Advertorials are the most effective medium of communication. It consists of Attention, Interest, Desire, Action (AIDA) concept. Advertorial is a combination of editorial and advertisements that encompasses information, forcing readers to read it.
Advertorials are created by keeping in mind the audience, to deliver the message, which is beneficial for readers and incite them for certain action. These native ads are part of most of the magazines, newspapers and digital advertisements. For marketers, the main question is how to write a compelling advertorial by keeping in mind their product and potential customer’s needs. Just to make it easy, I will provide you the guidelines, which are easy and essential for writing an advertorial for the very first time.
The advertorials can be written as lists, videos, guides and print articles. The main motive of advertorials is to sell a product or service. Sometime these are informational, based on tips, identifying the problem and providing the solutions, story-telling, promotional material forms and like a newspaper article.
Advertorial pointers to keep in mind:
- Write it like a newspaper article
- You have to write in third person
- Proper use of headlines, sub headlines, cash lines and tag lines
- Use famous quotations or testimonials
- Use photographs to make it appealing
- First paragraph must grasp readers’ attention
- Proper use of stats, numbers and relevant facts
Important note: The main body would not solely promote your business. The concept of AIDA will be implemented throughout the body text, at the end, creating the desire with call to action statement. The advertorial should look like a news article. For writing your first ever advertorial, keep in mind the following steps:
- Must Know the publication requirements:
Every publication has its own unique style of writing, ask your publication for guidelines, do well research and understand the context. Adapt the style, read few examples to get an idea, give serious considerations to publications’ rules of writing and then write an advertorial. For more understanding, ask the editor of relevant publication for whom you are writing to show you a sample.
- Understand your target audience:
Identify the age group for whom you are writing and also know your product or company well, understand their core values and keep their objectives in mind, than only you can write what your audience will love to read.
- Proper use of headlines
The advertorial headlines must be according to the publication style of writing. It must be simple, not wordy and should deliver the message. Research newspaper headlines, you will notice that headlines are not overly burden or thistledown. You can also compare BBC, CNN, Reuters, New York Times, Bloomberg and other relevant newspapers and magazines headlines.
- Opening paragraph must be attention seeking:
The opening paragraph has to be attention grabbing because it will emphasize your reader to move forward. For this, you need to understand the trick most publications use to pull readers, the interest it rouses in their readers. You can start with a quote or a story telling mode, a location or an imaginary thought. Keep your opening sentence short and punchy as detailed and lengthy paragraphs destroy readers’ attention and create boredom and distraction.
- Identify readers’ needs:
As soon as you understand the demand and need of your reader, it will be easy to plan a strategy accordingly. Suppose you are writing for a shampoo company who are catering the demands of girls between the ages of 11 to 18. Things to keep in mind are the needs of teenagers and things that interest them and design the advertorial accordingly. You should not only try to convince your audience but to give them reasons to indulge within the story and influence them to participate.
- Photographs to build the interest:
You can use photographs, info graphics and tips for how to keep hair healthy, shiny and long. Guide them how to take care of their hair, when to wash, how to keep it clean and other relevant information that will increase their knowledge as well as is beneficial for them.
- Remove all distractions:
Do not use jargons or too complex words that will create clichés in reading and destroy the reader’s interest. As your audience, in the case of hair shampoo is of 11 to 18 years of age; keep the content simple and short.
- Provide facts and figures to support your article:
Support your article with relevant facts and figures. This will increase knowledge of readers and keep them up to date about real figures. Use diagrams like pie charts and bar diagrams, which are helpful in communicating and building their interest. This will also motivate readers to do word of mouth marketing of your article, company and its products.
- Call to action:
Your last paragraph must contain call to action statement by providing them company’s phone number, address and email Ids. Common call to action statements include:
For more information please feel free to contact us
- Subscribe now
- Download our white papers
- Buy our app
- Proofread it:
Proofread written advertorial and identify issues that might create distractions. Do ask others to proof read as well because they can genuinely provide you with the details that need to be corrected. Cross check grammatical mistakes, spelling mistakes, remove repetition of words and remove irrelevant information.
- Rewrite it:
If your first advertorial is not up to the mark, consult your editor and ask about more guidelines and samples. For the first time you will face problems related to technicalities involved in it. But as soon as you have written your first advertorial, you will understand what mistakes you have made and how much more time you need in re-preparing it.
The end note, spend considerable time in researching and understanding the concept of advertorials, read advertorials of different publications, compare them, identify distinct styles of writing and implement accordingly in your advertorials.
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