One of the most important ways to communicate to others about your products or services is through advertisements. Like every form of communication, you must always consider how you are being heard. One of the worst things that could happen when putting out an ad is for consumers to receive the wrong message or not understand the message at all. When an ad is clear, and the consumer is listening they can be persuaded to engage in the call to action. This results in sales.

There are two major forms of advertisement. One type relies on feelings and emotions while the other is more logic based with numbers. When deciding the approach to use with advertisements consider who your target audience is. Do some research on trends and advertisements that tend to get a higher response rate and from what demographics. Think about how you might structure your ad to portray a feeling or how you could take a more rational approach. For example, research shows that females are more likely to respond to an emotion-based ad while males are more likely to respond to data not that males are more logical…they just like to think they are.

One way an ad might portray a feeling is by including an image of a smiling person regarding the product or service. While writing this, I glanced out the window and saw a large delivery truck with the ad “We Deliver!” and a huge picture of a smiling delivery driver. What does this ad say to me? The first thing that came to mind was that this delivery guy is nice, and he is happy to deliver to my house. The second thing I thought was “Oh wow, I had no idea they deliver, I might use that”. The third thing I got is that this would be convenient for me. So, in the 5-10 seconds it took for this truck to drive by my window, I felt kindness, generosity and worry-free from this company. Why? Because this man in the photo was smiling, the company appears to be generous for offering this service, and it will eliminate the stresses around going in person and picking up my groceries.

The key is to persuade the consumer to say “I need this” no matter the type of ad. This comes from a carefully created ad that is designed for the audience.