Small Business Advice and Articles USA

Small Business Advertising Tips To Double Your Ad Returns by: Claude Whitacre

These are just several quick ideas that will make the print ad you run more effective in grabbing attention, and bringing buyers to your door.

Round the corners of your display ad.

A rounded corner will make your ad pop out from the rest of the ads on the page. The eye will be drawn to them, and it will not allow your ad to blend in with the ads next to it.

Put the headline in quotations. If you put the headline in quotations, it forces the reader to hear a voice as they read the headline. Also, a quote is much more interesting to read that a normal headline. If someone was quoted as saying something, it must be important, right?

Use words in the headline that pull the reader into the body of the ad.

Words like these, This, Which, Which of these, Why, How many, and How will bring the reader into the ad because their ind wants the answer to the question in the ad.

Use capital letter for the first letter of every word of the headline.

Which looks better: "Which Of These Cars Do You See Yourself In?" Or "Which of these cars do you see yourself in?". The reader won't pick up that you are using capital letters, but your headline will stand out more. Do NOT use all capitols in the headline. It will look like you are shouting at them.

Put the name of your business and the directions to find you at the bottom of the ad.

This is hard for many business owners to hear, but nobody cares about the name of your business. The name of your business is never a headline. Your business name never causes anyone to want to read the rest of the ad. Nobody cares about the name of your business until after they have decided that they are interested in what you are selling. This is the single most common mistake advertisers make. It's also the most costly, as far as formatting the ad.

Tell everything about your offer that the space will allow. White space doesn't sell anything. The more someone knows about your offer, the more likely they will want to buy it, and the value you can build in the offer. Almost nobody will call you or come into your store, just because you made them curious. Tell them everything. Everything the ad doesn't tell the customer, the customer will have to guess at. And they will always guess incorrectly. Tell them everything.

Use bullet points.

Bullet points in an ad draw the eye, and make whatever is after the bullet point sound important. A solid list of benefits your product has, with bullet points in front of them, will be the start of a powerful ad.

If you are using a magazine or newspaper, make sure you are "above the fold" and on the right hand side as the paper is opened. Odd number pages pull better than even number pages, because that's the way we flip through the newspaper or magazine.

Make sure these things are in your ad;

You store or business website, your address, your store hours, credit cards you accept, directions to your business with a landmark if possible, any awards you have won, and any financing you offer.

That's it for now. About The Author