Advertising is an industry that is too often misunderstood, especially by those who need advertising but are not themselves advertisers. Too often, there is an association with advertising as being simultaneously manipulative and very easy.
Many people imagine that all is needed is to put a few pictures together in an appealing way to be effective advertisers. However, the truth is that advertising requires significant work and research, as well as an understanding of the market and audience to be effective.
Here are a few of the things that you will need to keep in mind to create effective advertising that accomplishes your goals.
By creating an association between the product or service that you are trying to sell and something that already has positive associations in the mind of a customer, you can save a lot of work in building that positive association yourself.
For instance, a graphic or video that ties your company to positive thoughts of a beloved childhood cartoon character can build an association between your company and the positive feelings associated with the character and childhood in general. This can be one of the quickest and most effective ways how to build a positive reputation quickly and relatively easily.
You don't even necessarily have to present a known cartoon character. Even a character that is sufficiently similar will often do the trick without you having to pay royalties or worry about infringing on copyright
There is no point in getting your customers’ attention if you don't have a solid plan for what they should do next. This is a surprisingly common oversight, especially for smaller businesses. It can be easy to get so caught up in making the perfect advertisement that you forget what your goals are.
Your priorities should be extremely clear throughout the entire process of creating the advertisement. Otherwise, it can be very easy to fail to motivate your customer appropriately. There are two important points to providing efficient next steps for your potential customers:
Offering value is a frequently overlooked feature of advertising. Most people think about providing a quality experience when the customer actually arrives at their store, but it is also important to provide a valuable experience through your advertising itself.
Advertisements that have real value for the customer make it more likely that the customer will associate your brand with positivity in the way that you want. There are a few easy ways to provide meaningful value to your customers through advertising:
This technique lends itself better to some types of products or services than others. Products that offer some level of protection, improve health or beauty, or otherwise appeal to a very deep-seated need in customers are more likely to be marketed effectively in this way. Here are a few ways to make customers need what you have to offer.
Fear can be an extremely powerful motivator, provided you do not overdo it and shut your customer down. It is best to rely on real sources of fear with statistics and documented data. Make it extremely clear how a customer may be in some sort of danger or at a serious disadvantage and how your product can solve the problem.
Making your product seem like the next big thing that everybody who's anybody has can build desire in your customer for the product. Strong adjectives like “extraordinary” “or revolutionary” can build buzz around the product. Showing the product in use by people who are pop culture icons or appear to be cool can also make your product more appealing.
Sometimes the goal of advertising is not to solve a problem that your customer already has, but to convince them they have a problem they didn't know they had. If you can convince your customer that they have a problem that they need your product or service to solve, you will have done better more than satisfy a customer's need— you will have created a new customer with a new need, which is even better for your bottom line.
You will probably not be advertising into a market void. You will have competition who you are marketing against. Therefore, it makes a lot of sense to use your advertising opportunity to describe to potential customers why your product or service is better than the rest.
If you can convince your potential customers that your product is better then the alternative, you can, in a sense, absorb your competitor’s advertising. Anyone who has been convinced of the need to use the product or service that you provide will choose you over your competitor, even if it is your competitor who convinced them to consider the product or service in the first place.
This is a time to proudly display testimonials or endorsements from relevant celebrities or local customers. If you use any special ingredients in your product, offer more years of experience in your service, or for any other reason have the edge over the competition, let your customers know about it through your advertising.
Whatever kind of advertising techniques you want to incorporate into your business, your advertisements need a professional appearance to be successful. Advertising that has an amateur look won't only fail to be effective; it could even directly damage your reputation. Therefore, it is best to choose a professional to create all of your advertising visuals, videos, and any other media that you need.
Sources
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0375-its-all-about-technique
