Continuing in the same vein as Teaching a New Dog Some Old Tricks, let's take another page from the Yellow Pages. That is, below are the 4 key elements of any sales material, Yellow Pages-style.

• Headline
• Copy
• Visual Appearance
• Call to Action

Headline

About 90 percent of any sales copy material success is attributable to your headline. I made that up because I don't know the actual figure and it's a Saturday afternoon and I'm too lazy to check.

But suffice it to say that your headline plays a critical role in your sales success. Think of it this way: How many sales would you get if you didn't have a headline? Perhaps that's the importance of the headline.

You have to grab your readers' attention. Say in just a few words exactly WHY your reader should buy from you. If you're a plumber, "Plumber" is not a good title. Perhaps

"How to Clear a Plugged Drain in Less than 10 Minutes"

Is better.

Or,

"Clogged drain? Party Starts in Less Than 1 Hour?"

might be even better.

You get the picture. Grab the reader's attention and tell them why they should call you. It's not about the service or product but what that product or service can do for them.

Copy

Just as your headline grabs your reader's attention, you sales copy should expand on the product or service benefits you have to offer. It should answer your visitor's questions and tell them more about what you have to offer them.

It doesn't have to be fancy or long-winded, either. In fact, if you just list 5 bullet points and then expand on them a bit, you're most likely way ahead of your competitors.

Visual Appearance

This mostly refers to illustrations, artwork, whitespace, and consistency of font and. It has to do with drawing your reader in to read the rest of your sales copy. If things are too cluttered, it will be hard to read and most people will click away. If you use a lot of varying colors and fonts, those elements may distract your reader from your value proposition and they may click away.

The occasional book cover graphic or logo, however, will keep your reader interested and get them to read more.

Call to Action

Your call to action is what you want to get your readers to do. If you're a service business, you may ultimately want your visitor to call you for service. If you run a retail establishment, you may want to draw your visitor into your store. If you're an internet marketer, you may want your reader to fill in a form leaving their email address and name so that you can contact them later.

Of course, if you are a publisher, your ultimate goal is to get your readers to buy direct from your order link.

Establish what your ultimate goal is for any ad at the very beginning of the process; that will drive what your call to action will be.

Then, just go do it!