There are many ways to advertise your products and services to customers.
You can show them lots of facts and figures about your wares. But often that leads to your reader’s eyes glazing over and losing interest.
You can offer them testimonials and product reviews, which gives you credibility. But again, if that’s all you show, your reader might feel like you’re pulling the wool over their eyes, and again lose interest.
You can add humor, like the current Gerber Insurance commercials that say fun things like “If you’re not alive, you might not be interested in this!”. That actually keeps the reader more engaged and is a great angle.
You can use a story about how someone actually uses your product or service. That is one of the better techniques. It keeps the reader wanting to know how the story turns out, and how your offering helped that person.
Actually, the most effective copy is that which uses all of the above techniques. Tell a story about how your product or service helped someone out of a difficult situation. Add some humor as no one likes to read a dry narrative. Add facts, testimonials, and reviews to give your pitch credibility.
Here’s a story from an advertisement for a horse trainer who uses a technique called “desensitization” to help the owner and her horses build mutual trust. Anyone who owns horses knows that they can be very reactive (and self-destructive) if they aren’t trained to think before acting.
With proper teaching to use the thinking side of their brain rather than their reactive side, Cisco and Dusty (and your horses too) won’t panic when they find themselves in a bad situation. But one must be prepared, because as prey animals they are wired to protect themselves against anything that could potentially be a predator. Having your horse turn to you and/or think about things rather than blindly panicking is always a good thing.
For instance, yesterday morning I heard a metallic bang when I came out of the house. This was at 4:15 AM, so there shouldn’t have been anything really running around that could make that big a bang. I wondered what was going on but went on to check both chicken and duck coops first. Again, I heard the bang. Hmmm, I thought, that’s kind of close, maybe across the street? Maybe someone got in an accident as we live right by the road. I went into the barn and out the front to check. No cars, no accidents. Dusty was with his brother but started coming in when he saw me (food! yay!). But Cisco wasn’t moving. I called him, he looked, but didn’t move. Then I saw it – his foot was caught in the chain that held the gate between the two paddocks open. Stay calm, I said to myself.
I walked over to the gate (Dusty was long gone waiting for food, sheesh!), quietly saying “whoa”, “it’s OK” and “are you caught? I’m coming to help”. He stood perfectly still. Well, yes, every once in a while, he’d move his foot and bang the chain which banged the gate (the noise I heard!), but he wasn’t anywhere near panicking. When I got there, I saw that if he lifted his foot maybe just an inch higher, he could have cleared the chain. It was loose because of all the snow we had, the gate wasn’t all the way open because of the snow, but since some had melted, the gate could actually now be opened wider, which gave the chain some give. But he couldn’t raise it higher. Luckily, I was able to pull the gate a little more open, releasing the pressure so I could unhook the chain.
As the chain dropped, I figured he would drop his foot, but he held it up! I took his foot, said it was OK, and dropped it for him. He flexed it a couple of times, backed up, and went to the barn. I rehooked the chain tighter (but my husband and I are going to re-evaluate and see if there is a better way, he’s been caught before), went back in the barn and checked his leg – no injury, no blood, no cuts, no soreness. He walked back to the barn without any favoring. Cisco is one who loves to lick me, and lick me he did, as if to say, “thank you”. He’s such a sweet boy.
Had he panicked, this could have turned really ugly. Torn up skin, blood, tendon and muscle injury, or worst case a broken leg. I don’t know how long he was stuck there, but Dusty stood by him (until he saw his source of food – me – then all bets were off). And even after Dusty left, he knew I was coming to help him, and that everything would be OK, so he waited quietly.
So please, work with your horses. Find a trainer who can teach you how to desensitize them to ropes twirling around their legs and necks. Pick up their legs with ropes. Toss chains around and through their legs. Let them know that ropes and chains are not snakes and will not hurt them if they just stop and wait for help. The help will come eventually, they just need to learn patience and to stand quietly (or bang and let us know). We will help them once we are alerted to the situation, and they’ll be OK.
Of course, the ad continues with the trainer’s information, testimonials, and benefits to the potential customer. But what an intriguing way to get that customer’s attention and bring them right into the owner’s world and on to the trainer’s website. Think about this approach for your next campaign!
Do you need a story teller? Farm and Pet Copywriter can fill the bill – use this contact form to get in touch and start your campaign!