The other day someone told me that they didn’t put what I considered pertinent information in an ad because they ‘didn’t want to tell them everything… otherwise there’s no reason to call.”

While it’s true that you do want to keep some information back as ‘bait’ to entice people to call, simply leaving out pertinent information is not the way to do it.

By leaving out pertinent information, you actually REMOVE reasons for your prospect to call.  Let’s take a typical example:

You’re selling your home and it has a number of nice upgrades and special finishes such as heated floors and hardwood imported from Brazil.  Now by leaving out these details and simply describing the house as being finished ‘luxuriously’ leaves a lot to the imagination – but not enough for the reader to actually form a picture in their mind – or develop a desire to see and experience that luxury.

On the other hand, by describing the hardwood, for instance, as beautiful, warm toned Brazilian hardwood from ethically managed plantations custom imported and laid using a special technique that helps make the rooms look and feel larger – now that would get the reader thinking.

As soon as they begin thinking, they begin imagining what this must look like.  They begin wondering what this special technique is, and how much would this have cost?  The value is immediately perceived as higher than the run of the mill hardwood floor.

By painting a picture through providing more information as opposed to less, you give your prospect more to think about – and more reasons to call. By withholding information, you don’t create more curiosity – you simply don’t give them enough to become curious in the first place.

Think about your promotional writing as if it were an episode in a thriller... you set the stage, you build the plot, you raise the tension – and as the hero is about to…. you stop.  Not many people would not want to know what happens next.  So they wait in anticipation for the next episode to find out.

In the case of your promotion, they don’t have to wait, all they have to do is call.

So give them something to call about.