Local Search | Jennifer Lind

I read a post from Seth Godin a couple days ago about writing ad copy. He says that you need to write creative as if you were writing a classified ad. You have 30-50 characters to say what you need to say and draw people in. Once you start with a short phrase, you can carefully insert more words to get to the desired length you want. Godin says to “Gently and carefully add words until it’s as effective as possible, but as short as possible.”

With internet yellow pages or other online advertising placements, it seems that most times once a marketer decides to place an ad online, they throw the basics up – logo, business name, phone number, website – but no one pays any attention to creating the copy. On Superpages and Citysearch, you have 70 characters to state a promotional message and a reason for a customer to visit your site or give you a call. Here are some great examples of advertisers who have taken advantage of those 70 characters:

High Speed Internet Telephone-VOIP-No Contract. USA Cust Support.

Look Great, Feel Great. 25% off. Restylane, Sculptra. Free Consult.

The creative in these ads can stand alone. I didn’t include the title on purpose because you know from the creative what they do. They also make you a promise if you act.

Another thing to consider when writing creative is to tailor it to the channel you are placing advertising on, and by keyword or category. For example, if you are a maid service but you offer window cleaning and you also will wash the dinner dishes, you should have different creative for each. Someone who is looking for a dish washer after a big party is going to expect a different promise from you compared to someone who needs their windows washed.

As internet yellow page sites are expanding to mobile, tv, and other channels, I hope they will eventually consider allowing various types of creative for each outlet. Obviously someone who is driving in their car looking for a place to grab lunch has different needs than someone sitting on the couch ordering pizza.

To summarize: keep it short, make a promise, and tailor to your audience!