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Wednesday, April 12, 2000
Ads That Pull!
by David R Young
Ads need to be attractive to command the attention of a publication's readers. If you don't attract the readers' attention, your ad is worthless. You've lost your sales opportunity before it began.
There's more to an ad than having a catchy headline, although the headline is a key element to an attractive ad. And the offer, usually highlighted as the most important part of the ad, may not be enough to capture your customers' attention. So how do you create ads that pull?
Start by analyzing what everyone else is doing. Flip through your favorite magazines and tabloids one page at a time. Turn the page quickly. As you turn the page, your eye will immediately be drawn to one of the ads some where on the page. Which one catches your eye first? Why? What makes that ad stick out while the others form a sea of gray around it?
There's something distinct about that ad. See if you can isolate the difference. However that ad catches your eye may be how your ads can capture your buyers' eyes. Review the ad more closely:
Is the unique element the ad's size? Is it noticeably larger or smaller than the other ads on the page?
Is it the shape? I used to design my ads with what appeared to be a cut-off corner because none of the other ads did that. You might make your ad look like it has torn edges rather than the standard neatly squared border.
Is it white space? Does the eye catcher ad have a lot of white space or is it entirely filled with type? Many ads are so crammed with small print that they become just gray blobs. Turn to another page. Which ad catches your eye on that page?
Has the advertiser used a tint or shaded area? Has color been used? Why? Does the color highlight something that interests you? Do symbols like stars or bullets attract your attention?
How about pictures? Do they catch your eye? What kinds of pictures? Halftones? Cartoons? People? Products? Does the picture draw you into the ad so that you read more of it? Does the picture relate to the ad's content or is it unrelated?
Check several more pages. Are you finding that most of the ads are dull and don't catch your eye? Are you finding some qualities that are consistent eye-catchers? The next step is to put together a list of things that reached right out from the pages and grabbed you. Put these features in your ads.
This kind of analysis works best for 1" or larger space ads and, though you might not think so, it is also effective with classified ads.
You can easily boost visibility within a sea of advertising in ways that don't increase your advertising costs.
David Young, Communications Services
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