Best Practices for Print Advertising

1. Headline On the average, 5x more people read the headline as the body copy. If people like the Headline they will continue to read the body copy. The Headline is what pulls them in. The headline should be simple and clearly state a benefit.
2. News and headlines People read consumer magazines and newspapers to get news. If you have genuine news such as product updates or new innovations by all means put it in the headline.
3. How many words in a headline? In headline tests conducted with cooperation from a big department store, it was found that headlines of 10 words or longer sold more goods than short headlines. In terms of recall, headlines between 8-and-10 words are most effective. In mail order advertising, headlines between 6-and-12 words get the must coupon returns. On the average, long headlines sell more merchandise than short ones - headlines like our "At 60 miles an hour, the loudest noise in this new Rolls-Royce comes from the electric clock." Taken from David Ogilvy’s Ogilvy on Advertising.
4. Localize headlines In local advertising, sometimes it pays to include the name of the city in your headline.
5. Peak to Your Prospects When a specific group consumes your product; flag them in your headline - mothers, bald people, business owners?
6. If the Reader is Interested They Will  Will Read Long Copy Readership declines rapidly after fifty words, but continues steadily between 50 and 500 words. Potential buyers will read further into an ad. Spark their interest with the headline, Give them a reason to buy in the copy. We have included many articles from John E. Kennedy and Claude Hopkins on Writing Headlines
7. Before and After Before and after ads are above average in grabbing the readers attention. Contrast seems to work well. If then seems to be well understood by the consumer.
8.  Drawings vs. Photos: Photographs work better than Art most of the time. People like to feel thins are “real.” The photograph should help pull readers in. Plus it must be pertinent to the product you are selling. The photograph must have story appeal.
9. Captions Twice as many people read the captions under photographs as read the body copies. Never place a photo without a caption. Because Associated Press Style calls for captions under photos people expect it.
10. Editorial layout vs. Addy Layout The more the ad looks like the editorial in the magazine generally the higher the readership. The addy layout is much easier to get approved by the CEO of the company you are representing. A good ad agency will take the time to explain to the CEO that they know much more about their product that the consumer.
11. Test and Retest Readership has been known to increase with repetition. Continually test new ads against the old ones and run the winner.