Blog RSS FeedA Different Formula For Effective Advertisements
From the desk of Roy Furr, Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
You may be familiar with a couple different formulas that copywriters use for creating effective advertisements. AIDA — Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Or the 4 P’s — Picture, Promise, Proof, Pull.
This article isn’t about those.
This is about a different advertising formula — based on research done on magazine advertising where responses were tracked (the study was done on magazine advertising, but the formula will work across all media).
You may have seen in some magazines where there’s a response card at the back, with a listing of all the advertisements in the magazine. It allows you to send in your contact information to multiple vendors with a single reply device.
You just put your contact information on the card, check the offers you’re interested in learning more about, and send it in. Then the magazine passes on your information to the vendors you selected, and you get the info you requested.
This method allows the magazine to track the effectiveness of the advertising included in each issue, and that’s where this research comes from.
In the magazine that did this analysis, they noticed that while many advertisements got 20 or 30 responses, there were some that consistently got 200 to 300 or more. Obviously these advertisements were doing something right to draw attention and build the interest of prospects, enough to get them to reply.
After an analysis of these ads, here’s the formula that was discovered:
- The ad is distinctive — it grabs attention. This is usually through a compelling picture that attracts the attention of as many potential prospects as possible, that is somehow linked to the big idea of the ad.
- The ad tells the big idea — the benefit to the customer — in 3.5 seconds or less. The headline and the picture’s caption contain the same big idea, and it’s the major benefit customers get from responding. This helps prospects self-identify — only those who want the benefit you promise will read on, and that’s okay.
- Pack your ad with the benefits your prospects get from responding. Focus on how your product will help them save money, save time, enjoy life more, etc. These are their reasons to respond — getting your product or doing business with you is just what they have to do to get these benefits.
- Focus on “you” — the customer. Customers only care about how long you’ve been in business, or how cool you are, or how innovative your product is if it means more benefits for them. Good ads are about the customer, bad ads are about your business (if you’ll — God forbid — permit me to define “good” and “bad” ads by results instead of creativity or entertainment value).
That’s it. This 4-part formula works into the other formulas — a solid call to action and effective persuasion both improve the results of this formula. But if you want to create a compelling advertisement that gets results, keep these 4 parts at the front of your mind.
Special thanks to Chet Holmes for sharing this formula.
Good luck!
- R
P.S. - Let me know if you need help coming up with ads that follow this formula. Call me at 541-543-1438 or email me here.
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