Effective copywriting is one piece of the puzzle. But you also need some basic business essentials.

Sure, great ad copy is a crucial component to marketing success, but it's not the be-all-and-end-all some people seem to think. It's this kind of "cure-all" approach that sometimes gives advertising a bad name as the truth gets exaggerated in an attempt to sell inferior products.

Here are 5 essential prerequisites -- basic business essentials -- you need to maximize your results:

Business Essentials -- Ingredient #1: A Customer-Oriented Focus.

It demands that you take a look at the big picture and think long-term. Invariably, this means that you avoid the get-rich-quick mentality at all costs.

Your purpose in business is to not just make the sale, but to forge a relationship. Be significant, helpful, caring, advantageous, and unique to your customer and you'll be handsomely rewarded in return. It's the law of cause and effect in action.

Build a reputation for continually delighting customers and they'll come back and buy from you again and again. Not only that, but they'll tell others too. These are the most profitable sales you'll ever make. If you need to find new customers each time out, you're rowing upstream and forever spending money in search of sales. The get-rich-quick artists aren't interested in relationship building, they simply want to extract cash from anyone they can, as quickly as they can, and they flee the scene to avoid any fallout. It's hardly a strategy for long-term growth and profitability.

Business Essentials -- Ingredient #2: A Quality Product.

Don't even think about creating advertising copy if you don't first have a quality product to take to market. It doesn't have to be the absolute finest quality widget ever engineered, but it must offer some advantage to the marketplace. It helps if your product is an exclusive - something not easily obtained elsewhere.

If you're not thrilled about what you're selling, this lack of enthusiasm will come through in your copy. If you're not absolutely convinced that what you have to sell offers quality, unique advantages and solid value to the buyer, don't even try to convince others. To do so means you're pushing a product upon your audience, rather than pulling them towards it.

Business Essentials -- Ingredient #3: An Irresistible Offer.

Your product alone should never represent your entire offer. If you want to sell by words alone, you need an offer that is so attractive, no sensible person could pass it by. Prepare an overall package that is worth far more than your product alone.

This is easy to do. Simply think in terms of appealing premiums, bonuses, coupons, consulting packages, gifts, accessories, etc. and you can create an offer that is 100% exclusive - no matter what you're selling.

Business Essentials -- Ingredient #4: A Hungry Market.

Identifying a target market is a definite requirement. Ideally, your product and your offer should be shaped and molded to suit the specific desires of your tightly defined niche market. Spot a hungry market with unfilled or poorly filled "wants" and offer the ultimate solution. That's how you stack the deck in your favor.

Business Essentials -- Ingredient #5: The Resources To Market Effectively.

It doesn't matter how outstanding your product, offer and copy is... if you don't have the capability of reaching your audience in a big way. In direct mail, there are postage, production and list rental costs involved. With web marketing, it's ezine advertising, search engine optimization, and pay per click (PPC) ads.

If you don't factor these expenses in at the start and plan for them, you're creative copywriting and product development efforts could be hampered right off the bat.

It takes adequate capitalization to run any business and there are costs involved if you want to maximize your marketing. Proper planning helps transform an unexpected expense into successful investment that propels your business forward. Launching any enterprise without these basic business essentials is futile.

When you have these 5 business essentials in place, your copy is not only easier to write, it's far more convincing. And copy that's far more convincing, converts a lot more prospects into customers.

More resources at www.makeyoursalessoar.com

Robert Boduch is an author of dozens of best-selling books, reports and articles on the art and science of selling. A free newsletter targeted at anyone interested in selling more of anything is available at www.makeyoursalessoar.com