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 viewer or 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 any information. This does nothing but decreases the
effectiveness of the ad and 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 of the necessities 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. 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 relationship builder. Because once the customers are established,
they will start trusting the company and won’t switch to other companies.
According to a research it takes ten percent less resources to retain existing customers
than attracting new customer. If the focus is on brand recognition, the
advertisement should be traffic building.
The next point is whether the advertiser wants quick
results or long lasting results. If quick result is desired, then a time limit
should be levied. Like in case of seasonal sales, the customer hurries to get
advantage before the offer is over. So quick results are expected in this case.
But the disadvantage with advertisement with time limit is that the customer
are bound to forget about the product or the company within a short period and
it doesn’t creates a deep impact on the minds of the customer.
Competing against 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 like 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 analysis of the purchase cycle.
If targeting for a higher impact, newsletter is
the best bet. But if the newsletters are sent to the real potential customers,
then this approach should be adopted for message delivery. It should only be
opted 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. 
