Making the Most of Your Print Ad Investment With Intentional Design

There are so many schools of thought that say advertising in print is dead - I get it.

Print advertising is expensive and most target audiences are online. That said, if your audience is looking at print, you ought to be in it. Making the most of your investment in print advertising starts out with an intentional, purposeful, and well-designed ad. Here are a few fundamentals to get you there. (Bonus - They also apply to digital ad design.)

Start with great imagery.

The basis of a great ad starts with a beautiful image that tells the story. If you are using photography, it should be professional, in-focus, and balanced. You want the subject to be clear and on-brand with your company. A large portion of your audience are probably visual (most people are), so pounce on the opportunity to grab them with engaging imagery. Let the visuals do the talking and back it up with simple copy.

Write a clear headline.

Catch the reader’s attention with a headline that’s simple, yet draws the reader in. Keep it nice and neat with just a few words and definitely don’t drone on and on. Brainstorm your headline by writing down the purpose of the ad. Summarize your purpose a few different ways and then pick your favorite.

Use strong fonts.

Print ads are not the place for fonts with elaborate serif and flourish. Stick to typography that is clean, bold, and easily readable - especially for your headline!

Balance, balance, balance.

Your design needs to have a nice flow to it. Make sure you are using your ad space effectively. Keep in mind the facing of the ad and how a reader’s eye may move while they are flipping through the material. For example, you wouldn’t want a left page ad with the majority of the content right-aligned and vice versa for a right page ad. Pro-tip, if you can get a right page ad, do it… statistically, they have more eyes on them. Before most people turn a page, their eyes will go to the bottom right corner of the page. Be there if you can!

I hope this helps! If you need some inspiration, check out my Pinterest Board where I’ve pinned some of my current favorites!