Tag: advertising for your small business

15 Design Tips to Help Your Print Ad Stand Out

A series of color ads run through a printer

The world of advertising is vast, with countless creative and technical options to choose from when crafting your print ad. With so many variables, it’s hard to know where to start — that’s why we’ve put together this blog post. Here are 15 tips to help your printed ad stand out with Kansas City advertising:

 

1.) Use Humor

Humor has been a staple of print ads, and it’s worked for decades. A little humor can break through the clutter and catch the reader’s attention, which is especially important in today’s media-saturated world. Adding humor to your ad will help it stand out and make the reader smile so that they might also remember your brand.

 

2.) Use Proximity

Proximity is a funny word, but it can be an important part of the ad. Proximity simply means “nearness,” and where it can be used in advertising is to make a visual connection between the reader and what you have to offer. This can be done through images floating in space or even a physical representation like a product or its packaging.

 

3.) Use an Action Shot

A picture truly is worth a thousand words, and that statement holds true in print advertising. Effective action shots can show the reader what your printed ad will look like in real life. Vectors, analogs, close-ups, and portraits all make for effective action shots.

 

4.) Use Multiple Calls to Action

Each call to action (CTA) should be unique and tailored to your audience. This helps the reader understand what you want them to do and gives them confidence in the action you are asking them to take. Remember, a CTA can be verbal or visual, so there are multiple ways in which you can make a clear request to your audience.

 

5.) Use Contrast

Contrast is another word that has popped up a lot recently. We’ve put it here to wrap up many of the previous tips, but it also makes for a useful addition on its own. There are two forms of contrast that make for effective print ads — visual and psychological.

Psychological contrast is easy to explain — it’s just making a comparison (or contrast) between two different things, whether they be ideas or products. Visual contrast is more visually-oriented, with either color use or pattern matching making up the difference between your ad and other print ads in the space.

 

6.) Use a Single Color

While contrast is about using a variety of colors, using a single color can be just as effective — if not more so. A single color allows you to focus on one product or idea and shows how it stands out from everything else. Using less color can actually catch the reader’s attention more than using a lot of colors, but only if you use the right shade.

 

7.) Know Your Market

Most print ads need to be thoughtfully crafted with the audience in mind. Understanding your market is important because it helps you to understand what your target audience wants and what they are looking for in your brand’s product or service. Kansas City advertising has a wide range of different races, ages, and backgrounds, so finding a balance between them is important to get the best results from your ad.

 

8.) Know Your Product or Service

Understanding what you are selling — whether directly or indirectly — is a vital part of successful Kansas city advertising. Having an understanding of what your product is and what it can do for the reader helps to create a stronger connection between them and your brand.

 

9.) Test Everything

There’s no better way to get an idea of how effective your ad will be than to put it in front of a real audience. There are several ways to do this: focus groups, guerilla marketing, A/B testing, and more. With the help of Kansas City advertising professionals, you can find the best way to get accurate results from your market.

 

10.) Know Your Audience

What do they want? That’s the question you should ask yourself when creating your next print ad. The answer to this question will be different for every person, and so you need to market toward specific groups. For example, will your ad be focused on a demographic like young adults or older households? Knowing which groups you are advertising toward is a great way to make sure that your ad is effective for Kansas City advertising.

A stack of magazines with print ads

 

11.) Pick the Right Media Type

The media used for print ads varies widely, which means that you need to know your market and your product or service to pick the right media. If you’re selling a service, flyers and posters may be good options, but if you are selling a product that needs a visual representation, then magazines and newspapers might be better. It’s important to pick a format that takes advantage of the strengths of your product or service.

 

12.) Use Branding

Employing several logos, taglines and trademarks can all help to brand your company and make it memorable. Embracing your brand can help people associate you with quality, something that will benefit them when making a purchase decision. The best print ad features the logo of the company in some capacity, whether in the title or in conjunction with the product being advertised.

 

13.) Swap Connotations.

Maybe you’re selling a coffee machine, but your ad features an abstract coffee cup. It seems like it would work well, but what if the audience thinks that a different image would be more effective? Swap out the image and pay close attention to how they react. If they seem confused, or if they just don’t see anything appealing in the new image, it might be time to rethink your ad and try something else.

 

14.) Embrace Third-Party Advertising

Using other brands’ print ads can be a great way to further brand yourself, but it’s also a great way to expand your market. Not only is it good practice, but your product might even end up being featured in the ad. You just have to make sure that you stay true to your brand and don’t use the advertisement as a crutch or money grab.

 

15.) Leverage Hyperbole.

In Kansas city advertising. Hyperbole is an exaggeration of the truth, and using hyperboles in your print ad can help grab the reader’s attention. These statements can be positive, negative, or both — just don’t get carried away with your exaggeration!

