How To Create a Successful Advertising Plan

Introduction

Advertising is a marketing communication that employs an openly sponsored, non-personal message to promote or sell a product, service or idea. Sponsors of advertising are typically businesses wishing to promote their products or services.

Advertising is differentiated from public relations in that an advertiser pays for and has control over the message. It differs from personal selling in that the message is non-personal, i.e., not directed to a particular individual. Advertising is communicated through various mass media, including traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, television, radio, outdoor advertising or direct mail; and new media such as search results, blogs, social media, websites or text messages. The actual presentation of the message in a medium is referred to as an advertisement, or “ad” or advert for short.

This article explains the “How To Create a Successful Advertising Plan”. It includes common-sense best practices, tried and true methods and personal organization techniques to help you plan your advertising and campaigns.

How To Create a Successful Advertising Plan

Many factors have to be considered when making an advertising plan.

Like the type of message to be delivered, the audience to be targeted, how they should be targeted, budget, etc. all of which depends on the nature of the advertisement.

Regarding the type of message to be delivered, try thinking from the point of the customer. What will impress him and catch his fancy? Note down points what the customer expects from the company and what advantage will he have when dealing with the company.

Effort should be made to retain the viewer, listener’s or reader’s interest in the advertisement until the end. This procedure is known as message selection.

After creating the outline of the picture, pick lines that will actually attract the customer. The message shouldn’t be long enough to bore the customer. Some advertisers are under the illusion that more the matter written, the better the message delivered. Usually, they fear that they don’t miss out on any information. This does nothing but decreases the effectiveness of the ad and the customer is left unsatisfied.

For example, the heading of the advertisement shouldn’t be just “We Sell Clothes”, which is too precise. The liking of the people should be studied, and the headline should be designed such that the customer feels that his needs are met.

It should also take into consideration seasonal changes like If the season at that time is summer and there are lots of beaches around that area, the heading of the ad should be something like “Summer Clothes for Sale” or “Get the heat off – Buy Swimwear”.

The body of the advertisement should talk about the necessity to switch to summer clothes like cotton clothing. It should discuss the health point of view too, like cotton cannot be used as swimwear as it will cause contamination, therefore the swimwear is made of synthetic material. It should also include lines about swimwear for overweight people.

Ads are either traffic builder or relationship builders or reputation builder. Suppose the budget involved is less, the target should be a relationship builder. Because once the customers are established, they will start trusting the company and won’t switch to other companies.

According to research, it takes ten percent fewer resources to retain existing customers than attracting new customers. If the focus is on brand recognition, the advertisement should be traffic building.

The next point is whether the advertiser wants quick results or longlasting results. If a quick result is desired, then a time limit should be levied. Like in case of seasonal sales, the customer hurries to take advantage of a sale before the offer has ended.

So quick results are expected in this case. But the disadvantage with an advertisement with a time limit is that the customer is bound to forget about the product or the company within a short period and it doesn’t create a deep impact on the minds of the customer.

Competing against a rival company’s ad also contributes to a successful advertising plan. The power of the message should be compared to that of the competitors. It doesn’t mean that the advertiser should use the same plan as his competitor, it would look like imitation and effectiveness will be decreased. But the advertisement should be planned smartly via a different and effective path, to out-do the competitor’s advertisement.

The description of the product is also very vital like suppose an advertisement is made for a restaurant, it will get customers immediately if it is attractive. But if the advertisement is for a computer, it won’t yield immediate results, as it’s not every day that someone buys a computer. This is called an analysis of the purchase cycle.

If targeting a higher impact, the newsletter is the best bet. But if the newsletters are sent to real potential customers, then this approach should be adopted for message delivery. It should only be opted to be after thorough analysis, no matter what the budget is.

Another important point is to always hire a professional advertiser or an ad writer because not hiring one will sometimes be more expensive and results in more losses.

Get Your Creative Juices Flowing If You Want To Create Good Advertisements!

Those who don’t have creativity as an in-built talent, it takes some hard work to learn the art of advertising. There are some really basic tricks involved.

First, try to put things that you have, to use i.e. the five senses along with the brain. Eyes can capture the most beautiful scenes; try remembering those that are creative. Try to observe Mother Nature like observing the sunset, the patterns of colors like yellow, orange, red and violet.

Observe greenery around, the flora and fauna. Next, put your ears and mouth to use and try increasing the observation power. This can be done by walking around the neighborhood or nearby parks and trying to observe new things every day at the same location. Just seeing a
thing isn’t enough, analyze the expressions of the people around you and analyze the emotions they depict.

The brain can be fed with many things at once, so carry a camera along and take a lot of pictures of objects from different angles and lighting.

Try to understand and capture the mood and things, which will help in creating a perfect scene. Like vanilla ice-cream will become more attractive when a cherry and mint leaves are added as a topping. Play around with the lighting effects.

Take notes along with the pictures. It is like creating a blueprint that will be useful in future works. Things that are important can be underlined or marked with a star.

During this procedure, if any question arises in your mind, note them down also, so as to find an answer for them at a later stage. This is a great learning technique. Try to listen a lot, compile those things in the brain and then output it through your mind.

Try to create a rhythm between works, something like poetry, but not exactly it. The fifth sense, touch can be used to learn a different perspective on life. Try closing your eyes and feel objects around you like the feel of a satin sheet is more tempting than a cotton sheet.

Develop a habit of carrying a pen and notepad all the time. It’s not only useful for taking down notes but also it can be used as a reminder of meetings and interviews. While waiting for something or someone, scribble on your notepad.

Try to draw things and apply those amazing ideas which come to mind. Go back home and then paint those ideas, if not every day, at least on weekends. Other than painting, try doing something new on weekends like golfing, canoeing, or rock climbing. Watching television and shopping can also provide good ideas.

When something is troubling the mind, don’t go to sleep until the issue is resolved. This increases enthusiasm and determination. Again, note down points in the notepad at this time.

If there is ample time available, join courses that increase creativity like photography, painting, martial arts, etc. It need not be necessary that they are directly linked to advertising. Maintain a diary and note down daily happening, especially good things. Learn the art of humor, read books, watch people and animals and then apply it practically by trying to put a smile on faces around you.

Do research about great personalities who are related to arts. Read their biographies, some of the problems you are facing may be answered and the path to be taken can be learned.

After going through all the above steps, creative instincts will start to develop. So, the next time any idea clicks, trust your instincts and work on it. Don’t hesitate to try new ideas. And try to interact with people who encourage you with this and believe in you and not inhibit your thinking.

A Word about Branding

Commercial ads often seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through “branding“, which associates a product name or image with certain qualities in the minds of consumers. On the other hand, ads that intend to elicit an immediate sale are known as direct-response advertising.