Direct Marketing

Creating Print Advertising

Chapter 20

Creating Print Advertising

• Print ads must stop the reader and engage his or her attention and interest in order to stand out among the advertisers in a magazine or newspaper

• The general ad may rest after making an impression; the response ad must stimulate immediate action

Creating Print Advertising

• Make your strongest appeal to your best prospects—people with the strongest desire for what you’re selling

• Use clarity and directness to gather in prime prospects; then use creative imagination to reach beyond them to awaken and excite mild prospects as well

Creating Print Advertising

• Emphasize benefits if the product or service is unique or unfamiliar

• Emphasize product advantages if it is a new, improved model in a highly competitive field with established demand

Creating Print Advertising

• A good lead is the first step in a straight path of feeling and logic from the headline or display theme to the concluding call for action

• Readers should be able to see clearly where the path is taking them

Creating Print Advertising

• The sections of a classic copy argument can be labeled problem, promise of solution, explanation of promise, proof, and call to action

• If you begin with the problem, be sure to indicate the forthcoming solution

Creating Print Advertising

• Other ways to structure copy include:

“cluster of diamonds” technique, which assembles and presents details in an appropriate setting;

the “string of pearls” technique, which strings together complete gems of selling in a sequence;

Creating Print Advertising

the “fan dancers”' technique, which teases readers with short product facts

• Avoid the “machine gun'' technique—simply spraying facts and arguments in the general direction of the reader, in the hope that at least some of them will hit

Creating Print Advertising

• Establish the unique claim to fame of the product or service

• Is it better? Best? Largest? Newest? Fastest growing?

• Use it to stake out a unique position in the marketplace for the product or service you are selling

Key Points

• Stop and Engage

• Appeal to Best Prospects

• Unique Stress Benefits

• New and Improved Stress Advantages

• Clear Path

• Problem / Solution

• Establish Unique Claim to Fame