5 Ways Watching Commercials Can Help Your Blogging
Have you ever heard someone say that they watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials? These ads are notorious for being some of the best commercials of the year. But think about the power of a statement like that. People are saying that they WANT to watch a shameless promotion of a product or service.
This debunks the myth that you can’t try to sell something and still get some social buzz. You just have to know how to do it right. A good blogger will borrow some insight from an average commercial so that readers will also be dying to see that latest post, even if it has a little promotion in it. Here are 5 basic things that you should be able to learn from a good TV commercial.
1. You can learn how to target a certain demographic.
One of my favorite things to do when watching TV is to see what kind of commercials are sponsoring different shows. One show might have a lot of health and diet commercials while another will have more car insurance ads. This is not an accident.
Companies try to figure out what demographic will be watching that game or that sitcom, and they cater their ads to that audience. Bloggers need to do the same thing and really think about what their particular audience likes to read. This doesn’t mean that you can only talk about one narrow topic. You can branch out into other areas as long as you know your readers are inclined to want to read that sort of material as well. The lesson? Know your audience.
2. You can learn how to grab your reader’s attention.
An effective commercial will not let you change the channel. It will have a catchy headline, or dramatic music, or an unusual visual effect. If all they did was go right into the sales pitch and say, “Hey, buy our product! It’s the best decision you will ever make” it will just turn people off.
Advertisers know that they have to first get your attention if they expect you to stick around long enough to even get to the sales pitch. You need more than just a snappy title and headline to keep a visitor on your page, though. Make sure the entire first paragraph summarizes what the reader will learn and put some interesting “hooks” in there as well to make them WANT to keep reading.
3. You will learn how to make your posts memorable.
The most effective commercials of all time are the ones you still remember years later. Whether it made you laugh, cry, or think, it evoked an emotion out of you. Blog posts that don’t prompt an emotional reaction are probably not going to be remembered very well either, so cater to the senses of your readers.
Do something different instead of following everyone else in your niche. Your blog will stand out much better when you are the fish that is swimming up-stream. It may take a little more work, but at least you will be writing posts and making videos that people will remember long after they have seen them.
4. You will learn how to entertain your audience.
The only reason we really watch commercials is because they entertain us. I don’t think many people actually want to be educated by a sponsored message. They just want it to make them laugh. You can say the same message in millions of different ways. It’s up to you to find the way that is the most entertaining. Even if someone just wants to read something informational it makes it a lot easier when it’s a joy to read.
5. You will learn how to not over promote yourself.
I have a read a lot of blog posts that were almost torture to read because the entire articles were full of self-promotional malarkey. And you know what? I’ve never been back. Companies know they can’t get away with this, and when you spend millions of dollars on market research you don’t want to waste it on a non-effective 30 second TV spot. Just focus on promoting information that is fun, helpful, and insightful instead of promoting yourself and your own products. It may be tempting to try to sell something in every post and strike it rich, but you will be better off making your blog rich with mind-blowing content.
Every time we turn on the TV there is something for us to learn about blogging and about Internet marketing in general. Those commercial ads are telling you something. They are teaching you how to communicate to a specific audience and how to convince them to buy a product or service. And even if your blog is not selling anything, you need to implement a few practices that you can borrow from the marketing world of television.
John Phillips is a writer for an identity theft prevention website that helps inform people about shopping safely online. You can find helpful advice on ID theft at www.SafeIdentityProtection.com.
Watching advertisements / commercials really helps,. It gives ideas to write new articles and a lot more!
Very informative post! I do believe that visual presentations is really effective in conveying your ideas to your customers. Watching videos is more fun than reading articles right?! I so love the topic your discussing here, I myself look for videos selling products and buy it to myself. Its really convincing!