It's your story. You keep it!

Hi again everyone. In this installment of how to improve your ads I’m going to talk about content control.

As always we work through reviewing any advertisement we feature as an exercise to help your presentation to your clients. I have again gone ahead and blurred out the information that has no bearing on our discussion.

Take a minute to look over this advertisement.

I want to just focus on the fill in the blank content that they have chosen to use, “Behind Every Great Home is an…” You, as a small business owner, work hard to build value in your share of the market. You have built what we all hope is a reputation as a professional in your industry. You have a mission for your company and a vision that helps guide you daily to sustain your business for the long term. Bottom line, you know your business.

Let me ask you this. Do you have confidence in your potential customers? Do you have enough confidence to leave a fill in the bank statement? An open ended statement that describes your hard work, left to customer who is unqualified and lacks the valuable bank of knowledge and experience you provide.

Let’s stop for a minute. We all hope that the answer to “Behind Every Great Home is an…” would be,” Oasis, Inviting Space, Relaxation. Etc…” Let’s consider that there are those who would spin this advertisement with negative messaging, before someone who would have used more positive messaging replies. Those negative messages take control, even for a moment, of your company message and in essence your company.

Kenton Harmer wrote an article directed at the realm of social media communication titled, Never Let Anyone Control Your Story. He wrote,” If you had readily available data that disproved the disparaging information about your company, then you could respond immediately and forcefully…” “…Without your own data that disproves the disparaging information, it is difficult to take back control of the story.”

Even though this was written with social media in mind, the idea of you controlling your story is what should resonate. In this magazine you had that one opportunity to tell your customer why this backyard is the most amazing backyard. As Kenton said, “…it is difficult to take back control of the story.” Always think ahead and try to position yourself in a way to highlight why you are the best at what you do.