Welcome Back Everyone! Today I’m going to deal with the problem of overcomplicating things in ads.
In this flyer the advertiser is trying to promote their lawnmowing service.
How Not To Start An Ad
Let’s start with the headline, “Making Homes, One Yard At A Time”. It is not fitting and it does nothing to move the ad forward. The headline is the first thing that the reader sees, so you always want to say something specific to the reader’s problem. What you are seeing in this ad is very common in ads, they are trying to use a slogan as a headline. Slogans are not headlines unless you are a billion-dollar company.
Here are some examples of complicated headlines:
“Have a Pristine Lawn”
“Make Your Neighbors Jealous With Your Fresh Yard”
“Treating your garden as if it's the Garden of Eden”
It may sound nice to the person writing it but the reader is going to have no idea what the ad is talking about. You must keep the ad as simple as possible to the point where someone who is half asleep can understand what you’re advertising. It’s so easy that I get cringed out by people who overcomplicate it.
It is as simple as saying, “Do You Want Your Lawn Mowed?” The “Do You Want” hook is the go-to for me because it is so simple and easy. It works because the reader only has two answers to make in their mind, “Yes” or “No”; unlike “Making Homes, One Yard At A Time.”
Never Confuse The Reader
Vague statements can confuse the reader. If it isn’t direct, someone will get confused or even misconstrue the meaning of the ad. A great way to test it is to look at your headline and come up with as many meanings as possible for it for example: “Making Homes, One Yard At A Time” could mean that they make homes and make the yard, it could mean that they completely redo the yard, it could even mean that they remodel the yard for the house. But if you look at the headline, “Do You Want Your Lawn Mowed?” there can be no other meaning to it besides “They mow lawns”.
How To Keep Reader’s Attention
On the left side of the flyer, they say “Free Estimates For All” It’s alright, but I wouldn’t put it there; the reader still does not know what they would need a free estimate for. They also included “100% Completion Rate” in the circle below it. I would hope they complete the job 100% but it is the standard, so it is useless to include.
Now the services section. The reader got below the headline for one reason, to get their lawn mowed so there is no point in including all these other services when the reader only wants one thing.
“The Lowest Prices Around”… I’m not going to say much about this because I have a personal opinion about selling on price.
The Call-To-Action gives no reason to call. Call today for what? To have a conversation about lawns?
Revamp
It may not be as aesthetically pleasing, but it works better as a flyer than the original because it has fewer words. Someone walking down the street is not going to read all those small words, so it’s best to get your point across as fast as possible. There is nothing that can be confused in this case.
Thank you for reading daily Ad Breakdown #12
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