by Peter Knight - Wednesday, 5th September 2007 -

Choose an advert that really turns you on.
Rarely, if ever, are you your target audience. Nor are your fellow directors, your colleagues, partner or friends.

If you don’t truly know what your target audience thinks and does, and know what you want them to think and do, you’re well on the way to advertising failure.

Make it appeal to everyone.
No advert has ever, or will ever, appeal to more than a small percentage of the people who could potentially buy your stuff.

Good ads concentrate on influencing one key group at a time.

Claim without proving.
An advert that states “we’re slightly better than average if truth be told” will have far more stand-out than all the others that scream “we’re the best”.

If you can’t prove something, then don’t claim it.

Use the phrases “Outstanding Quality”, “Best Price” and “Excellent Service” liberally.
These, and other nominalisations, can be found in most of the truly awful adverts. They tell the reader, “our products and services have nothing really special about them so we’ll fall back on these old staples instead.”

If you have nothing to say then save your money. Better still, invest in some R&D so you will have something to shout about in the future.

Seek instant results.
For years retailers had an annual sale and people would flock to them for a bargain. Then sales became more frequent, and in time some stores never even bothered to take the “SALE” signs down.

The impact was diluted then lost. A truly awful advert is similar: crammed full of deals, special offers and last minute opportunities – all the time.

On the other hand, a real deal used selectively can have huge impact.

Go for brand building and direct response, all at once.
Brand advertising makes people aware of your company before they need some of what you’re selling. Direct response pushes them to buy.

Now I accept that the best tactical adverts support the brand, and the best brand development ads lift sales in the short term. But the worst ads attempt to achieve the near impossible by doing two jobs at once.

Cram the advert full. Go on, make at least five points!
As we’re exposed to several thousand messages every day, we have the attention span of the village idiot in the goldfish bowl (I’m told that even goldfish have a hierarchy of intelligence).

The very worst ads confuse the reader by attempting to sell too many things at once.

Make your best point clearly and concisely – and resist the temptation to do any more.

Change your advertisement regularly.
You will be bored of your advertisement long before your target audience is even aware of it, so if you really want low impact: change, change and change your ads, again and again.

The most powerful messages are the ones we gradually become aware of, that drip-feed into our consciousness and in time cause us to respond.

Assume your audience are experts – or idiots.
The ads which get the fastest response of the wrong kind – the turn-the-page kind! – are those that confuse or patronise. You need to know how to pitch your ads. Avoid jargon but don’t explain the obvious.

Expect the ad to do the salesman’s job for him.
Good adverts generate enquiries that then need to be converted into sales.

You know this makes sense, so why do so many ads attempt to capture the attention, make the sales pitch and close the deal all in one go?