|
Does your business use advertorials—a word cobbled together from “advertisement” and “editorial”—to promote its products or services? Also labeled “special sections,” this is a popular and growing format that helps sell everything from tourist destinations to investments to real estate to advanced technologies and more.
Appearing as one-column, one- or two-page spreads, or as multipage sections, these hybrids differ subtly from advertisements by implying that they are part of the publication’s content, written by the editorial staff. Of course, people are far more likely to read something that appears to be an article rather than an advertisement. And as we know, readers have a lot more confidence in editorial coverage than in paid advertising.
If you’ve ever read one of those “I lost 50 pounds in three weeks and here’s how I did it,” pages in a magazine, you know the power of the advertorial concept. Other advertorials are much more subtle. In fact, many special sections today are so closely matched to the publications in which they appear that it can be quite a surprise to realize they’re ads. Such advertorials are often lavishly produced with first-class photography, writing and design.
In a recent New York Times media column on advertorials, Hearst Vice President Michael A. Clinton was quoted as saying, “Special sections have always been around, but now they have gone on steroids. They have become much more complex and sophisticated.”
The growing interest in advertorials reflects today’s marketplace realities. For companies and nonprofits alike, advertorials offer a whole new avenue for reaching customers when traditional marketing approaches have been exhausted. They can be effectively used to position a company as an authority in its field. They may be less expensive to produce and place than paid advertising. And they can be useful in prequalifying potential customers, since readers who respond are “self-selected”—already interested and engaged.
From the publication side, special sections can be an extremely welcome source of revenue that publishers might not otherwise have. Times are notoriously tough for publications, and this predisposes them to be very accommodating toward organizations with special sections to place. They might even participate in building a creative package with events or other perks to supplement the advertorial.
Advertorials work for professional and industry magazines, business publications, newspapers, and regional weeklies as well as consumer publications. They also work on web sites and other online venues, but we’ll stick to print right now.
If you’re called upon to write advertorials for your company (or are asked to coordinate/supervise a writer from the publication or an agency), here are some guidelines.
Do
- Be subtle rather than heavy-handed.
- Focus clearly on a specific market segment—for example, high-end investors, potential buyers of condominiums, executives of small businesses, people who have thinning hair, homeowners who have inefficient furnaces, and so on.
- Research, plan and execute carefully to appeal to the specific characteristics of your target market.
- Know the rules that your target publication may enforce. A magazine might, for example, not accept advertorials that use the same typeface as its editorial content, or might require that the piece look different in other ways. There is usually a policy requiring you to print “advertisement” or “special advertising section” in a specific place on each page and to use a specific font size. You may not be allowed to use the magazine’s or newspaper’s logo.
- Use your journalism skills to create a strong piece—this is not a job for an advertising copywriter. You need a story to tell. Create a good headline, have a strong lead, use direct quotes. Use good design strategies too: high-resolution photographs, subheads, bold lead-ins, pull-outs, white space and all the other ways to capture readers and keep them going.
- Specify the benefits and advantages of a product or service, whether it’s saving time or money or improving the reader’s health or comfort. First-person testimonials are one effective way of doing that. Another is telling a story, such as how Jim Anderson, chief information officer of XYZ Inc., achieved a US$6 million return on investment last year by deploying software-as-a-service throughout his company. (Such a first-person account is especially effective when published in trade papers or magazines.)
- Include full and easily available contact information, preferably with a contact name. It’s best to use a telephone number, a web site address and a street address, if possible. All of these promote credibility.
- If the contact information in the advertorial refers readers to your company’s web site, make sure that the landing page (the page on which the reader “lands” on the site) actually contains information relating to the product or service specified in the advertorial. Potential customers are quickly gone if they don’t immediately see what they’ve been reading about, yet it’s amazing how often this element is forgotten or neglected—even by professionals in the field.
- Include a call to action. Your advertorial may look like an article, but you want people to respond in some way and you need to make that clear.
Don’t
- Write in breathless, excited-sounding prose. The more matter-of-fact and measured the material is, the more believable it will be to readers.
- Totally ignore side effects or other potential problems that may result from using the product or service. You should find a way to explain or soften these effects if they exist.
- Neglect the power of high-quality photography and graphics, including photos of people who endorse the product. In technology advertorials, photos give readers the chance to envision the product, using flow charts, graphs and diagrams that allow readers to envision how the product works. On your company’s web site, podcasts and videos can also clarify how your product or service will do the job.
Natalie Canavor is a business writer, communication consultant and journalist who was formerly a national magazine editor and communication department director.
Claire Meirowitz is an editor, writer, proofreader and project manager with a background in publishing and university public relations.
Together they own and operate C&M Business Writing Services, which creates publications, e-media, communication models and training programs. Their book, Business Writing for the Digital Age: The Only Guide You’ll Ever Need for Print & E-Media, will be published in 2009 by Prentice Hall.
Natalie and Claire are past presidents of IABC/Long Island (New York). Reach them at
or
. |
|
