Four Easy Steps to Effective Advertising

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by David Kinard

Advertising your product or service through print is one of the most powerful methods of promotion. However, all too often we end up wasting our efforts and resources on ineffective advertising. Since more than 3000 advertising messages bombard us each day, you can use these simple steps to increase your advertising's effectiveness and reach through all the clutter.
1. Get Attention: The purpose of your headline or visual should be to get the reader's attention immediately. Depending on the product or service your promoting, there are many headline types to choose from ranging from direct (Buy Now and Save!) to Testimonials ("I never thought it was so easy!"), and several in-between.
2. Stimulate Interest: Once your headline has stopped the reader in their tracks, the next goal of your ad should be to propel them deeper into the ad itself through relevant content or an interesting message. You've got their attention, now it's the ad's job to keep it. If you ensure that your ad messages are targeted and focused, your ad's likelihood of success is greater.
3. Stimulate Desire: Its at this point in the ad that you convert the reader's interest into desire or demand for your product or service. Connecting to the reader's desire for achievement, acquisition or affinity with tangible benefits will increase your ad's potential for a sale.
4. Call to Action: It is amazing how often we forget to close the sale in our advertising. Make sure you not only provide a means for the reader to contact you or purchase your product or service, but tell them to do it! Don't be afraid of telling the reader exactly what it is you want them to do.
These four points can be easily remembered by using the anacronym AIDA. The next time you develop an ad, try following these steps. And, don't forget to make sure you can measure your ad's effectiveness-if you don't, how will you know if it was money well spent?

David Kinard, M.Ed., PCM, (The Marketing Guy) is a marketing expert that speaks professionally, and is the principal of Access Marketing Solutions, a Seattle-based firm that works with associations that want to revolutionize their industries, and their members who want to reenergize their marketing. He can be contacted at 206-525-5501 or by visiting www.marketingguy.com where you can also join his FREE email newsletter MondayMarketing.

Source:madeforsuccess.com