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 futon store 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 and thus the right core message for your futon 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 futon 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.

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