3 Components to Writing an Ad

Target – Offer – Copy

The three components to writing an ad are written above in order of importance.

Target

The first part to creating any ad is making sure it is placed in front of a good target audience. No matter how good the offer and copy, if the ad isn’t in front of the right people, you will not get any response.

Offer

The next component that needs to be considered is the offer. You need to make sure that the offer is strong enough to make the targeted consumer take action. With an offer, you want to make it something that has a high perceived value, but doesn’t have a high cost to the business.

You can partner with a supplier to offer a product. A restaurant could partner with a local vineyard in order to promote a new local wine, and sell it at the restaurant for next to nothing. The ad could be "Come in for dinner during the week of March 10th through March 17th and receive a bottle of wine on us."You can also use a service as an offer. Delivery, installation, massages, evaluations, hair cuts and styles, etc. The idea here is to use something that has a low variable cost, but also a high perceived value.

Copy

The last component of any ad is the copy. You want to find the best way to communicate the benefits and why you are better than your competition with the copy written for your advertisement. The key is to have consumer oriented communication that follows the "WIIFM Rule" What's in it for me? Be sure to keep that in mind for your audience.