 

Conclusion

These are just a few of the ways in which you can use print advertising to make your brand stand out. The key is to understand both the product or idea your ad is about and what your audience wants and needs. If you keep these six concepts in mind, you’ll have a better chance of making an effective ad that will get noticed.

Put these design tips to work in our weekly print publication. Your ad will run for at least 26 consecutive weeks and reach your desired target market. It will not be overlooked by larger ads run by bigger spenders either since all of our ads are 3” x 2.” You are also able to make edits to your ad free of charge. Contact us today for more information!

7 Effective Ways to Boost the Advertising for Your Small Business

A small business talks about advertising strategies

If you’re looking to generate more income for your small business, then you should look no farther than marketing. Larger companies and multi-million dollar corporations like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Target, etc. spend millions of dollars each year just on marketing. This marketing allows them to understand their demographic, understand how much their target demographic is willing to spend, and what exactly it is that they want.

So, the question stands: how can you, as a small business owner, improve advertising your small business and your brand in a way that can rival the big league players? It’s not exactly easy – or cheap – to have a whole marketing department at your disposal as a small business owner. Here are nine tips to help you get your foot in the door:

1.) Know your audience.

Big corporations get the inside scoop from their target demographic from doing things like surveys, watching trends, gauging what gets the most attention on social media, and so on. There’s no reason why you, as a small business owner, can’t do the same. Keep an eye on trends. Does your audience want more organic products instead of more manufactured products? What kind of clothing trends are popular right now?

Ask your customers. See what they like. The more you can cater to your clientele, the more business you’ll be able to generate. After all, if you’re able to keep the customers satisfied that you already have, then they’ll be more willing to bring others to your door.

2.) Interview customers.

This ties in heavily with knowing your audience, but interviewing your customers can really turn out to be one of the best ways for advertising your small business. Take surveys on what was the most eye-catching thing to your current clientele. What slogans, or advertisements, or products are they most enraptured by? What makes them want to be a repeat customer?

Finding out this information can be key to spreading your influence farther than you may have thought possible. 

3.) Have a website. 

This one seems like a no-brainer, but in this information age, having a website is more important now than ever before. If you don’t have a good website, it’ll be even harder to advertise your small business than you thought possible.

In today’s Internet-driven world, the first thing that people are likely to do once finding out about your business or product is Google it. They will want to see your hours, your product information, your customer reviews, any other products you may have – and that’s even before taking a step in your doors or ordering a product for themselves.

Having a solid, eye-catching, up-to-date website is more important now than ever before, when word of mouth advertising is more like sharing a post on Facebook than actually picking up the phone to call someone. Making sure that you have full control of your online presence is vital when trying to reach customers, and may even be able to increase your reach beyond the local.

4.) Have a social media platform.

Having a social media platform, especially in today’s climate, is one of the best promotional tools available. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and even TikTok now are incredible ways to get both you and your small business out there into the public eye. 

Creating beautiful advertisements and insightful posts that your followers can share can provide a big boost in sales to you and your small business. Or, you could create something silly and memorable that falls in line with more current trends.

In fact, some of the most popular TikTok accounts are brand accounts. The Duolingo and Scrub Daddy accounts both take popular TikTok trends and bend them to work in their brand’s favor. One thing is for sure: no one who goes to their TikTok accounts will forget what they saw. It may be unconventional, but it definitely works!

A personal scrolling through social media on their phone

5.) Turn to print advertising

It might seem a little too conventional when you first think about it, but in reality, newspaper advertising is still an effective way to get your name and brand out there. When so many ads pop up on our phones, computers, and TVs, we always find a way to fast forward through, or close them out, as quickly as possible. With print media, it is more intentional, and grabs the reader’s attention. When looking at advertising your small business, check out our website for information!

6.) Have a great customer service team.

No matter how many advancements in technology you may make, or how many rewards or promotions you may offer, there’s nothing that can beat just simple, good customer service. Good customer service can make or break a brand or business. As your business continues to grow, make sure that all of your staff is trained well and is able to answer most general questions about your business.

However, even more important than knowledge is good communication skills. Sometimes, the most memorable part of visiting a local business is the incredible and knowledgeable staff that work there. Good communication builds relationships, and relationships can build returning clientele.

7.) Do your research.

If you don’t know who you’re competing against, what kinds of similar products are out there, or how much your competitors are charging, there isn’t a lot of hope to be competitive in this market. Make sure that not only are you paying attention to what your customers want, but look around at the competition, too. What are they selling? How are they marketing it? What is their customer service like? Do they have loyalty programs? Are your prices fair for the market that we’re in compared to theirs? 

You always want to make sure that you aren’t undervaluing your services or your products, but charging too much can also be detrimental. Be sure not to drive away your business due to your high prices, because you haven’t been up to date with the market. It’s also important to note that while you don’t have to do everything that your competitor does, knowing that your products or services are as easily – if not more easily – accessible can make for a better experience.