Any business owner knows there’s great power in marketing and advertising. In fact, many of them pay thousands of dollars every year to other businesses who specialize in making their brands visible, accessible, and engaging. Although it’s easy to outsource these tasks to people who’ve dedicated their careers to it, business owners should still learn the advertising landscape and what techniques might work for them. Being in the know can help them to collaborate with the firm they hire or even take on their ad campaign themselves.

What It Takes

Some people think great advertisers need to mentally strong or well-educated, but really there are only six main traits that every great advertiser has. The first is a collaborative personality. Creating effective ads can take time and lots of revision, so being willing and able to work with others is key to creating the best version of your vision. Advertisers also need to be creative; this helps with crafting catchy taglines, designing eye-catching logos, and crafting compelling messages.

Great advertisers are well-informed, organized, and reliable too. Staying abreast of trends and new products can greatly help to contribute timely and useful ideas to your group. Being organized helps to keep all these ideas in easy-to-find places and might even help when it comes to sharing them with other members of the team. Every professional should be reliable, but especially advertisers because often they work on tight deadlines for other companies who expect all the materials to come through.

Finally, to be a great advertiser a person needs to be persistent. Especially if they work at a consulting firm that creates materials for other companies, they might face a lot of rejection from clients. It takes lots of time and energy to create the perfect product for someone else, so an advertiser needs to be willing to rework and rearrange any of their ideas as many times as necessary.

Top Techniques

There are tons of different ways to approach advertising, but a few of these techniques have been proven to be the most effective. The first is to use effective headlines. A headline is the very first interaction any brand has with its customers, so it should be catchy and informative. Bold, large fonts are great ways to bring in a reader and show them what’s the most important information on the page.

Another great tactic is to utilize cross promotions on other websites or with other companies. Odds are someone out there has a complementary product that could be added to your marketing and vice versa. This can help to get more exposure for a product or business and tap into audiences they might not otherwise be able to reach. 

When crafting an advertising message, other avant garde campaigns might come to mind. The best part of modern advertising is that it welcomes humor and word play as a way to engage the audience. If a brand sells something unique or is cornering a niche market, then finding funny taglines, slogans, or mottos can be a great way to let customers know the company plays as hard as it works.

Business owners also want to make sure they’re adding their advertising to the most popular spaces so the most people can see them. To accomplish this, there’s no better way than utilizing an online ad campaign. Things like Google Ads and Analytics can help advertisers target their audience and study how well the ads are working. They can even employ social media advertising or pop up ads on their personal websites to get the most out of the online space.

What to Include

Knowing the best ways to advertise is helpful, but if someone still doesn’t know what message to put out there, these tips won’t be too helpful. Crafting a marketing message is a difficult task, but there’s a handful of basic rules business owners can follow to make an effective ad.

First and foremost, they need to determine what makes their business unique. Is there a specific product or service that sets them apart from their competitors? Whatever this trait is, it should be the highlight of the advertisement. Tell people what is offered and why they should buy it in as concise a manner as possible.

As mentioned before, the next step is to use a powerful headline to draw the reader in. This might be a bold statement about the brand, a funny quip about the customer’s problem, or a straightforward statement about how the product makes someone’s life better. Whatever it is, it needs to be clear, concise, and compelling. Positioning headlines on a website is also key to having them noticed. Headlines should be big and bold, front and center so they’re the first thing a reader sees.

Every advertisement needs a call to action. This is the statement that tells customers what the company wants them to do and how to do it. It could be “hit purchase now to get yours today” or “call this number to schedule a meeting with one of our qualified professionals.” Wherever the call to action is, there should also be the information to accomplish the task. Include a “purchase now” button next to the product or have the phone number listed next to “schedule an appointment.” Making the action easy for the customer makes it more likely they’ll engage.

If space permits, using testimonials is an easy way to build trust in a brand. At the bottom of a webpage or advertisement, businesses could include a star rating from their customers and blurbs of customer feedback saying nice things about their products. This shows potential buyers that other people have done business with the brand and were satisfied. Be careful not to go overboard with this tactic, though. Having to scroll through an entire page of praise and complaints can be overwhelming for prospects, so try to keep it to just three or four short reviews.

Becoming a great advertiser is easy with these tips and techniques!