Print advertising continues to be an important marketing tool in the hands of those who know how to use it. If print advertising were not as important today as it was ten or more years ago, we would not be seeing so much of it on a daily basis. However, as many newspapers, journals and other publications have gone online and sometimes scrapped their paper versions altogether, the competition for spaces is sometimes quite big, and grasping people’s attention is many times more difficult today than ever before.
All of this, of course, means that you need to be much more effective in your print advertising—in other words, don’t beat around the bush and get right to the point. But how can that be achieved? Based on our experience here at iti Direct Mail, there are seven steps you should keep in mind when creating your ad.
Step one: photos come first
In today’s world of extremely high visuality, it is difficult to get people to read long segments of text. Moreover, it has been shown in a number of studies that the visual material often attracts the readers so much that they may remain oblivious to the text above it – thus one piece of advice we can provide is to be careful with the way you choose and position the image in the advertisement.
Step two: make it easy to read
Ensure that there is a natural flow to your print advertising—and that nothing prevents your readers from going all the way from the beginning to the end. Unnecessarily complex grammar structures and divider graphic elements are just some of the things to avoid.
Step three: do not be over-zealous
Yes, the purpose of the ad is to encourage people to buy your product or service, but do not be too direct about it. For one thing, don’t start with your company name – that’s not what is important to start with. Get the reader interested first.
Step four: create lots of white space
This advice is pretty straightforward and goes hand in hand with Step Two. You want people to have no difficulty reading your ad.
Step five: create even more white space
When you think you’ve left enough white space, add some more instead of adding a few more words. Be concise and to the point – do not give all the answers in the ad.
Step six: don’t forget about contact information
After the ‘wow’ factor sentence, all that needs to be in the ad is information on how prospective clients can reach you. Be diverse – give your phone number, email, website and physical address. If you are advertising something hi-tech, consider a Twitter handle as well.
Step seven: get the ad proofed
This may sound obvious, but simply re-reading what you’ve just created yourself leaves you prone to leaving glaring mistakes and typos undetected. Don’t let that happen to you – ask someone to read it for you.
Following these seven simple recommendations will drastically improve the efficiency of your print ad. Try it for yourself and see. If you have any questions – give our expert team a call!