7 Secrets of Great Display Ads

One of the most popular media for futon specialty and home furnishings stores in general is the local daily or weekly newspaper. This article by award winning journalist Phillip M. Perry outlines in great detail an excellent plan of attack when you are out there, fishing for sales.~Editor

Why does one display ad boost your sales like crazy, while another falls flat on the page? We posed that question to six advertising experts from around the country. Their answer? Successful display ads have seven powerful characteristics. By understanding what they are, smart retailers suck customers right out the doors of the competition. Ads without these seven qualities waste money. "Research shows that less than 30 percent of readers notice any given advertisement," says Don Benton, president of The Benton Group, an advertising consulting firm in Vancouver, Wash. "And less than 10 percent read more than half of any given ad. So it's vital that every element of your advertisement grab and hold the reader for dear life." How can you pump more sales steam into your own display ads? First, dig out copies of your recent ads. Then consider the pointers below, applying the advice to make your presentation stronger.

1. Bait customers with a "core message."

Effective display ads send a powerful message that grabs the attention of readers and makes them take action.

"The core message in your ad must reflect your specific store image," says David Farmer, executive director of Creative Alliance, a Louisville, Ky.-based advertising agency. "What central idea do you want people to walk away with?" Here are some examples of store images:

• Value: Do you offer better quality than competitors?
• Price: Are your goods cheaper than elsewhere?
• Expertise: Are your employees great at answering customer questions?
• Instruction: Do you offer seminars that improve customers' lives?
• Friendliness: Do you treat customers like family?

How do you choose the best image&emdash; and thus the right core message&emdash; for your store? Try these two solutions to the problem. First, consider what message your display ads have already been sending. Is it the message you want to get across? Can it be modified?

Second, consider what your competition is doing. This often suggests unfilled market niches. If everyone is stressing price, you may want to emphasize quality. Select a business image that you can live with for awhile. "Stay consistent," advises Larry Steinfeld, vice president of Commercial Arts Agency, New York. "Once you have attracted the public's attention, use your core message as a common element in all of your advertising. This helps readers remember your store." Skipping from one core message to another can reduce the sales power of your display ads. If one ad emphasizes price while another one emphasizes expertise, customers will be confused. They won't know how your store can help them in their shopping, so they'll go elsewhere.

Sometimes you can modify your core message if events dictate. Suppose, for example, the core message of all of your previous display ads has been employee expertise. One day you add a new department and you want to tell the world about it. How do you avoid corrupting your regular core message? Place a display ad that illustrates how your employees can answer all of the customers' questions in the store's new department.

Think of the message as the hub of a wheel. The other elements of the ad are spokes revolving around the hub. They help drive your message home to the customer. Now let's move on to the three elements that advertising experts say are most effective in driving home that core message to customers: the headline, the typeface and the illustration.

2. Hook 'em with a headline.

To keep busy readers from whizzing right by your ad, stop them in their tracks with a snappy headline. Successful display ads tell readers why they should patronize a business. "You only have three seconds to keep the reader from flipping the page," says David Lipson, creative director at Ackerman McQueen, Oklahoma City, Okla. "If you don't sell your message fast, forget about it." Lipson says you should subject every potential headline to the following three-pronged test:

1) Is it simple?
2) Does it stop the reader cold?
3) Does it get your core message across?

Let's consider each.

To keep it simple, avoid concepts that can't be grasped immediately by most readers. "People don't want to play games," says Lipson. "Forget puns and jokes unless you can make them work." To stop the reader cold, present an arresting idea. Simply put, the reader needs some reason to keep from turning the page. "You can get the attention of the reader by stating a benefit," says Benton. "Or you can create an alarm factor."

Finally, to get your point across , state your core message in the headline. Readers won't bother reading the body copy of the ad if they aren't intrigued by the headline. Indeed, in many cases a good headline will do its work so well that body copy won't be required. Warns Lipson: "Only two people like body copy: the advertiser and the copywriter. The reader couldn't care less."

Not all successful headlines satisfy all three prongs of the above test. But try for all of them if you can.

Here are some examples: "Let Your Fingers do the Walking" is a famous headline. It's simple, stops the reader, and gets a core message across. "Our Loss is Your Gain" does the same for inventory clearance time.

"Don't Read This Ad!" is simple and stops the reader from turning the page. While it does not communicate a specific message, it's a proven winner. It shows that not every headline has to satisfy all three criteria. You can specify your message in a subhead.

"This is a half-priced ad" is another attention getter. Your subhead can explain that a certain line of goods is available at half price.

Avoid the most common mistake in display ad headlines: stating the name of the store with a perfunctory message. Something like "Johnson Store's Labor Day Special" satisfies the "keep-it-simple" requirement. However, only the store owner will stop to read that ad.

"Most business people want to use the headline to tell the readers who they are," says Benton. "But readers don't care what the name of your business is. They only care about what you can do for them."

3. Reel 'em in with a killer visual.

"A picture is worth a thousand words," says Benton. "But only if it's the right picture." Effective ads have great pictures.

Suppose your headline is weak. Well, the illustration is the next best customer grabber. "You either stop them with a headline or stop them with a picture," says Harold Sly, creative director at Cunningham, Sly, Wadsack, Wilson & Hodges (CSWW&H), Shreveport, Louisiana. "If neither of those does the trick, you've lost the customer."

Attract More Customers With... 1. A vital "core message." 2. A traffic-stopping headline. 3. A picture that portrays the message. 4. A plain typeface. 5. A simple border. 6. A tidy appearance. 7. A size that attracts the eye.

