Create a Successful Advertising Plan

When putting together an advertising plan many factors have to be considered. For instance,
determine the type of message that is needed to be delivered, the audience to be targeted,
how they should be targeted, what is a reasonable budget, etc. all of which depends on the
nature of the advertisement.

Think from the view point of the customer when considering the type of message to be
delivered. What will impress him and catch his fancy. Take note of what the customer
expects from the company and what advantage will he have when dealing with the
company. A creative and captivating effort should be carved into ad content which will
retain the viewer or listener�s or reader�s interest in the advertisement until the end. This
procedure is known as message selection.

After you form a picture and create the outline of the message, pick lines that will actually
attract the customer. The message should not be long enough to bore the customer. Some
advertisers are under the illusion that more written about the matter, the better the message
delivered. Usually they fear that they do not miss out any information. This does nothing
but decrease the effectiveness of the ad to where the customer is left unsatisfied.

Let us look at an example for a clothing store. The heading of the advertisement should not
simply be just �We Sell Clothes�, which is too precise and too plain. The preferences  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 designed to be either traffic builders or relationship builders or reputation builders. Suppose
the budget involved is less, the target should be relationship builders. 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 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 long lasting results. If quick results
are 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. Therefore quick results are expected in this case. But the disadvantage with advertisement with time limit is that the customers are bound to forget about the
product or the company within a short period and it does not form a deep impact on the minds of
the customer.

Competing against a rival company�s ad also contribute to a successful advertising plan. The
power and persuasion of the message should be compared to that of the competitors�. It does not
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 would not yield immediate results, as it is not every day that someone buys a
computer. This is called analysis of the purchase cycle.

If targeting for a higher impact, a 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 be an option of consideration only after a 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.
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