2011 Banner Ad Hot Seat. Part One: What's Not a Selling Point

As with the previous Hot Seats, I'm going to try to discuss some overall points as they apply to ads with similar issues. First up: The selling point.

If you remember last year's Banner Ad Hot Seat, I had a similar heading called The Message. From that discussion:

I've already written about some of the Do's and Don't's of good Web advertising, so if you missed that, you might want to take a moment and review it. First, let's talk about an ad on a Web site. This is what I've experienced in Web advertising.

• People tend to jump over them on the way to the content
• If people do look at them, they don't look long
• People don't click ads freely -- they have to be enticed.

So...

• Your ad has to stand out visually
• It has to be compelling enough to get the reader to want to click on it
• And, most importantly, it has to deliver a message.

Let's face it, you can design the most beautiful ad in the world -- but if it doesn't convey a message, it won't be as successful as it should be. Let's take a moment to talk about message.

In this Hot Seat, I'm going to talk about one very important part of the Message: The Selling Point.

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