8 Ways to Make Your Advertising Work Better

Show your product

Your readers—especially those likeliest to buy your product—want to know what it looks like. Remember Jay Leno’s quip about the Infiniti’s arty launch campaign, which showed natural beauties, but not the automobile: “Rocks and trees are selling like hotcakes, but not cars.“

Use your product’s name in your headline

Your advertising exists to make readers recognize your product. In his book, “Ogilvy On Advertising,” David Ogilvy noted that research shows that five times more people read headlines than scan body copy. So use your product’s name in your headline whenever you can. And stress your product’s benefits.

Make your advertising newsy

Most people are eager for news. Research shows that advertisements that present news about a product are recalled by 22% more people than ads that do not feature news. Existing customers are particularly hungry for news about the latest attractive bells and whistles you have added to your product.

Accentuate the positive

People want to know what benefits they can expect from purchasing your product. So tell your audience all about them—in as much convincing detail as possible.

Show people enjoying your product

Few visual devices are more powerful in advertising than pictures of happy people who are benefiting from using your product. Photographs are more attractive, believable, and memorable than illustrations, pull more responses, and sell more merchandise, according to David Ogilvy.

Bump up your logo

A prominent logotype at the bottom of your ad maximizes name recognition.

Cue readers to respond to your ad

Offer your readers a booklet or other information about your product. Make sure that your ad specifies all the ways a reader can reach the advertiser—including a street or World Wide Web address and a phone number. And—without fail—set up a tracking system, so you can measure how well your advertisement pulls.

Localize

“People are mostly interested in what is happening where they live,” David Ogilvy observed. He recommended using the name of the appropriate city in the head lines of newspaper ads. And retailers and dealers love the traffic and sales you generate by pinpointing their locations.