Telling A Story: 4 Tips On Advertising For Startup Founders
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Think of the most memorable ads you’ve seen since you were born. One of those for me, is Guinness’ Reach For Greatness ad. I was well below drinking age when that ad aired but I wanted to be like Udeme, achieving my dreams with a bottle of Guinness to unwind at the end of every day. I don’t know what ad comes to your mind but I’m sure that ad will highlight quite a few of the concepts I’ll discuss in this article.
The purpose of every ad is to generate leads to increase sales. Today, almost every channel is saturated in putting ads in front of the target audience. Most people tune out these ads because they interfere with what they want to do. However, you can break through this barrier by incorporating a few story elements into your ads.
- DON’T BE THE HERO
Every business owner wants to solve a problem for their customer. To achieve this, most business owners put themselves out there as the superhero with their brand logo front-and-center like Superman’s S. However, while you may be the hero in your own story, your ad shouldn’t be about you. It should be about your customer. Make your customer the hero. Take a more backstage role, guiding your customer to achieve that hero’s greatness.
2. PRESENT THE PROBLEM
You have taken over running the backstage and letting your customer take centerstage. Now, what is the hero is there is no villain, no problem to solve, no puzzle to figure out, or no challenge to surmount? Do a deep dive. Discover your customers’ pain. Is that pain internal or external? How does it prevent them from being the best version of themselves, that version they always wanted to be? Write in out and include it in your ad.
3. HAVE A CLEAR CALL-TO-ACTION
What’s a good story if the hero doesn’t know what to do? What’s a good story if the action the hero should take is decades into the future? Same applies to your ad. Your ad should include something high-stakes. The higher the risk and reward, the more impactful your ad will be. Remember that this doesn’t have to be something so creative. Just make sure it connects to the pain your customers feel and invites them to solve it by taking a particular action.
4. DEFINE WHAT SUCCESS AND FAILURE WOULD MEAN.
Every hero definitely wants to succeed. With what they sometimes believe ids the fate of the world depending on them, failure is really not an option for heroes. Your ad should show what failure would mean if your customer doesn’t take the action you’ve invited them to take. You should also make it clear what success would mean to your customer. The hero knows the world will be better off when they choose one path over another. Your customers must feel that your product can make that success possible and within reach.
With all these tips, it helps to use a combination of words and visuals (icons, pictures and videos). Visuals help even more because a general rule of thumb when it comes to ads is to “show and not tell” — showing is more immersive than just telling.
Apply these 4 tips to your ads and watch your customers be attracted to you like moths to a flame.
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