There are five important rules to successful advertising.

When you advertise you MUST:

1. Decide whether you have a 1-step or multi-step sale to make.

2. If multi-step, recognize your small business marketing is simply trying to generate leads (and do nothing else that takes away space, time, attention, etc. from that task)

3. Feature your free offer up top and early – don’t hide it (Example Of Headline: EXCITING FREE DVD TAKES YOU ON A FISHING EXPEDITION ON THE WORLD’S BEST AND MOST AMAZING PONTOON FISHING BOAT – AT HOME IN YOUR RECLINER!)

4. Make the free offer as exciting and valuable as possible.

5. Give multiple ways to respond, emphasizing the one that’s best for you. (Web site, phone, maybe mail-in coupon). Whether or not to try pushing most to the web site is still open to debate: good news: gets you 100% e-mail capture for lots of zero cost follow-up. Bad news: you need a separate, different web site just for this purpose, and you delay response – vs. the phone, always handy.

Author Info:  Bill Glazer is one of the most celebrated Marketing Gurus in the world. Bill and his "Outside The Box" Advertising Strategies have often been featured in the most prestigious Marketing Magazines in the world. Bill is the author of the best selling book, "Outrageous Advertising That's Outrageously Successful: Created for the 99% of Small Business Owners Who Are Dissatisfied with the Results They Get".