Write Ads that Promote Brands

Your brand should be built on what you can deliver and what you do deliver. If your brand says you have the lowest priced product of your competitors but then a customer finds your type of product elsewhere, your brand has just been ruined in their eyes. But if you consistently have the lowest-priced product, then you’ve stayed true to your brand and your brand will be positive in consumers’ eyes. That is what you want: to stay to your brand promise.

To let consumers know about your brand promise, you need to write ads that promote your brand. Here are some ways to write your ads so that they promote your brand:

1. Your brand is people’s perception of you, so use their point of view in your ads. Effective ads contain copy that appeal to prospects because they’re written from the prospects’ point of view. You need to write what people are saying about you when you’re not around. Don’t give your opinion of your company and brand, but echo people’s opinions of your company and brand. If you can understand and express why your customers come back to you, you’ll discover your brand message in those reasons. That’s what needs to be in your ads.

2. Don’t hype up your claims. People today are skeptical of advertising because they’ve been burned before. Companies in the past have made promises that they can’t keep, so now customers are weary to believe your claims. So you need to prove that what you say about your brand is true. Brand loyalty is built with emotions as well as facts. You should use testimonials to back up your claims. Be sure to use people’s full names and their photos to keep your testimonials from sounding fake.

3. Jazz up your language with verbs. People want to know what your brand will do for them. They don’t want your brand to be explained to them with lots of adjectives. Verbs encourage people to take action to think that you are taking action with your brand.

4. Keep your brand image focused at the beginning of the ad and at the end of ad. Psychologically, the principles of primacy and recency mean that people will remember the first words and last words of your ads the most. So if you do a brochure printing piece, you should include a headline on the front panel that expresses something about your brand, and then the back, or last panel readers will see should also say something about your brand. The best way to do this is to open and close with the same mental image or the same feeling. This is why good ads start with an idea or phrase and then repeats that idea of phrase at the end. It brings the ad around full circle and helps people remember your ad and your brand promise.

5. Stay consistent. You need to use the same color palette on all of your marketing materials to help solidify your brand, but you also need to keep your writing style consistent. This means not only in your print materials, but also in radio and TV ads, and even the way your staff talks with customers. For instance, if your brochures say something about how you may help customers, when employees answer the phone they should say “How may I help you?”

Consistency and repetition are most important to brands. It’s going to take at least two years before you have a brand that people know. Don’t get discouraged halfway through and change your brand, because the timeline will just have to start over again. Just keep promoting how you’ve got the lowest-priced product in town, and after a while, people will start to notice.
Notice how I used #4 on you right there?