Making Your Ad More Creative

We sometimes see an ad that really catches our eye or ear.  We think “why can’t I come up with something like that?” You can if you follow some time honored points in advertising creative strategy. 

The five points for better creative advertising are: know your audience, tell about the product, make a promise, tell why you should buy it and describe the character of your business. If you follow these points, your creativeness will definitely produce a fresh appeal to your customers so they will want to come in and shop.

The first point is knowing your audience.  Many small business owners say everyone is their customer.  That is simply not true.  While they have may have a wide array of people coming into their shop, the customers they really want to reach repeatedly are the ones who buy most frequently from them. As a business owner, you need to be able to describe your customers in terms of demographics, shopping habits, lifestyle, etc. This will help you in thinking of words, scenes, etc. that will appeal to them in your ads where you show targeted products in use.

Then comes the product(s) you want to push in the ad.  Since you know what your best customers like, you have the task of putting your product into their life in your ad.  If they can see it in a setting they can relate to very comfortably, then there is an increased chance they will come in and look at it or call you about the service you offer.  The key here is putting your product or service into their life.

The third item for stronger creativeness is making a promise to your readers or listeners.  This promise is part of your competitive advantage – it is something you do better than your competitors do.  Maybe it is price, service, guarantees, etc.  You want to make sure to tell your potential customers in your ad what that is.  This is one of the most important parts of your creative advertising because it tells people what you do best.

Fourthly, after you have told the customers your promise, you then back it up with a statement or example of how the product/service delivers on the promise.  For example, if your promise is to have the lowest prices in town, then you would state you will not be undersold.  If your promise is to have the most unique inventory then tell where you got your inventory from to show that it

did not come from around the corner.

The final part of strong creative advertising is describing the character of your business. This is where you get to tell potential customers what to expect when they come to see you. You could say you are the place like no other, or come in to see the wonderful world charms, trinkets and babbles. You are setting your visitors up for the experience they will receive when they walk in.  This is very important because everyone can remember when they walked into a business establishment only to be disappointed. 

Working on these five tips for better creative advertising will certainly help you drive traffic but remember that is the purpose of advertising to bring in the people.  You must sell them once they are there.

If you have questions about this article, feel free to contact Richard Proffer with MU Extension at 573-243-3581 or email him at profferrd@missouri.edu.