For many years I wasn`t more than 20 minutes away from the heart of Philadelphia, PA. It is wonderful city, filled with rich history of America, a lot of activities for adults and kids, and of course, their famous food the cheese steak. There is nothing like walking up to Gino`s or Pat`s and saying "one with" (more on that later). Then you get to watch the master chefs at work as they sizzle up that cheese steak which I know tastes awesome!
I am sure you have heard of the saying, "you have the steak, but where is the sizzle". Without the sizzle that steak they are cooking is just a bunch of meat sitting in some grease. That doesn`t sound tasty at all, now does it?
Same goes for your advertisements that you place online. Gone are the days of just plain text that your grandfather placed in your local newspaper. That would be the equivalent of steak without sizzle. Today you can place advertisements online on sites like Craigslist, Ebay and Indocquent. They offer robust tools to create your sizzle, and best of all you are not limited to one geographical area. Your online advertisement reaches the globe.
So how do you get your steak (your business, product or service that you are advertising) to sizzle? Below I give some ideas to help you out and spark that creative genious inside.
START WITH A HEADLINE IN THE AD
At the top of your online advertisement, start with a nice headline. For instance, "2 Bedroom, 2 Bath home in Somewhere, USA - Rent to Own". The headline serves two fold. One, it describes exactly what the reader is going to see in the ad, and two, it entices the reader with a rent to own option, which is popular among investors and other types of home buyers. Make the text bold and a different color such as dark blue or dark green. Stay away from red. Red screams error, stay away.
TO PICTURE OR TO VIDEO
In today`s high tech world of digital media anyone can take great pictures or even video. Decide which works best for your advertisement. A good picture is worth a thousand words, a bad one can ruin your promotion. Same goes for video. Your picture should grab the readers focus. In our example above of the two bedroom house, I would put multiple photos in the listing. One directly under another, with all the pictures being of the same size, clarity etc., and each of a different room. Each picture should tell a story and get the reader excited. Same holds true for embedding video. Your video should be clear and add to your written word to make it more appealing.
STREAMLINE
Keep the entire advertisement organized. With some simple HTML coding using the tags, you can organize everything in rows and columns. Try and keep photos and video to the left while all of your text goes on the right. Most, if not all, of these online websites offer the ability to produce an advertisement using HTML. If you are not familiar with HTML, pay a high school kid a few dollars. They can write it up for you in a matter of minutes.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Nothing irritates me more, being part of an online site that offers advertising, when someone creates a beautiful ad, using all of the advice above and then forget to put in contact information. Without a way for your readers to contact you how do you expect them to follow through on what you are advertising. Do not forget your contact information, such as a phone number, email address or website.
Above are four great ways to make your online advertisement sizzle. Now where is that steak "with". Hint, hint, that means a cheese steak "with" onions.
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