It’s called white space, or, use your web site that’s why you own it

I have been noticing that some ads in this world are de-evolving into what we used to see before the advent of the Internet – chock full of details, tiny copy, and  way too many images crammed together.  At least then, there was only one thing the ad was meant to get you to do: buy something.

As I learned in my copywriting class back in college (props to Dr. Davis), the point of an ad is to drive people to do one thing you want them to do. Even back then, though, there weren’t ways to get your consumers too socially engaged.  Now, if you muck it up with too many call to actions (“like us,” “friend us,” “check in,” “scan this,” “visit us at our site,” and “oh yeah, buy something, too”) a person is likely to do nothing at all or do the one thing that is the least important to you.

Prioritize what you want to accomplish with an ad.  One or two requests of a person, please.  And if there’s anything you can do to just get a person to your web site where they then become traceable, get them there.  Then you can start rewarding them for doing all of the other things you want them to do.  People love to do things for rewards.