Award Winning Print Ads
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 | Places
A common question small to medium sized business owners ask is “just how do i design the best print ads for my own small business?” Well, here is the answer. The following are a small number of of the best processes you can employ for designing your own print ads.
Remove uncertainty - One thing we observe continually are two totally distinctive ads, alongside each other, and they both announce, “fastest service”. What?! Hang on a sec. One of these businesses has to be lying. Just how can both these places have the fastest service? This can seem obvious, however folks hate being lied to. If you really do have the fastest service, back it up. Pronounce something like, “Awarded Fastest Service 3 years in a row by the Automobiles Association”. This is a declaration you’ll be able to take to the bank. If you don’t have any kind of industry accolades, focus on what makes you stand out, and pronounce it as honestly as humanly possible. Consumers are hunting for any reason to call the whole thing off. Never give it to them.
When promoting your products use the right appeal. This is generally the strongest motivation as to why your customers select your services. The true secret convenience they get from making use of your products or services. The incorrect type of marketing appeal can reduce gross sales. It has been tested that one promotion can out-perform another by as much as twenty times. Whilst they both seem alike, cost an identical amount and advertise precisely the same product. The difference is in the appeal used to market the product within the advert (generally contained in the headline). The most efficient way to uncover the right appeal would be to ask your best staff members just what approaches they employ to push your products. Or simply, ask your best customers the reason they prefer to purchase from you.
The best print ads always have a clearly identified objective. Is it to get people to; try you out, buy from you, contact you, make an appointment? Whatever it is, jot it down and don’t forget . . . only ever “sell” one idea at any given time. If all you want is to get an appointment or to have the person to come in, then don’t try to sell the particular service or product while doing so. It’ll merely confuse the potential buyer.
If you want to acquire fresh prospects, by far the best (and cheapest) technique is to offer a free trial of your product. What I’m saying is, take the revenue you’d probably have used on expensive advertising and give it to your best potential customers (the players) by means of a test or trial run of the product or service. Thus a restaurant can offer a Free Main Course or an open $5, $10 or even $20 voucher. A clothes store can offer a free shirt. A new vehicle retailer can offer a complimentary dinner with any test drive. Another way to get new customers is to create an information Product such as a “FREE Report” which you can easily promote or even giveaway. Develop something that positions you as the expert and educates the customer about precisely why they ought to purchase from you. (Warning: Target your free sampling solely at the players) You can effortlessly test this rule if you keep an eye on the results from your various marketing methods.
Don’t Let The Publisher Write Your Ad! One of the biggest mistakes I hear on a regular basis from the business owners I speak too is “Oh, the paper does the ad for me”. This makes me cringe - i’ll just tell you the reason why! Firstly, do not believe that simply because an advertising executive creates a lot of advertisements, that they care about what they are doing! All they typically care about is selling ad’ space - simply because that’s what they’re paid for. Once they have sold you, they will probably suggest a nice photo of something, along with a Huge brand or business logo, and then maybe they’ll toss in some bullet points about what you do. This isn’t a good advertisement. Trust me!
Why is it that they do this? Could it be because this type of advertising can make YOU more money? No. It’s actually because this is the swiftest and simplest way for them to process you, and it also makes the newspaper or publication look vibrant and colourful. Keep in mind, the only result an ad executive gets their pay cheque for - is providing ad space. If newspapers only got paid out a commission from the ads’ outcome (i.e. money in your bank), only in that case might a bit more effort be put on the copy-writing. Please don’t become a fool. If you are hearing the reason of “Just keep placing the advert in, and sooner or later the results will come”, then seriously think about your bank balance – and Google ‘Einstein definition insanity’ to really get my gist. So, what should you do? Compose THE Advert YOURSELF! Or get someone that knows about your company and how to write a good advert to do it on your behalf. Never lose sight of what the objective of any advert is; to generate interest and phone calls that will result in Revenue, and make you Money! If your adverts don’t make back at least seven times what you pay for them, it’s time for you to have a shot at something different.
Never ever run any ad without monitoring the response. To put it differently, if it doesn’t sell your products drop it. Quickly!! 99% of ad companies, newspaper and radio sales reps loathe the thought of monitoring. Their recommendation is “Repetition will be the key to achieving success!!” The only problem is, they are speaking about . . . Their own success - Not yours Due to the fact they get paid as a result of the quantity of advertisements you place, it’s not always in their best interest to teach you exactly how to halve how much advertising you do and double the results. And that is precisely what is achievable. When you finally discover an ad, sales pitch or advertising approach that works well - keep doing it. Bear in mind, the market place is consistently changing. You may get sick and tired with seeing exactly the same old ads but your new and existing customers will not. Don’t forget at the very least 100,000 new people are born annually in Australia and 100,000 (or so) pass on. If it’s working don’t change it!! If your advert sold infant garments to completely new mums this season, it’ll probably get the job done equally efficiently with new mothers next year!!
Never try to be creative or original. Attractive advertisements don’t sell products. The most appealing (to look at) and imaginative advertisements seldom make people purchase the products they are meant to be offering. The ads that get honours for the marketing and advertising firms who produce them almost never win gross sales awards for the customers!! During a study of ads that received a “Clio” prize. (The marketing and advertising industries finest acknowledgement) it was noticed that the firms that received four of the Clios lost the clientele business . . . A further customer declined to actually run his ad and . . . of 80 Television classics selected by Clio, 36 of the businesses involved had either sacked the agency or had gone broke. Not a real great track record, is it? The truth is, the owner of one of the biggest direct response advertising and marketing companies once told a customer . . . “Do you like creativity and originality? Or do you need to see the darned product sales graph rising?? Because you sure as heck ain’t going to get them both!” I suppose the point I’m making, is don’t be creative for the sake of being imaginative. Seeking out for a new angle for a tested sales strategy is fine, but only as long as it works as good as the prior one. Make your sales and profits graph be the judge.
Branding…The Current Buzz Phrase - What is branding? Many times the company owners I consult worry way too much concerning the overall look of their business logo, road signs and whatever else will “look good”. This a critical miscalculation due to the fact your branding Is not a graphic or logo. Before you brand yourself you should develop a strong reputation or name. You have to keep in mind branding is an advanced advertising and marketing practice and shouldn’t be mistaken for sales generated marketing. There’s no validated direct relationship between brand recognition and enhanced revenue! If you are spending your hard-earned profits into branding looking to enhance your sales and profits, you’re tossing your money down the toilet. There are several things that sell, but branding is not one of these. Nike, Mercedes and Coca-Cola concentrate heavily on branding, but these firms recognize that this will not directly raise their sales and profits; it is done for other reasons. Focus first of all on supplying the best possible product and service and duplicate this technique so it becomes consistent as part of your business…it truly is that easy!
Warning: Do not Check with Friends & Co-workers For Suggestions! We see proof of this typical marketing sin almost daily. Here’s the key reason why this can be a terrible idea. The folks who you will be showing the ad usually are not your target market. One more time, these people who you are asking for his or her view; Typically are not YOUR TARGET MARKET!
About the author: Neville Pettersson is the author of the Best Print Ads writing guide. This particular ebook is the only advertising and marketing guide which comes with a money-back guarantee. You heard that right, virtually no one else has a product or service they are going to support with their own money. This informative guide sets out the compete step-by-step system to create and structure your own print ads that are guaranteed to get a 400% greater response rate.