Last week I purchased a 1/3 page ad in European Car Magazine for my company. Ad will be featured in the December issue which comes out on October 26th.

This will make or break us. If we don't get enough customers from this route, then we're calling it quits and will look for investments elsewhere.

Total audience of 73,000 from subscriptions and news stands. To break even we need alittle over 200 people to sign up for our membership. I'm feeling pretty positive about that, since even with a 1% responce rate, we would get 730 customers - more than triple the needed amount.

Well, just a bit excited and I had to tell somebody! Take care guys and I'll keep you updated.

Jason-

Good luck - I will be very intersted how this goes!
Simon

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Jason,
Post the ad online so we can see it.

Here ya go Gent. Grayson did the work, I just came up w/ the copy.

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It's OK. But to be honest, I don't know if you're gonna get a lot of people from that. Wanna know why?

Because it is very text based. There is practically no graphics (other than the logo). If you look at all the other ads, then you'll see there is a lot of imagery and just a small amount of text to make the reader want to learn more about the company.

You should use imagery to really grab the reader's attention. What makes your ad stand out from all the other bright and colourful ones or the Lamborghini on the other page? As your ad is now, I know that I'd just skim right past it .

Sorry if I sounded harsh, but, you have to be cruel to be kind. This however, is just my opinion, so don't go mental at me .

I concur with will7's assessments. The Web is an informational medium. Print is a promotional medium. Your ad reads like spam e-mail, which I don't consider either informational or promotional. At least, your Web address and other contact information are present.

If I were you, I would have contracted a design studio to create the ad and then published the ad when a single promotional effort wasn't enough to "make or break" my company. You should never do that. Magazine and TV advertising, especially for small firms, is low-yield and has a horrible Return On Advertising Investment (ROAI). However, advertising is effective when done right and one requirement of doing it right is to contract an ad agency to develop an advertising campaign for your company. A campaign provides room for consistency which is key to any informational or promotional effort. Still, I recommend against such advertising for small or startup companies. A single publication will most likely be ineffective and cost-inefficient for a startup or small firm.

Also remember that any response rate is worthless if your sales is ineffective or repulsive.

Let us know how it went if you're in the mood at that time.

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Morgan Ramsay
President, Heretic
www.hereticdesigns.com
Heretic engineers strategic branding solutions and marketing collateral.

Your first mistake was grayson. He is cool and good at some stuff, but he just doesn't have the mind yet for campaign critical work.

First, too much text, way too much. There is of a visual nature that will draw the attention. Your ad should be able to say, without words, what it sells to.

Is it too late for some changes, or have you submitted the final artwork already?

EDIT: Why didnt you ask me, you know this is what I did in my previous life (and still do for friends).

Good point. There's too much info and it looks bulky. But on the other side, if you concentrate your attention only on the graphics, it is going to look exactly like all the other bright and colorful ads. The text is what speaks to people, pictures only support the writtern statements. The main message is always in the text. The text however can be limited to the company's slogan. In any case, your prime aim should be to generate curiosity, make your readers want to find out more about you. Don't show all your cards straight away.

Use a creative approach to make your ad completely different from all the others. To make your add stand out, sometimes you should turn round and go in the direction opposite to where everyone else is going (not losing common sense, of course )

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Jenny Fine
Web & Software Development | Corporate Identity | Intetics

I would also recommend a site redesign if you are expecting to sell to high end buyers.

Is this an out-of-the-box site or did you guys have someone do it?

This is a critical point in your companies infancy, you cant afford to have your growth stunted by poor marketing and design decisions.

JennyFine, it's OK saying that the text is the most imprtant thing in an ad - I fully agree with you. But how are you going to get people to actually read the text. Pictures. You just want text to give a basic explanation of the company and give maybe a web address for further information.

I do not want to spend ages reading paragarphs of text. I just want to know what the company does and what to do if I want further information.

And yes, I'd recommend a site redesign as well. Did you get designered to do it? No, wait, don't tell me, was it Grayson? .