Marketing Article Tips for Display Adverts
~ By Steven A. Harold BA (Hons) DCH DHP ~
1) Research other business’s use of display advertisements.
It does not matter whether those organisations are in the same business as you or not,
you can still learn a tremendous amount through studying the designs of any display advertisements.
a) Notice which ads catch your eye
b) Which ads are more convincing than others
c) Which ads are you more likely to trust
d) Which ads are a complete turnoff for you
e) Answer ‘why’ to all the above questions
2) Your advert heading must be attractive. It must be attention grabbing. You have just seconds to
attract the attention of the reader of any publication. Your heading must be able to pull the reader’s eyes
away from other adverts and editorial.
3) There are two effective ways of grabbing attention with your heading.
a) Ask a question that requires either a s ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Make sure the rest of the text in
the advert is geared towards supplying a solution to the question you asked.
EG. How would you like to ….. (relax more, feel confident, lose weight etc)?
b) Make your heading a statement of the benefits you can offer through your service or product.
4) Use a sub heading, in smaller type for any extra details you feel you need to add.
5) A diagram or illustration can literally be worth a thousand words. Use a photograph if you can.
Anything that can state or show the benefits of what you are offering will save you having to persuade
readers through using long explanations. This is why you often see for weight loss products a ‘before’
and ‘after’ photograph. The photograph implies that there is evidence to support the product or service’s
effectiveness. It can also act as a ‘convincer’ of what is possible.
6) Any text should be connected to the heading’s meaning or statement. It should take the idea or concept
implied by the heading and add more detail about what you are offering.
7) Keep the body text short and sweet. Do not include long rambling sentences as you will turn the reader
off, they will get bored and their attention will move elsewhere. Keep to the point.
8) Do not mislead or include claims about your product or service that you know are not true or not provable.
You will be found out and your reputation will not be worth anything. You will also have problems from the
trading standards authority.
9) Use emotional words to help your reader connect to good feelings. So you might use words like, soothe,
ease, calm, relax, etc.
10) Use words that imply the present time and not the past. So instead of saying ‘Reflexology will help you to
relax’, instead say that ‘Reflexology relaxes you’. This helps the reader to connect more immediately to the
feeling implied in the word ‘relax’.
11) Do not mention words like ‘cost’, ‘fee’ or ‘price. You may not want to mention the price in the
advertisement at all. However if you have decided it is better to mention the cost refer to it as ‘an investment’.
Another way is to diminish the cost by referring to it almost in passing as ‘you can gain all this for as little £50’
12) Do not stick with the first design you come up with. Edit and re arrange your design. Show it to
friends and colleagues to get their input. Ask them what the advert does for them. How do they react to it?
13) Include testimonials, coupons and special offers if you can. Always give a 'use by' date to suggest that the
offer is a limited one.
14) Encourage action by telling the reader what they need to do.
a) Telephone NOW!
b) Phone before 31st March!
c) Secure your place TODAY !
15) Use punctuation to help readability. Use question marks and exclamation marks to heighten your message
but do not use them like confetti.
16) White space helps readability. You do not have to cram every space on the advert with words or pictures.
Space makes your design easier on the eye and can help attract the reader’s attention.
17) Use words in your headline that attract readers. The most popular are; New, Free, Unique, Innovative,
Simple, Easy.
19) Front and back pages are the best for display adverts but are the most expensive. A right hand page is
better than a left hand page. Also unless you are going in a particular section of a publication try to get your
advert as close to the front as possible.
18) Monitor the results of your display advert and change it if necessary when you run it again.
You can use these tips to design posters, leaflets, brochures and all other forms of display promotions.
(c) Steven A. Harold 2003
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