Many factors have to be considered when making an advertising plan. Like the type of message to be delivered, the target audience, 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 view of the customer. What will impress him and catch his/her fancy. Write down points of what the customer expects from the company and what advantage they will have when dealing with your company. Efforts should be made to retain the viewer or listener’s or reader’s interest in the advertisement until the very 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 the
more matter
written, the better the message delivered. Usually they fear that they
don’t want
to leave out any information. This does nothing more than decreases the
effectiveness of the ad and the 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 in such a way that the
customer
feels that his needs are being 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 on 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 could
cause
contamination, therefore the swimwear is made of synthetic material.
Also
include lines about swimwear for overweight people (as we are all aware
our
country and most of the world for that matter are becoming overweight
so don’t
overlook this market).
Ads are either a
traffic builder, relationship builder, or a reputation
builder. Suppose
the budget involved is small
then the target should be on relationship building. Because once the
customers
are established, they will start trusting your company and if treated
fairly
most often won’t switch to other companies. According to research it
takes ten times
less resources to retain an existing customer than in trying to attract
a 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 results are desired, then a time
limit should
be levied. Like in case of seasonal sales, the customer hurries to take
advantage before the offer is over. So quick results are expected in
this case.
But the disadvantage with this type of advertisement is with a time
limit the
customer is bound to forget about the product or the company within a
short
period after the time limit expires and it doesn’t create a deep impact
on the
minds of the customer.
Competing
against a rival company’s ad also can contribute 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, if it like an imitation its
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 you are writing an advertisement for a restaurant, it will get
customers to come in and purchase immediately if done properly. But if
the
advertisement is to purchase a new computer, it won’t yield immediate
results,
as it’s not every day that someone buys a new computer. This is called analysis of
the purchase cycle.
