10 rules of effective advertising

By Nigel Temple

'The only purpose of advertising is to sell; it has no other justification worth mentioning.'
Raymond Rubicam, Young & Rubicam Advertising

Advertising is the oldest member of the promotional mix.  If you study the art and science of advertising, you will find that you can apply its rules, techniques and philosophies throughout all of your marketing.

I suggest that you buy some books on advertising.  These should include some works by the copywriting and advertising 'greats' such as Claude Hopkins, David Ogilvy and John Caples.

OK, that's the 'Lifetime Learning' plug over and done with!  Now let's look at some of the success foundations of advertising. Imagine that you are putting an ad together for a magazine.  The six 'rules' which apply in this media also apply across the rest of the promotional mix. Bear in mind that newspapers have been around for a long time, so  advertising professionals know what works and what doesn't. (Well, at least some of them do, anyway).

Rule 1:  Get into the mind of the buyer
Take the time to understand the buyer.  What is it that they really, really want?  How do they describe it?  What are their real needs?  You can find out by talking to them, conducting surveys,  or becoming a buyer yourself.  

The seller and the buyer are looking through different ends of the telescope. You must learn to see things from the buyers' point of view.

Rule 2:  Follow the AIDA model
Have you heard of the AIDA model, from the world of advertising? It stands for:

Attention

Interest

Desire

Action

It is the sequence of events that a customer goes through, before he or she  makes a purchase. An effective ad must generate Attention. This is usually done through a combination of headline and image. 

What sort of photographs and illustrations does the advertising industry use? Well, certainly not boring ones. They must go on to create Interest in the reader/viewer. From this position, Desire for the product or service is built up, until Action is taken - i.e. a request for further information.

Rule 3:  Talk in the language of benefits
Benefits are the real reasons that people buy things.  For example, what do hand held drill manufacturers really sell?  The answer is Holes.  What do supermarkets sell?  Convenience.  What do expensive sports car manufacturers really sell?  Think about it (and it’s not just a quick means of getting from A to B, either).

Always focus on benefits in the mind of your buyer.

Rule 4:  Test different headlines
Research has shown that at least five times the number of people will read your headline as opposed to those who actually read the bodycopy.  So headlines are worth sweating over.

Headlines should offer a benefit; be direct; arouse curiosity; and be up to a dozen - or more - words long.  Once they have seen your ad, readers are just as likely to read a dozen words as they are to read three or four.  (However - the first three or four words in a headline are the most important).

David Ogilvy, the famous advertising guru, used to write up to 16 headlines every time that he wrote an advertisement.  Either you or your copywriter should do the same thing.  In addition, try testing different headlines in otherwise identical ads.  Usually, one of the headlines will outperform the others by a clear margin.

Rule 5:  Two thirds of people think in pictures
Should you use photographs, illustrations and other images in your advertising?  The answer is, space permitting, a resounding "Yes".

The first reason for this concerns the right side of the brain (which processes images).  Pictures are hugely important to human beings.  So much so that research by Bandler and Grinder, the founders of NLP, has shown that some two thirds of human beings primarily understand the world around them through images.  Think about this for a moment.  Two thirds of people won't believe you until they have SEEN what you mean in your advertising, as opposed to just telling them, via the words within your adverts.

The second reason why you should use images is that they catch the eye as the reader scans the page.  The problem is that we are surrounded by so many marketing messages, that unless your advert 'jumps out' in some way - it will be overlooked.  One of the best ways of doing this is through the use of an image.

Rule 6:  Write body copy which sells
'Body copy' means the words in your advert - excluding the headlines.  Always remember that advertising is 'salesmanship in print'.  Therefore:

• Open with an enticing sentence which will draw the reader into the advert.  Jane Austen, Dickens and Tolstoy would have made great copywriters.  For one thing, they always started their novels with an intriguing opening.
  
  
• Spend a lot of time fretting over the first paragraph.  If you can make the reader want to read beyond this first paragraph, you will get much better results. 
  
  I have seen different research on this point - but most experts seem to say that only 10% or so of people will read beyond the first paragraph.  However - these 'chosen few' are in the market (or soon will be) for whatever you are selling.  So you must get them hooked right there - at the beginning!
  
  
• Use short words, short sentences and short paragraphs.  You may be an exceptionally intelligent individual, with extraordinarily developed cognitive capabilities.  My advice, then, is to keep this to yourself and KEEP YOUR ADS SIMPLE AND TO THE POINT!
  
  
• Always give people lots of reasons to buy from you.
  
  
• Talk about benefits, not features.
  
• Make it easy for them to contact you (in several different ways).

Advertising copywriters know that there are certain words which have a magical effect on people.  If you use these words in your headlines and opening paragraphs, your ads will pull a better response:

• Free
  
• New
  
• You
  
• Yes
  
• Discover
  
• Benefit
  
• Money
  
• Guarantee
  
• Now
  
• Secret
  
• Proven

Yes I know that these proven words have been used by advertisers for a long time!  That's because they work.  See whether they can benefit you, and help you to make some new money!

Click here to read more rules of advertising.

Copyright © Nigel R. Temple, marketing consultant, trainer, speaker and author.

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