You can draw the reader’s eye to your ad by featuring the face of an attractive, happy person looking straight at your readers. A human face is the most effective visual magnet available.

If you are selling a product, then your product is the hero of your ad. Hire a professional photographer to stage your photo and take a high quality photograph. Include people in your product shots, a satisfied customer for your service. Good photography can double the response rate of your advertisement.

Each media is unique. An ad that is effective in the phone book makes a terrible postcard. An excellent newspaper ad will fail in the yellow pages. You must design your advertising around your media.

If your ad is bigger or smaller than it should be, or if it simply blends in with the other ads on the page, your advertising is less effective. If your ad runs too often, or not enough, or in the wrong place, or at the wrong time, your advertising is less effective. Understanding and using your media wisely increases your customer response rate.

An effective advertisement is personally significant to your reader. An ad that features a specific problem and solution will get a good response from people who have that specific problem. A general ad that simply lists services is often overlooked. A targeted ad is noticed.

People decide what they want to read by scanning the headlines. If you want people to read your ad, write a great headline. Identify your target audience, list benefits, give news, and promise solutions in your headline.

A great headline can double or triple the response rate to your advertising.

 The offer your ad makes is incredibly important to the response you will get. No offer – no response. Poor offer – poor response. Always make the strongest offer you can: a discount coupon, a free consultation, a better service, a 100% guarantee. A strong offer brings a strong response to your advertisement.

People respond to ads that create an emotional response or desire. Emotions are much stronger than logic. Advertising can make people laugh, cry, sing, scream, lust, feel angry, feel happy, feel nostalgic, or feel nothing. It’s in the words that you use. Sex. Money. Fear. Love. Free. Fast. Easy. Now.

The stronger the emotional response you get from your readers, the higher your response rate will be.

Poor design reduces the response rate to your advertising. Top designers understand how to use font, color, balance, contrast, space, and emphasis to hold attention and increase reader comprehension.

A good designer knows how people read and gather information from the written page, and will make your ad look balanced, organized, and easy to understand.

To the public, your advertising is your business. You want your advertising to be as professional and polished as your product or services. Poor quality advertising reflects badly on your company, and it can make your potential customers question the quality of your services.

You must measure results if you want to know which of your efforts are successful. You want to code your coupons, use exclusive phone numbers, or set up other methods to track your response to a specific ad. If you don’t track your ads, you will never know where to invest more resources to maximize response rates and minimize mistakes.

Advertising has been studied and tested for over 100 years, and there is a great body of knowledge about what works and what doesn’t. At West Coast Creative, we have the knowledge and the skills to double your customer response rate. Contact us to set up your free marketing analysis.