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Advertising:
How To Design
an
Effective Print Ad |
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Secrets of Advertising - Part
2
by Ron Manera, Editor
Advertisers normally come in two
flavors - those who create ads "in-house" or those
who hire an ad house. For those companies who have
chosen the "in-house" route, the resources run from
a first time effort in a Word document to a full
graphics department — and everything in between.
This article can help those who create their own ads
and also give those who hire an artist the ability
to evaluate ads created for them.
Five key rules to remember:
1) Grab the eye
with a powerful graphic
2) Deliver a
strong, focused message
3) Don’t
confuse with clutter
4) Tell them
how to respond
5) Reinforce
your brand
Rule 1)
Why the powerful graphic? Did you read a paper this
morning? Chances are you scanned dozens of ads. How
many did you read? Did you view your news on the
Internet? You were bombarded by ads. As you drove to
work this morning, you may have viewed dozens of
bill boards and perhaps a couple of ads on the side
of a bus. In a word, "competition." Your ad is
competing with thousands of ads seen by your
prospect in the course of a day. The vast majority
of them are ignored. The first job of ad design: GET
THEIR ATTENTION! If you don’t get their attention
first, it really doesn’t matter what else you do
right on the ad, does it?
Rule 2)
The tendency of an inexperienced ad creator is to
attempt to include every possible positive thing
about their company in the ad. They want to get
their money’s worth! They want to list, in detail,
every feature, every function, every service they
deliver now or may in the future. It’s a big
mistake. If you’ve followed rule #1, you got their
eye. Now you have less than a second to tell them
something interesting and compelling - or they are
gone! Weak, diffused, extensive copy may include
more data on your company than your annual corporate
report - but if harried, over-exposed viewers don’t
bother to read it, who cares? Boil your message down
to a single, focused, emotive message and make it
central to your ad.
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Ron
Manera, Editor |
Every study shows that people
make buying decisions for emotional - not
intellectual reasons. Give them that opportunity in
your message, which should communicate that smart,
happy, successful, profitable people have already
made the wise decision to do business with your
company. Buyers want to feel good with their
choice. Help them along!
Rule 3)
In competitive photography, there is a rule of
thumb: "Crop till it merits." In other words, crop
the image until only the essential heart of the
image remains. Subtract anything that doesn’t add to
the theme and impact of the image. The 3rd Rule of
Advertising applies much the same logic. Get rid of
distractions. Cut your message and your data to only
what is needed to back-up your strong, focused
message. Remember: If it doesn’t add - it subtracts!
Won’t there be a lot of unused
space in the ad? Isn’t that a waste of a valuable
asset? It’s called "white space," and it’s vitally
important that your ad maintain this space if you
want people to read your copy. White space increases
readability.
Some advertisers seem to think
the viewer is tied up, head propped to face the ad,
eyelids held open with toothpicks! The truth is, you
cannot force anyone to read your copy - and long
text strings are generally ignored.
Consider: Do you really need a
fax number in your advertisement? When was the last
time you received a fax from someone wishing to buy
what you have to sell? Does a prospect really care
that you’ve been doing business since 1943? Lose the
clutter and watch the effectiveness of your ad
increase.
Rule 4)
You’ve grabbed the eye, you‘ve offered a compelling,
emotive reason to do business and you haven’t lost
them in the clutter. Now you must tell them what to
do. A phone number, email address or a website
serves well as this function. You don’t need a lot
of dialogue, unless you want them to speak to a
specific person or perform some more complex
function. Thanks to the Internet and EZine
functionality such as The Insider, you can
actually incorporate several different links in your
ad allowing viewers to click on your contact page,
your home page and a demo if you wish.
Rule 5) Always reinforce
your brand. Getting your company’s name and image
into the marketplace and the mind of your prospects
is money in the bank. It may actually be the most
important element in your entire ad. For a fuller
discussion on the importance of name recognition
advertising, see last month’s article:
The
Secrets of Advertising Part 1 - What National
Advertisers Know That You Don't. |
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