Man eaten alive by Polar Bear

The biggest mistake many business owners make when putting together a print ad or flyer or poster etc. is the lack of priority.
This can be split into 2 categories.
For example, if a local newspaper ad is due Wednesday at 4pm, when do most business owners write the copy or plan the layout of the ad? -3.30pm.
Unless you are a professional copywriter who works well under pressure or a brilliant marketing strategist with a long list of proven successful ads which you can easily amend, you have just wasted your money on the ad.
WHY?
How can you possible come up with a brilliant promotional idea and the headline and appropriate text in 30 mins whilst (most likely) still running day to day activities in your business.

The second problem with prioritising your ad is the required focus on the opening headline.
One of my business mentor taught me the most important thing about copy:
"Have a tried and tested attention grabbing headline!"
You see, if your potential audience is not engaged by the headline, thinking 'Oh, ok, tell me more', it matters not how good the offer is, how great the text is, how fancy the logo and fonts are or when the offer runs out.
Think about this: When reading the newspaper or a magazine, how do you subconsciously decide which article to read in full? In a split second, you evaluate the headline, i.e. 'Is this something I am interested in?!'
I spend the most amount of time on creating the headline to the electronic newsletters I send out to my clients for my various businesses. Why? Because I want them to read the newsletter.
Obviously, you want to make the headline relevant, i.e. how does it tie in with the info that's being shared in the newsletter, but I generally write 5-10 headlines per newsletter before I settle on one.
By the way, my sincerest apologies if I misled you. There was no polar bear harmed in this email and no man was eaten either. I just used that to see how many of you would read this blogpost :-)

Which leads me to my next point: I always monitor how many emails were opened this time around compared to last time to see which headline(s) worked best.
When do I start writing my headline(s) and newsletters?
At least 2-3 days before, generally in the morning BEFORE my real work day starts.
Why?
Because I can think about them and be completely focussed on the one and only task at hand.
Granted, I have written copy during the day but whenever I do, I do not take phone calls and the office door is closed. Nothing is rushed, everything is planned in advance because I want the biggest return on the time I have invested in my marketing.

Til next time, to your business success,

Andre'