Advertising Do’s and Don’ts
by Danny Brown on August 12th, 2008
If you’re looking to create an advertising campaign for your business, you need to make sure you approach it correctly if you want it to make an impact. This is regardless of what form your advertising will take - online, print, television or radio. After all, you’re probably spending quite a bit on the advertising costs, so you need to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth.
Here’s a list of do’s and don’ts when developing your campaign:
Keeping it Clean
Do use simple ideas: Focus your campaign on one image, slogan, or concept.
Don’t have 4-5 images vying for attention: your ad will likely confuse readers into just turning the page.
Do keep it short: Give them 2-3 benefits and enough interest to make them want to find out more.
Don’t clutter the page with too much information: Again, don’t confuse people with information overload. Save all the extraneous information for your brochure, catalog, or advertorial piece.
Do keep it relevant: Think of your target audience and give them only the offers or benefits relevant to them. You’ll get a much better response rate.
Don’t just throw everything you have out there: If you have several different product lines, you don’t want to talk about all of them in one ad. Relevance is key!
It’s All in the Headline
Do make your headline short and impactful: a website has less than 10 seconds to grab your attention when you land on it. An advertisement has even less, so you need to grab your intended audience from the word “Go!” This means that your headline needs to be snappy, sharp and effective.
Don’t have a long-winded headline: The more your audience has to read, the more bored they’ll become. Get to the point!
Do compare where necessary: consumers want to know why they should buy from you and not your competitors - give them benefits.
Don’t go on too much about your company: you’ll just put your audience off altogether. Offer them something instead - anything that shows what’s in it for them.
Stand Out Visually
Do grab attention with your logo or a graphic: Think about the slogan for clothes designer FCUK - at first glance, you have to look twice to make sure you haven’t misread. This is the kind of attention you want - a catchy slogan and one that stays in your mind after you’ve seen it. If you can afford to, have a professional designer come up with some examples for you.
Don’t be too clever: The last thing you want is for your ad to be so clever that your audience has to think too long to get it. Remember, 10 seconds…
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