story goes that I had a great idea for a promotion, but the “lousy bean-counting accountant” wouldn’t let me. So when he went on vacation,I did it anyway! Sure, it’s not a great reason, but it’s good enough, plus it gives me a great story to tell in my advertising. Everybody loves to read a story!

It’s always good to have a name for your offer. In the above examples we obviously named it the Anniversary Sale, and “My accountants Away” offer. There’s a ton of others you can use. Just a few are:

• Birthdays
• Holidays or events
• “Empty the Shelves” event for overstocked inventory
• “One Week Only” Sale
• The list could go on.

Finally, with deadlines, multiple deadlines are very effective and work well with long deadlines. For instance, you could use something like:

This offer expires in two weeks, but if you respond in the next two weeks you’ll get an additional FREE gift.

The power of taking something away over time is a very strong way to get people to act sooner rather than later.