Small Business Marketing Kit For Dummies, 3rd Edition

Writing and Designing Your Ads

In the best print ads, the headline, copy, and graphics work together to capture attention, inspire the target market, promote the product’s benefits, prompt the desired consumer action, and advance the brand of the business that placed the ad. (For more about brands, turn to Chapter 7.)

Whether you create ads yourself with aid from someone experienced in the fields of copywriting, design, and ad production or you turn to pros who create ads for a living, use this section to understand the key steps in the print ad production process. From writing headlines and copy to making design decisions to preparing materials for reproduction by print media outlets, the upcoming pages highlight what you need to know.

Packing power into headlines

A headline is a print ad’s major introductory statement. It’s the large-type sentence or question that aims to stop readers in their tracks, target the right prospects, and pull them inside the ad to read more.

Four out of every five people who see your ad will read only the headline. Here’s where the rest of the readers go:

One reader sees your headline and moves on because he doesn’t have time to study the details at the moment.

A second reader sees the headline and rules herself out as a prospective customer because ...