Many factors have to be considered when making an
advertising plan. Like the type of message to be delivered, the audience to be
targeted, how they should be targeted, budget, etc. all of which depends on the
nature of the advertisement.
Regarding the type of message to be delivered, try thinking
from the point of the customer. What will impress him and catch his fancy. Note
down points what the customer expects from the company and what advantage will
he have when dealing with the company. Effort should be made to retain viewer
or listener’s or reader’s interest in the advertisement until the end. This
procedure is known as message selection.
After creating the outline of the picture, pick lines that
will actually attract the customer. The message shouldn’t be long enough to
bore the customer. Some advertisers are under the illusion that more the matter
written, the better the message delivered. Usually they fear that they don’t
miss out any information. This does nothing but decreases the effectiveness of
the ad and customer is left unsatisfied.
For example, the heading of the advertisement shouldn’t be
just “We Sell Clothes”, which is too precise. The liking of the people should
be studied and the headline should be designed such that the customer feels
that his needs are met. It should also take into consideration seasonal changes
like If the season at that time is summer and there are lots of beaches around
that area, the heading of the ad should be something like “Summer Clothes for
Sale” or “Get the heat off – Buy Swimwear”. The body of the advertisement
should talk of the necessities to switch to summer clothes like cotton
clothing. It should discuss the health point of view too, like cotton cannot be
used as swimwear as it will cause contamination, therefore the swimwear is made
of synthetic material. Also include lines about swimwear for overweight people.
Ads are either traffic builder or relationship builders or
reputation builder. Suppose the budget involved is less, the target should be
relationship builder. Because once the customers are established, they will
start trusting the company and won’t switch to other companies. According to a
research it takes ten percent less resources to retain existing customers than
attracting new customer. If the focus is on brand recognition, the
advertisement should be traffic building.
The next point is whether the advertiser wants quick results
or long lasting results. If quick result is desired, then a time limit should
be levied. Like in case of seasonal sales, the customer hurries to get
advantage before the offer is over. So quick results are expected in this case.
But the disadvantage with advertisement with time limit is that the customer
are bound to forget about the product or the company within a short period and
it doesn’t creates a deep impact on the minds of the customer.
Competing against rival company’s ad also contributes to a
successful advertising plan. The power of the message should be compared to that
of the competitors’. It doesn’t mean that the advertiser should use the same
plan like his competitor, it would look like imitation and effectiveness will
be decreased. But the advertisement should be planned smartly via a different
and effective path, to out-do the competitor’s advertisement.
The description of the product is also very vital like
suppose an advertisement is made for a restaurant, it will get customers
immediately, if it is attractive. But if the advertisement is for a computer,
it won’t yield immediate results, as it’s not every day that someone buys a
computer. This is called analysis of the purchase cycle.
If targeting for a higher impact, newsletter is the best bet.
But if the newsletters are sent to the real potential customers, then this
approach should be adopted for message delivery. It should only be opted be
after thorough analysis, no matter what the budget is. Another important point
is to always hire a professional advertiser or an ad writer because not hiring
one will sometimes be more expensive and results in more losses.
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