1. Create a great headline or title.
Make it memorable, unusual or provocative using a few carefully chosen powerful words.
2. .Present a unique and consistent image.
One large image will have more impact than many smaller images. A stunning photo or illustration grabs attention, creates a mood, and supports your story. Use a very strong visual, either a photo or an illustration. This image is your "focal point" and will attract your readers. A very powerful advertising technique is to use a photograph of a person with their eyes looking directly at you as it produces a higher response than a photograph of a person with eyes looking elsewhere.
3. Appeal to your target audience, not yourself.
Your prospects will ask the question, "What's in it for me?" Write from their perspective using the words "you" and "your."
4. Use compelling testimonials and case studies.
Nothing strikes a chord like an endorsement from a happy customer, especially if it demonstrates the results they've had with your product or service. Be sure to include the first and last name, company name and location of the person providing the endorsement.
5. Organize your page with boxes, borders and areas of contrasting colours.
You don't need to fill your advert with wall-to-wall text and graphics. Incorporate some white space to make certain elements stand out and to make the advert easy to read. White space can stop people in their tracks, and produce a higher response rate. Using a reverse print ad (black background with white font) makes it’s hard to read and could get you a lower response. Select carefully your colour contrasts so that your type will be readable on the page. For instance do not use brown type on a black background as it is low-contrast and virtually unreadable. Use dark type on light backgrounds and vice versa. Also avoid placing type on busy backgrounds.
6. Make your points easily identifiable.
Highlight titles and subtitles in bold, but avoid using ALL CAPS throughout your advert because they are more difficult to read.
Keep it simple - in advertising, less is more.
Make it simple with two type fonts. Commas everywhere really distract your eye. Your message gets lost because your reader is trying to make sense of your sentence. Keep your sentences short enough that you don’t require a lot of commas or use bullet points. Adverts with lists and bullet points get read more than ads with paragraphs.
7. Don't forget to proof read.
Check your advert more than once and even have someone else proof read your work. Check your contact information - dial the phone numbers to make sure they are correct and type the URL of your website in the browser and send a message to your email address to make sure it is working correctly.
8. When offering a discount
Design a coupon at the bottom of the advert. Be sure to clearly state the deadlines and limitations of the offer.
9. Your Logo
The logo should be placed in the bottom right area of the ad, because that's where the eye is drawn to last.
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