How Do You Write An Effective Advertisement

I’m sitting here reading a marketing magazine (the creative genius behind it called it….’Marketing’. I actually love the name. Perfectly descriptive and you know exactly what it is about). Anyway…

…in the back of the magazine they have the usual classified ads. One such ad reads something like:

Top 5 reasons why this ad is effective:

  • It shows who we are
  • It tells you what we do
  • The ad contains a cute image
  • It tells you how to contact us
  • It ends with our logo

Whoever designed and paid for that ad needs a good talking to!

Your ad needs to do this:

  • Grab ATTENTION!!
  • Make an offer
  • Tell the person what to do next

(Attention, Interest, Desire, Action)

Do that and you’ll make sales. Ponce around with trendy, pretty sounding ads and you’ll waste your money.

Our Most Successful Ads

Some of the most successful ads I have ever done have been newspaper ads with the headline:

Don’t buy [ product ] until you read this!!

The ad would go on to educate the reader about the value and benefit of my clients’ product. The ad would never denigrate the competition, it would simply clearly show the differences between their product and my client’s product.

It’s a simple, old, easy and effective technique.

Speaking Of Ads…

You need to measure the success of your advertising campaigns in an effort to ensure you know what works (and do it again) and what doesn’t (stop doing that).

Forget brand awareness, forget likelihood to buy, forget any other marketing jargon except for this point.

The one and only thing you really need to measure with your advertising campaigns is:

Did your sales go up? If yes (and by more $ than the advertising cost), then it worked. No if’s or but’s.

And How Simple Media Coverage Can Be

Generating media coverage for clients can be brilliant if done right. A mention on a national TV show or in a magazine can result in, literally, millions of dollars worth of sales.

The work that goes into getting a story run on these programs/magazine can be huge, but the results are well worth it. And sometimes you just have to make a phone call!

A couple of weeks ago, we were talking with a journalist with a major weekly magazine (readership of around 1 million) about a possible story. She wasn’t interested in the pitch we were making, but before we stopped talking we suggested another story for a different client.

Result: An article has been written, photos shot and it’s all set to be published in two- (2) weeks time.

Conservatively, that could be $200,000 worth of sales for our client. All for a 20 cent phone call. Simple stuff.