As a financial services marketer, you should know auto sales have been steadily climbing over the past year. Buyers are back in the market after a tight-fisted attitude toward spending money early in the recession.

As a financial services marketer, you should encourage your bank or credit union to actively pursue loans for this hot consumer product. After all, your competition is probably already advertising.

It’s true here. Each day, June 4 through 8, I found auto loan ads in the local newspaper. Should see more this weekend. While you expect June to be a big auto-buying month because schools are out and it’s vacation and travel time, I don’t remember seeing the same splash of loan ads the past couple of years.

The easy way to advertise, of course, is with an interest rate. Two of the ads I clipped from the paper lead with rates. However, rates allow consumers to window shop without comparing other important features and benefits of the financial institution.

Follow the advice both my blogging colleague Steve Topper and I have repeated a number of times for a variety of products.

• Use a meaningful headline
• Write copy that speaks to the car buyer
• Focus on the advantages you offer
• Present benefits, not features
• Show all the ways they can contact you for a loan
• Hold disclaimer footnotes to a minimum
• Include a call to action

Remember, you don’t have space in your ad to be cute and funny. You also have only seconds to attract the scanning eye of your prospects, so don’t waste your chance with obscure headlines and puns.

Use photos that complement the copy and help illustrate your message.

Don’t forget, print ads are not your only choice. Targeted direct mail marketing is an even better way to capture auto loans. Here’s information about a program that successfully recruits high-quality auto loan prospects.