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Issue 5 > Is being inner-focused hurting your business?

Is being inner-focused hurting your business?

Ben Edwards considers reader-oriented advertising.

In the course of my copywriting consulting practice I routinely review advertising copy for prospective clients using a special ten-point system that checks for the key components needed for maximum results.

One interesting benefit of using this system is that it allows me to objectively evaluate an ad from the perspective of a person reading the ad.

Unfortunately, all too often, ads are not written from the perspective of the reader—they are not outer-focused. Instead, many ads seem to be written with an inner-focus—solely for the benefit of the advertiser.

For example, I reviewed a full-page magazine ad for a bank with the headline: 'Go ahead, judge us by the company we keep.' The rest of the ad simply displayed the logos of five of the bank's customers, followed by the bank's logo and contact info at the bottom.

This is what I call an ego ad. It's 100% inner-focused. By that I mean, it's all about the bank and its other customers, with no mention of any benefit for potential new customers.

I guess the idea is that a reader is supposed to be impressed that the bank has these other customers. I guess the bank's management thinks that should be enough reason for a new company to use them.

This is a classic example of an inner-focused ad that is all about the advertiser and provides no reason at all for people to read it. There's absolutely nothing in it for the reader.

What was really eye-opening was that most of the other ads in this business magazine suffered from the same flaw: 'inner focus'.

Now, if you don't care whether or not people respond to your advertising or if you just want to boost your ego, this kind of ad is perfect.

On the other hand, if you want to get actual results from your advertising, then you absolutely must write your ads from the perspective of what's in it for the reader, instead of what's in it for you.

You may have heard of the 'aida' formula for writing ads: attention -> interest -> desire -> action. This is a good rule of thumb to use when creating your ads.

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