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Creating a great ad is about more than content by Ron Jette |
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Even a good ad won't sell if it's not seen
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If you are receiving this newsletter, chances are that at some point, you will be involved in putting together an advertisement of some sort.
If you are in business, you may be selling products or services. If you work for a non-profit organization, you might be selling memberships or looking for a donation. Are you a government employee? Perhaps you have to write--or, at least, oversee--advertising aimed at improving Canadians' understanding of a new program or initiative.
Regular readers will know that we have written extensively about the need to tell your potential audiences about benefits: what's in it for them. While this is critical and should be at the heart of any ad, there are other things to think about.
Before we get to that, however, let's put this whole advertising thing in perspective.
When you buy advertising space in a magazine or daily or community newspaper, or you buy digital advertising (either online or elsewhere), the best you can expect is that you can choose when it runs. You likely won't be able to choose where on the page it is shown, what other ads are placed around it or what stories are run nearby.
In other words, the competition for eyeball time is fierce and your ability to stand out on the page is limited.
So, what's an advertiser to do? Well, a number of things.
- Remember that white (empty) space is your friend. Too much of anything--images, logos or text--will just help bury the ad among the other elements around it. Building white space into your ad can help make it jump off the page.
- Make sure that as well as being benefit-driven, your headline is big and bold. This is no time to be timid.
- Choose an image that adds to the story. Too often in ads, the image simply restates the headline. This is just a waste of valuable real estate.
- Offer an emotional connection to the readers. Show them how your product or subject matter makes a difference, saves them from embarrassment or makes their lives better. That is far better than simply listing what you or your product can do.
- Think of your image as the equivalent of a brick wall. You want it to stop people in their tracks. Remember, you often have less than a second to get a reader's attention. Make that second count.
- Keep the main text--that is, the "meat" of the ad--brief. Yes, it should be benefit-driven just like your headline, but it must also get to the point RIGHT NOW.
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QuikTip | |
For the past few months, we've been changing things up a bit in this space by offering thoughts from other writers.
This month, a tip from a writer whose name may ring a bell: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.
"I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English--it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice."
Mark Twain,
American author
More of our own QuikTips...
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