There is no single element more critical to the success of any print advertisement than the headline, which should be given 50% to 75% of the attention when preparing the ad. It’s critical, given the small window of opportunity for the reader’s attention, that the headline include an unmistakable description of “What’s in it for me.”
The next most critical element of any successful print advertisement is the “lead paragraph”, which I define as the first paragraph of copy and any sub-heads. The primary job of the lead paragraph is to expand on the idea that grabbed the reader’s eye – without losing the attention you worked so hard to capture.
One of the most common mistakes of print advertising is the failure to include a clear offer. By the time a prospect has reached the offer stage of your advertisement, it’s essential that you offer a clear, specific and urgent call-to-action that reinforces the benefit introduced in the headline. It sounds like a lot, but it’s actually quite simple: You must remind the reader why he’s interested…and you must quickly and clearly direct that reader to the action you’d like him to take. To do anything less is simply leaving money on the table.
The only way to ensure long-term success with any advertising campaign is to carefully measure your results. This means incorporating offer codes, tracking response correctly and routinely testing new headlines and other ideas within your ad. Madron Marketing can show you some simple, time-tested methods for testing and tracking response that will help you increase the return on your advertising dollar immediately.
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