The old adage is, "Sell the sizzle, not the steak." Another view is that, whether you're advertising bed linens, gas grills, or professional level digital video cameras, whether you're advertising in print or TV media, on the Internet, or at trade shows, you win consumers by showing what impact your product will have on the quality of their lives.
Leave the technical specs to the brochures; your most dramatic display ads should show what your customers will gain when they bring your product into their homes. That means bed linens in the context of a romantic rendezvous; gas grills at a backyard barbecue, the man of the family in charge, surrounded by neighbors and friends enjoying themselves. Ads for digital video cameras, whether for consumers or pros, need to show people relating, laughing, getting married, singing at concerts-whatever the activity, the human interaction will sell the equipment.
The main message of your ads, whether they appear in magazines, newspapers, on the Internet, or in a six-foot-tall Power Point presentation at a trade show, should be the benefit to the customer. Once you've hooked the customer with the human touch of your ad campaign, you can use technical specs to match him or her to the exact product they need.
Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire. She has written numerous articles for local and regional newspapers and for a number of Internet websites, including Tips and Topics.