by Sophie Blackshaw, Editor of The Retiree Magazine
There are a handful of very important things that must be considered before submitting an advertorial to a print publication. In my experience, though, the first and most vital step is to research the publication in which your ad will be printed (remember once it’s printed, it can’t be changed).
Is the publication a magazine, or a newspaper? Is it distributed state-wide, nationally or internationally? Do the consumers pay for the publication or is it a freebie? You have to ask these questions, and more, because the placement of an advertorial works a little like this: imagine you live in a castle. You live in the highest tower, well away from the basement kitchen where vermin are thriving, eating away at the food you purchased to get you through a long winter. To combat the vermin, you’re putting poison and traps in the hallway outside your room.
Why would you do this? The answer, of course, is that you wouldn’t. You need to treat the problem by placing the poison and traps in a perfect, well thought-out location, and this logic needs to be applied to advertorials as well. The message here is, ensure the publication you want to advertise with is one suited to your target demographic – this includes age, socio-economic status, location, even your potential audience’s habits.
This logic can be further applied to the content and any images used in the ad. Make sure they’re not solely suited to your purpose and audience, but that they’re timeless or at the very least on-trend. Do this, again, through research: examine the best advertorials from your competition, get a sense for their style, and in turn develop your ad so that it stands out – in a good way, of course!
One more tip to consider is how you’re approaching your content. Because advertorials tend to carry their message through word rather than image, you need to set your standards high, in terms of both spelling/grammar wise and via the angle you take. For example, if you were selling honey, the modern audience does not want to read about how sweet the honey is. They would prefer to read about the importance of bee preservation, or the “cool” location in which it is harvested, or even the “hack” ways in which honey can be used, i.e. it doesn’t just have to be saved just for toast and crumpets.
Physically, your content should be – according again to modern audience – laid out in such a way as to make for easy glance reading. Breaking down bulky content with subheadings and breakout boxes is one way of doing this.
While there are a host of other important issues to consider with advertorials, I have found these to be, as I said earlier, of the utmost importance. Naturally, having an effective advertorial also requires you to work in sync with the publication – that means understanding the publication’s policies and style in a timely fashion, and communicating effectively. Some publications may prefer your ads to look different from their editorial, while some may prefer it to blend well.
Finally – take a few steps back from your ad and get into the mindset of your desired audience/consumer – what would they think? What will they remember about your ad?
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