6 Tips on Producing Print Ads That Sell

1. Select publications that reach the right audience.
2. Attract the attention of qualified readers.
3. Make your ad appear like a news article.
4. Provide facts to support your claims.
5. Provide a reason to take action.
6. Keep the design simple.

Space Advertising is usually the least expensive method of targeting large numbers of prospects for a product sold to other businesses. The reason is the existence of large numbers of trade journals, each aggressively competing to reach defined niches within the business to business market. The more successful trade journals make it possible to blanket any specific market segment, such as mechanical design engineers, bakers or chief information officers of hospitals, etc. The fact that your ad travels along with a publication that is already read on a regular basis by your prospects means that you avoid the postage costs of direct mail as well as the risk that your mail piece might be discarded before it is even read. On the other hand, the challenge of space advertising is that your ad is competing along with dozens of others for the attention of the magazine's readers. The secret of producing successful print advertising is quickly attracting the attention and interest of potential purchasers of your product and convincing them to take action, in most cases by contacting your company.

1. Carefully select publications that reach the right audience.

Without a doubt, the most important factor in print advertising success is the selection of the publications in which the advertisement appears. Conduct a thorough analysis to determine the demographics of the target audience. A publication with a smaller circulation that is focused more heavily on your target audience will usually provide more bang for the buck.

While circulation figures are important, be sure to consider the equally important issue of the amount of time and value that readers assign to a particular publication.

One of the best ways of measuring the relative value of publications that are distributed free to qualified readers is through surveys conducted by independent research firms.

You will frequently discover that two publications circulate an equal number of copies but that readers spend twice as much time with one of the two.

The surest way to determine the relative value of multiple publications in reaching qualified prospects is to run one small, relatively inexpensive ad in each and carefully track the response.

2. Attract the attention of qualified readers.

Magazine readers typically scan the headline and illustration of a magazine advertisement in order to determine whether or not to spend time with it. The most successful ads nearly always lead by promising a benefit to the user, such as a better way of doing something or a solution to a specific problem.
Because the reader typically moves quickly through the ads in a magazine, it's important to be as clear and direct as possible. Some marketers lead print advertising with a splashy attention-getter without much relevance to their main subject matter. But readers are usually able to quickly determine whether or not the subject matter is relevant to their needs and will usually quickly turn the page on an ad that tries to trick them into paying attention. A better approach is to identify something about your product or how it is used that provides a dramatic advantage to readers of the particular publication. If at all possible, demonstrate that advantage in an attractive illustration and explain it with a simple direct headline - you will have a sure winner. The most effective approach is to develop several alternative creative strategies and test them on focus groups consisting of prospects to zero in on the most effective advertising message.

3. Make your ad appear like a news article.

A very effective method of increasing print advertising response is to make the advertisement appear as much as possible like a news article. News is, after all, the reason why most prospects are reading the magazine in the first place. This is why some of the most successful advertisements ever have been packaged in the form of news article. Examples of ad headlines that follow this approach are: "New discovery offers 20% energy savings in any office building," NOx emissions problems can now be solved at half the cost of installing combustors" and "Supercomputer provides seismic processing results up to 30 times faster than high end workstations." The illustration should follow the same theme by showing the product in a realistic setting rather than as a staged studio shot. Taking the news approach has the built in advantage of forcing the advertisement to talk in the prospect's language rather than the marketer's. The ad should continue in the manner of a newspaper or magazine article by fully describing the claim made in the headline - who, what, when, where, and why - and providing supporting details. If you use this approach, your layout should generally follow the articles in the magazine. But remember that if your ad looks too much like a magazine article, the magazine may insert a label that identifies it as an advertisement.

4. Provide facts to support your claims.

If you succeed in capturing your prospect's attention, you then have to overcome their natural skepticism towards advertising. The best way to do this is with cold, hard facts that are, if possible, backed up by independent sources. For example, if your headline is: "Develop an e-commerce site in only 2 hours," the body of the copy needs to immediately define what type of web site you are talking about and the method that you are proposing. The next step is to provide evidence that you claim is really true such as by quoting a survey that shows that most of your customers are actually able to create their web site this fast or a recognized industry expert that is willing to validate your claim. Testimonials from satisfied users in the same general industry as the magazine's readers provide a highly credible method of demonstrating that your product really does what you say. Facts should be presented in terms that readers can easily relate to. If your audience is not highly technical, for example, use "stores information on 10,000 prospects" rather than holds 2 Gigabytes of data."

5. Provide a reason to take action.

An advertisement is not a work of art but rather an instrument to convince prospects to take action. It's important to explain exactly what action you are asking for and to provide an incentive to taking it. An ad that simply asks the reader to phone, write or visit a web site will generate a considerably higher response than an identical ad that doesn't make a similar request. One of the best ways to increase the response of an advertisement is to offer something of value, such as information that goes beyond a typical catalog or brochure by providing useful information. Even giving your literature a title that implies value can increase response. Call it a "planning kit" rather than a sales brochure. Emphasize the value and benefits that come from taking action, such as by offering a booklet called "50 ways to eliminate Corrosion Problems in a Manufacturing Plant." Include several different methods of getting in touch in order to be sure to offer one that the prospect feels comfortable with. The advent of the Internet provides powerful new tools for enabling your prospects to get quick information. For example, you could provide a special web page that prospects access to request literature that applies to their specific interest or even describe their application so it can be evaluated by your technical staff.

6. Keep the design simple.

One common mistake is to pack the ad with as much information as can possibly fit. Keep in mind the fact that in the few seconds that a prospect is likely to spend determining whether or not to read your advertisement they are only going to be able to assimilate a single very simple message. In most cases, a single illustration that graphically portrays your product's advantage will have the most impact. An exception to this rule is a situation where your message is that your product is capable of doing multiple things; in that case using more than one illustration may be the best way to emphasize that point. From a layout standpoint, the ad should be kept as sparse as possible to avoid detracting from your main message. Use only the design elements that are required to present your main point and avoid cluttering the page with extra typefaces or illustrations.