The Anatomy of a healthy ad
Use our simple five-step formula to turn under-performing
advertisements into high powered sales tools.
 Bill King and son, Stephen, were facing a dilemma, common to
many business people.
They had a great product on their hands. Something handymen
and tradesmen would jump at. But they were having trouble launching it into the
marketplace.
As the product’s Australian distributors, the Kings had hit a brick
wall. Hardware store owners were reluctant to stock the product, because it was new and,
in their eyes, untried.
As part of a coordinated marketing program, we set about writing an
advertisement to achieve two objectives:
-
Encourage consumers to trial the product (an alternative to sandpaper,
called FlexiFile).
-
Convince hardware store owners to purchase stocks of
FlexiFile.
In this article, we look at the process for creating such an
advertisement. And we show you how you can apply the same methodology to create your own
high powered print advertisements.
One step or two?
Before you begin to create an advertisement for your
product or service, there is an important decision to be made.
Is it reasonable to expect the person who reads your advertisement to
purchase your product purely on the basis of the information supplied?
Or is the purpose of the advertisement to solicit an ‘expression of
interest’?
If you are selling a simple and inexpensive product, you may be able to
make a sale ‘off-the-page’ in one simple step.
However, if your product is complex or expensive, your sales process may
need to consist of two or more steps.
With a two-step campaign, your advertisement is what we call a ‘lead
generation’ ad. In other words, it is designed to introduce prospects to a sales
process – rather than to make a sale at that first point of contact.
A lead generation advertisement would normally offer readers a free
information package, report or sample. This ‘expression of interest’ would then
be followed up with either a direct mail campaign, or a telephone or face-to-face
presentation.
It’s as easy as AICDC!
There’s a simple, five-step process to creating a
powerful advert. We call it AICDC – short for Attention, Interest, Conviction,
Desire, Close. If you adhere to this simple process you will find it remarkably easy
to create highly effective advertisements.
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enlarge]
Grab their attention!
The most critical component of an ad is its headline.
It’s the job of the headline to grab the reader’s attention – stopping her
in her tracks.
If your headline doesn’t capture the reader’s attention in a
split second, she will simply turn the page without reading your advertisement. Try this
simple test yourself. Flick through a newspaper or magazine and take note of what catches
your eye. Your eyes will automatically skip over those articles that don’t interest
you, and pause where something demands your attention. Your headline should make a big
claim, in bold, no-nonsense language. This claim doesn’t necessarily have to be
believable – in fact, the more incredible it sounds, the better – but it must be
relevant to the reader. Of course, it must also be truthful.
The FlexiFile headline (next page) makes such a claim: Miracle abrasive
renders sandpaper obsolete! The inference here is immediately obvious. Anyone using
sandpaper is doing things the hard way. There’s a better alternative. To find out
what it is, the reader must read on.
Ideally, your headline should take up at least 25% of your advert’s
space. And the best headline is one that promises a clear customer benefit. The headline
on the advertisement above does exactly this.
Headlines that trumpet a technological or scientific breakthrough tend
also to generate an excellent response. You’ll notice that the producers of
television ‘infomercials’ favour products that can be promoted as ‘new
technology’ (as well as those that are demonstrable). How many times have you seen a
commercial for an exciting new ‘widget’ and found yourself fumbling for your
credit card?
In the FlexiFile advert, the breakthrough factor is emphasised through
words such as ‘miracle’ and ‘revolutionary’.
The following are two more examples of headlines that have generated
enormous volumes of new business for our clients:
Rest easy … that bastard’s pinching someone else’s hog! (Promoting
a locking device for Harley Davidson motorcycles.)
The world’s greatest marketing blunders – and how to avoid
them in your business. (Promoting a business seminar.)
A headline is generally reinforced by a sub-heading, as in the FlexiFile
example: Amazing new FlexiFile is guaranteed to never clog – and to outlast
ordinary sandpaper by up to three times! Often, the sub-heading will pre-empt the
offer – providing the reader with an additional incentive to read on.
Responsibility for attracting readers’ attention is often shared by
the photograph or illustration. The role of a picture is simply to amplify the message
transmitted by the headline.
Before and after photos are particularly effective. If you have a product
that lends itself to such a comparison, go for it! You’ll notice that both
advertisements featured in this article make use of before and after photographs.
Building interest
While your headline/picture combination captures the
attention of the reader, the responsibility rests with the first two paragraphs of your
advertisement to secure her interest.
We often accomplish this with a problem-solution formula, as in the
FlexiFile example: Until now, sanding has been a frustrating and time-consuming
exercise. This is because ordinary sandpaper is simply not made to last. Within
minutes, it starts to clog and lose its abrasive surface, and soon falls apart.
(Problem).
And the solution? FlexiFile is an advanced silicone carbide sanding
sheet that’s guaranteed never to clog.
Convince your readers
 Use the remainder of your copy, known as the body copy, to
build a compelling sales argument. To put it another way, this is your body of evidence.
As a barrister is required to prove his case point by point in a court of law, you must be
able to justify the bold claim you made in your headline.
Describe the features and benefits of the product or service, and offer
evidence to support your claims.
When writing your advertisement, try to emulate the style of a newspaper
report. The aim is not to trick readers into thinking it’s news. It’s simply
that this is the format that most people are familiar and comfortable with. Newsy text
also sounds more credible. Keep sentences short and interesting, with the most important
points in the first few paragraphs. Don’t waffle, or get bogged down in
technicalities. Use simple, layman’s language. And never insult the reader’s
intelligence, by stating the obvious. Some copywriters try to be too clever or subtle, and
end up simply confusing the reader. Write your copy to sell your product or service, not
to win advertising awards.
In a two-step campaign, it is important to remember to sell your offer
(information package, etc) in your advertisement, not your actual product or service.
You’ll get plenty of opportunity to do this if your advertisement is successful.
Stimulate desire
Desire is your emotional argument. This is the mental
picture that you create to make the reader feel good about using your product or service.
It’s like a virtual ‘test-drive’. We also call this technique, future
pasting, because the reader is ‘teleported’ to a situation in the future.
Stimulate desire by painting a word picture of the reader using and enjoying your product
at some stage in the future. E.g. You’ll leave this seminar empowered with ideas
to multiply the profitability of your business.
Closing your case
The close should be a simple, call to action. In the case
of FlexiFile, it was a coupon, offering the reader the opportunity to obtain a free sample
of FlexiFile from her local hardware store. (To encourage retailers to participate in this
campaign, FlexiFile sold them sample packs and then purchased the coupons collected at the
normal retail mark-up.)
In a two-step advertisement the offer can take any number of forms. It may
be a free product information pack, or a subscription to your company’s newsletter,
even an invitation to a seminar or executive briefing.
How did AICDC
work for FlexiFile?
From its first insertion in the Sunday Mail
(Brisbane’s only Sunday newspaper) the FlexiFile advertisement motivated around 1,000
people to visit hardware stores around Queensland and request the free sample on offer.
Similar results were then replicated with placements of this advertisement
in select national magazines.
As well as effectively ‘making a market’ for
FlexiFile, the
success of this campaign converted some retailers, who had previously opted not to carry
FlexiFile, into enthusiastic stockists.
FlexiFile had arrived! And it was all thanks to the simple, but effective
principles of AICDC.
Free opinion!
If you would like to know if one of your advertisements
adheres to the principle of AICDC, we’ll be happy to give you a free opinion.
Fax your advertisement to: (07) 3871 1824, and one of our team will
telephone you with our suggestions.
While creativity does undoubtedly play a role, we have proved time and
time again that the production of a successful advertisement is more science than art.
And, as you can see, this is a science that anyone can master.
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