What makes an illustration right? It has to enhance the message of the headline. "The best ads have a visual that works together with the headline in a perfect fit," says Lipson. Visuals can be photographs, cartoons or logos. Photographs are the strongest vehicles for catching the eye, but they involve extra expense and should only be used if reproduction quality to good. It can be hard to find a photo that reinforces the key message, and tougher still if you have a limited space within which to work. Cartoons can be designed to reinforce the core message and add humor. And they can often communicate a point that a photo cannot. If your core image is quality, for example, you might choose a cute cartoon figure with an award button reading "Number 1!" pinned on his proud chest.

If your headline is "Don't Read This Ad!" you might have a burly policeman blowing a whistle and holding up a STOP sign toward the reader.

The final category of visual is the logo. If you start using a logo, keep it small and avoid trying to broadcast a message with it. Recall that a common mistake is to use a store name as a headline. Same goes for using the store logo as a large visual.

In an ad, the logo's key function is to tie together a number of display ads to help the reader remember previous messages. But it cannot broadcast a strong enough message on its own to stop the reader from flipping the page.

What if you can't find a piece of art that echoes the ad's core message? Don't use any!

"Avoid using art for art's sake," says Sly. "When you have limited space, don't clutter it with images that don't enhance the message and motivate the reader to patronize your business." Poorly selected art can do more than take up space: it can throw your message out of focus. A confused reader won't take action. The ad bombs.

4. Select a typeface that matches your message.

"The typeface should reflect what the ad is saying and what the ad is about," says Tom Smith, creative director at Wyse Advertising, Cleveland. "The typeface, the illustration and the headline all have to complement one another."

In most cases, straightforward typefaces make better ads. "The one that has survived since the 1940's is good old Helvetica," says Sly. "It's highly readable and can be used creatively." Avoid an "arty" typeface. Some advertisers believe that such a typeface will get the attention of the reader, since other advertisers are not using it. Wrong. Recall that there are only two ways to get your message across: through the headline or through the visual. Let those elements do that job. The typeface must fall in "lock step" behind the leaders. Fact is, the fancy typefaces are hard to read. "Don't forget that to most people, advertising is an annoyance," says Lipson. "If you throw something in their face that is even more annoying, they will turn away."

For that reason, artists suggest staying away from fancy script typeface, reverse type, or even italics. "Some studies have shown that reverse type retards readership by as much as 30 percent," cautions Benton. "And you lose the reader after the third word." Avoid at all costs using many different typefaces in an ad, in a misguided attempt to create excitement. "You end up with a ransom note effect that irritates readers," says Lipson. Headlines can be made more powerful by using large, bold versions of standard typefaces. In rare cases, you may use a wild typeface to enhance an unusual message. For example, a jagged type may be used for a headline such as "Our manager has gone insane!" (as in offering insane, low prices.) Body typeface should be as plain as possible or readers will avoid it. If you need to highlight elements in the body type, use simple techniques such as a series of plain round bullets.

Okay! We've covered the three elements that support the core message. Now let's move on to more ways to pump "sales steam" into your display ads.

5. Surround your ad with a simple border.

The experts suggested keeping the typeface simple. Same goes for borders: simple ones make great ads.

"I always suggest a border that has one of two designs," says Benton. "The first is a hairline thin border, from one- sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch thick. The other is a bold, black border that is up to a quarter of an inch thick."

Position Your Ad Placement is important. You can get more bang for your buck by negotiating a prominent position for your advertisement. Here are some guidelines: Position the ad toward the front of the publication, since forward pages get more reader attention. Do certain departments or sections of the publication have special appeal to your customers? Place your ads there. Request positions on right hand pages. These are more visible.

A hairline border will pull together the other elements of your ad, without distracting from the message. The thick border will help your ad stand out from others on the page, but will not be distracting.

Avoid fancy borders that might irritate a reader who is already prone to ignore advertising. A border that strings a bunch of arrowheads together, pointing toward the center of the ad, may appear to do an admirable job of grabbing the attention of a busy reader. Not likely. Only the headline or the illustration can do that. "Don't use any gimmicks that can detract from the purpose of the border," says Benton.

6. Avoid clutter.

"Don't say too much. Use white space well."

Great ads are tidy, say the experts. You'll recall that the very first suggestion in this article was to determine what message you want to communicate. The headline should zero in on that specific message and the rest of the ad should fall in line. Avoid trying to add additional thoughts that only confuse the key message and fatigue the reader.

"Advertisers usually try to squeeze too much into one ad," says Steinfeld. "The reader misses the real message."

White space can actually serve as a kind of graphic, attracting the eye of the reader in a pleasing way. "In a page crowded with ads, the eye tends to look for something comfortable to read," says Steinfeld. "White space can provide that comfort. Use it around your copy."

7. Select the right ad size.

Full page ad? Half page? A column-width ad stretching from top to bottom of a page? These are just some of the possibilities when it comes to an ad's size. Ads work better if they are proportioned in a way that catches the reader's eye.

"A three-quarter page ad is often more effective than a full page one," says Benton. "That's because ads that cover a full page have to do the complete job of arresting the reader." If your headline and graphic don't work, the reader turns the page and your investment goes down the drain.

"In contrast, a three-quarter page ad is surrounded by text," points out Benton. "The editorial content keeps the reader glued to the page for several minutes. That means there is much more time for the reader to notice your ad, get the message and take action."

Another tip: lay out your ad from left to right rather than from the top down. In other words, a half-page or quarter-page ad running along the bottom of the page would be more effective than a one-column ad. Why? "People are more comfortable reading from left to right," says Benton. "Notice that billboards, for example, are never designed vertically so the information flows from top to bottom."

That's it. If you've subjected your own display ads to analysis based on the advice of our experts, you probably have all kinds of ideas for improving what you send to the printer. Keep these seven characteristics in mind and get more bang from your advertising buck.