Magazine Ads

5 Things You Forgot To Put On Your Magazine Advertisements

Written by Ashwin Satyanarayana for Gaebler Ventures

While there are folks who would sit down and read magazines, most others just browse. Either way, you could capture their attention with an ad on magazines. However, most business owners are missing out on the nitty-gritty. Want to see how?

Pick a magazine and flip it open and you will see plenty of glossy advertisements vying for your attention. If you were a business owner and if you deal with products and services that do find a home in a magazine for advertising, how should you be thinking?

Shouldn't your ads in these magazines fetch you the maximum sales? We do know that most of the advertisements we see are not even worth a second glance. So, what are those things that you must have forgotten to put in your advertisements?

Attention Grabber: Any advertisement is guaranteed not to be looked at if it doesn't have something about it that catches the fancy of those who look at it. It is only common sense that there ought to be something about the advertisement that makes you turn your head. Some manufacturers put up snapshots of their products to grab attention. A Lamborghini might look ravishing but what if you had a pet business? Attention grabbers might not be a visual all the time; it could be plain text too - a simple but effective statement will do.

WIIFM (What's In It for Me?): Consumers don't look at your advertisement because they are being paid to do so; they are looking at it to see what's in it for them. If your advertisement isn't answering this question, they aren't buying a thing from you. As to the answer for what's in it for them, it depends on what your product actually gives them - pure utility, saves time, saves money, makes more money, makes them feel special, makes them elite when they buy your product.

The Right Words: If you load your advertisement with the right words - the right kind of copy - you could sell water to a fish. Words can be used for inducing fear, guilt or jealousy. You could use words to inspire, pamper and nurture. Finally, your words will work hard to sell your products and services for you. History is replete with instances where words did more than just appear on a piece of paper; words can move inventory too.

The Right Design: Let's be honest now; we wouldn't look at anything that we don't like to look at, would we? We humans are designed to appreciate beauty that manifests itself in different forms. Design plays a very important role in determining a viewer's interest towards any element. A great design can captivate a viewers' interest long before the actual advertisement does its work; fine details matter here. For instance, a white background with black text might work better than a black ground with white text. What kind of colours are to be used? What kinds of fonts are easy on the eye?

A trigger to invoke action: No advertisement is worth anything if it doesn't have a clear focus as to what it wants the viewer to do by the time the advertisement does its work. What exactly is the output required? What is the call to action? Don't make any advertisement if you don't know what you are doing it for and what exactly you are looking to get from it. Did you want them to call and book for something? Did you want them to know that they are special? Perhaps, you wanted to remind them that they own something that should make them feel like royalty?

Ash has an undergraduate degree in engineering and an MBA from Ohio University. Today he is a corporate trainer, business coach and a freelance writer.

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