What’s the reason to choose you? Make it clear to shoppers why they should choose you. Give them a strong reason. Offer an advantage. Spend most of your creative ad development on this. It’s the most important part of your ad. Present this information in your headline and follow it up quickly with a few bullet-point reasons for your prospects to call or visit you.

Make your ad look different. Make your ad stand out head and shoulders above the rest of the ads on the page. This shouldn’t be too difficult since 95% of all print ads follow the standard approach. Any departure from this traditional format is a step in the right direction.

Don’t just look different, demonstrate your difference. How? By giving some information that is valuable at the time to the reader.

Remember, the reader is in a buying frame of mind. They are looking for solutions. And you can distinguish yourself by doing more that having an ad. Offer a solution to their problem, or more likely, offer a step in the direction of their solution. For example, a safety supply house could offer a few safety tips; a mailing list broker could offer tips on how to test a list. This makes you unique because nobody else is doing this. This strategy gives you a decided advantage over your competition.

In the next section, you’ll see a detailed example of how easily this can be done and how it makes your ad not only look different, but says a great deal about how you value and treat customers.

Create a distinctive look and feel to your ads. Sound-alike ads have a neutralizing effect on each other. Most ads in a given category basically say the same thing. They communicate the same message.

One reason is that with a deadline fast approaching, the busy entrepreneur looks at the other ads in his specialty and creates his own based on what appears to be working for others. Big mistake.

Avoid clichés. Stop using the same old tired, worn out clichés to describe your product or service. Phrases like “quality workmanship,” “fast, reliable service,” or “friendly staff ” are too generic to be effective in attracting new customers. Instead, try to create something original, something that half a dozen other companies in the same category aren’t also claiming to offer.

Power of size. Whatever space you can afford, put as much selling power in it as is absolutely possible. Many people equate advertising clout with success. For some, the bigger the ad, the more established… more impressive… more likely to meet the need, a company appears.

This may be unfair, but it’s also a reality. If you can’t compete on size, compete on impact, power and on motivating action.

Appeal to their wants. Use your most valuable space to attract interest by appealing to the “wants” of your customers. The most common mistake and the biggest waste of prime advertising space is the use of a company name and/or logo at the top of the ad as a header.

To do this is to give up your most valuable space for something that is virtually meaning-less to your customers and prospects. Choosing a display type ad frees you of the obligatory company name-heading format that other listings may require. Does your prospect really care what you’ve named your company? I highly doubt it. What your prospect does care about is whether you have what he needs NOW. Can you provide the solution to his pressing problem?

Give information. Give your prospects the information they need at the “moment of truth” when they’re ready to make a purchasing decision.

Most Yellow Pages readers are ready to buy NOW. They only reach for the Yellow Pages and refer to a specific category when they are serious about finding a solution to a problem. They want to know who can best help them. Therefore, it stands to reason that your message should be based on solutions, advantages and customer benefits. Focus your message on what you do and how you benefit customers, rather than on who you are.

Create an original look. Design an ad that clearly and succinctly communicates your unique advantages and gives prospects a reason to call you. Your advertisement should answer a vital question: “What’s special about your company and why should people call you?”

Take the time and make the effort to create an ad that works hard for you the whole year long. Focus on creating a distinctive, benefit-oriented ad.

Decide on the size of your ad before you begin the design. Then, create your ad to that exact size. Use whatever zoom function your software program features to make your ad the full size of your screen. This will help you make the smallest of adjustments quite easily and will prevent mistakes that are routinely overlooked at a scaled-down size.

Check other city directories and advertising media. Study ads from other cities and other publications. You can find them at your local library or online. Look up your own specific category and observe how others have approached the same marketing challenges you’re facing. Also, browse through categories that are completely unrelated to your field. Keep your eyes open for ideas, concepts, strategies, or tactics that may be transferable to your industry.