Will Your Newspaper Ad Pass The 3-Second Test? You need to understand why and how people read newspapers in order to create effective newspaper ads. “Why” is simple. To get the news. . . especially news about our local community and activities. While it’s true that many people now get national and international news on the Internet, readers in every demographic turn to the local newspaper to check out events and happenings in and around (YOUR AREA/TOWN). Many people enjoy the portability that newspapers offer. Many simply do not care to read from a computer screen regardless of their increasingly mobile and varied lifestyles. Many if not most silence TV commercials with their “clicker.” That’s a partial list of why people read newspapers. “How” people read newspapers is a bit more complex. There is far more content in a newspaper than most readers have time to read so they SCAN the pages for headlines and pictures that appeal to their own self interest. The operative words are “their own self interest.” When you understand this fact, you have a shot at creating an ad that actually reaches your target audience. When people say to you that they “saw your ad,” it means little unless those same people are in the market for what you sell (your target market). Those are the only people that really matter when it comes to judging the effectiveness of your ad, assuming you are trying to sell either goods or services. Most small businesses cannot afford to run “image only” ads. Case in point: the mega-corporations spend millions of dollars on clever TV ads that air during the Super Bowl. Most viewers can recall the clever lines and graphics but darn few can actually tell you who the advertiser was or what exactly they were attempting to sell. But they “saw” the ads! Mega corporations can afford image only ads. I doubt that you can. Consider: you have approximately 3 SECONDS to engage a reader when they turn to the page containing your advertisement. It is the job of your headline and dominant graphic to interrupt the reader’s scanning patterns. IF your headline and dominant graphic appeal to the reader’s SELF interest, you may even get your copy read. Visually strong yet simplified information is what gets noticed. Newspaper readers enter an ad from the top left simply because we read from left to right. Reader’s eyes then scan from top to bottom and will normally go to an eye- catching visual, especially if the visual is near the top of the ad. Readers read down from where they start on the ad and their eyes will rarely move up again once they’ve read down. It’s a good idea to “diagram” your initial ad layout with red arrows to show where the reader’s eye should go first, second and so on. Does your ad layout have readers’ eyes tracking the ad elements the way you intended? If not, make whatever changes are necessary. Marketing Emporium
Grand Junction, CO 81506 |
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