Timely Tips

10 Tips for More Effective
Advertising.

1. Have a strategic plan and work it
2. Know your audience
3. Consider non-traditional media – garbage can wraps, floor stickers, etc.
4. If your competitors are zigging, you should zag
5. Make your message dramatize the benefit of what you’re selling
6. Make the product the hero – visually and verbally
7. Don’t shout at your readers – make them want to jump into your ad
8. Don’t make it look like advertising
9. Resist the usual
10. Entertain your audience

Writing for Websites.

1. People don’t read the web thoroughly or linearly—they scan, skim and click.
2. Get to the point—find out what site visitors want to know and provide the information. Don’t slow them down with self-serving content.
3. Use subheads—it helps the reader quickly determine the type of content on the page and the parts that interest them.
4. Use bulleted lists—they’re the essence of skim-ability.
5. Write short paragraphs—long blocks of copy are death on a website.
6. Write in short, active sentences—dump the adjectives and work the verbs. Craft sentences that jump, sing, cry.
7. Write using the inverted pyramid—put the most important information (who, what, when, where and why) in the first sentences, with more detail following.
8. Use simple writing style—write the way you talk. Read your writing out loud to make sure it sounds natural.