Get a Better Response from Print Ads

As a small business owner you face keen competition for the eyes and minds of your target audience. As much as you are convinced that your product is the most important thing in the world, remember that readers likely feel otherwise. That's your challenge, and it's by no means a small one! Here are some tips that will increase your likelihood of succeeding.

Establish the Objective

You need to understand what your objective is before putting words and images on a page.

• Are you trying to sell the total company image or to sell a specific product or service?
• Is this a new product that you are rolling out and introducing, or an established one that's known to most of your audience?
• Is it an impulse item or a capital purchase?
• Are you trying to get the reader to take a specific action (“call within the next 30 minutes and you'll get a steak knife set too!”)
• Or simply to reinforce your brand or image in the mind of the reader (“Just do it.”)?

Unless you have a specific objective based on your particular situation, you will end up with a hodge-podge. Your objective will serve as your focal point – something that you can reference at all stages of creative development.

Present One Central Proposition

Once you've established the objective, stick to it and resist the temptation to introduce other points and concepts.
Avoid cluttering up your message (or the page) with additional information that isn't germane to the objective. Your reader is continuously being bombarded with advertising messages; by diluting yours, your ad runs a bigger risk of being one of the forgotten.
Consider the lost opportunity created when your headline does its job of getting a reader's attention, but the text is only casually devoted to the topic called out in the headline.
The reader that you had pulled in with your headline has now been hit with a bunch of unrelated messages -- a history of the company, a picture of the manufacturing plant, a discussion of other products in the line -- a print ad version of bait and switch.

The reader will inevitably turn the page.

Support the Basic Proposition with All Elements of the Ad

Since the ad must support a central proposition, then all elements within the ad must support that proposition.
For example, how many times have you come across ads where the goal of the ad is to help introduce a new widget, but the illustration is of a kid playing baseball, a puppy, or a woman on the beach — visuals which have absolutely nothing to do with the new widget.

While the illustration might have been a means of getting the attention of the reader – an obviously necessary function – this particular approach usually is viewed as nothing more than a cheap gimmick.
Go back to the premise that you only have a couple of seconds to reel in your reader. You'll be more successful if all of the images and words you present are consistently touting and presenting the same basic idea.

Sell the Merits of the Product or Service

• Why on earth should I waste my time reading your ad?
• What's in it for me?
• What will this product do for me and/or how will it improve my life?

These are the questions that readers are subconsciously asking themselves as they see your ad. So, let's say that you've put out a compelling headline (“Cut Your Production Time by 20%”) and have a visual that supports the headline (a new piece of machinery, for example).
Now you need to answer the reader's questions. Support the headline and visuals with text that reinforce the message — figures, statistics, and comparisons.
Document your claims where possible to build credibility with your readers, and speak in terms that readers will understand.

Emphasize Benefits, not Facts

In most cases, facts are of little interest to readers – moreover, they are of less use to them. Statements such as “Family owned,” and “Serving customers for 50 years,” are simply facts that are focused more on the seller than the buyer. The statements are often self-serving and a turn-off to potential customers. After all, how often does a customer benefit because your company is “family owned”?
Instead of simply offering facts, use your ad to offer a dynamic explanation of what your product can do for the reader.

Design the Overall Ad for Easy Reading

Be sure to use simple and specific language.

Try to solve your reader's problem or offer helpful ideas. Call your readers to action – and give them the essential information needed to act. By aligning your call to action with the ad's objective (Call now to discuss your application/ Check-out out Web site for a free trial), you can help facilitate your ad's success.

There are at least a couple of factors that often contribute to “unreadable” ads. The first is the desire to get the most for your money. This results in a creative that, visually speaking, looks more like an article than a well-crafted ad. The phrase “less is more” should usually be heeded.

There are numerous techniques that may “look” great, but which typically detract from a readers' ability to read and understand the intended message. For example, dark backgrounds, small headlines, difficult-to-read fonts, numerous unrelated photos/images.

Repeat a Successful Ad -- Drop an Unsuccessful Ad

Stay with a winner.

A well-designed ad will not wear out as fast as many advertisers think it will. We have research showing that readers' interest ratings for an ad can remain consistently high for up to 7 insertions.
But seven is no magic number; continue to run the ad until the reader tires of the message, not until you do. Although it's tempting to confuse your boredom with the ad, with the boredom of your readers, resist.

Repetition reinforces the message that achieves your objectives, and frequency reinforces basic selling propositions. Although, repetition is not a contributor to the ad's overall effectiveness, it can contribute to long-term campaign success.
Alternately, an ineffective ad will not improve with repetition; if it's not working for you, get rid of it — regardless of it's artistic beauty or how much time and effort was put into it.

Don't Blame Ad Placement for Poor Performance

Our data consistently shows that a “good” ad is determined by what is on the page.
While this seems to be overstating the obvious, there are still myths that placement the most important element of on ad's performance.
By focusing entirely on ad position, we lose sight of the importance of ad design. It is what is on the page that will prompt a reader to read an ad once it has been seen.

In Conclusion

Obviously, all of the rules listed can be broken, and each has exceptions.
There is little doubt that the best way to create an effective ad is to present one key idea in a manner which is easy to read and understand, that speaks to the needs and interests of your target audience and is supported by the headline, illustration, and text.

Gene Munro