3 Key Steps to Create a Promotional Plan

I’ll never forget my first client, shouting at me in frustration, “C’mon! It shouldn’t be this hard to make a decent advert! Anyone can do it!”

Twenty years down the line and hundreds of marketing promotions later, I’m no longer frustrating people so much because I’ve learned to take apart the meat and bones of promotions to better understand how to produce effective ads and literature.

But can anyone do it? I’m not sure I agree with my old client on that one, but there are certainly some message and design commonalities that can be taken apart and looked at in order to build successful marketing collateral.

Whether you’re a rookie designer or a client looking for some sound design and copy advice, this guide can help you understand the anatomy of your promotions and how each one should be built within tried-and-tested parameters.

1. The heart of a promotion: The headline

Giving life to your promotion

Your headline is a critical part of your promotion. It is the heartbeat that gives it life and meaning.

A headline can be as obvious as the word “sale” or simply your product name. It is all about context. Why make it complicated on the cover of a brochure or sell sheet? But then again, why make it super-generic on the headline of a magazine ad that you want to get noticed?

Be effective rather than clever

A headline can be funny, clever, inspirational, seductive, and so on. But what it can’t be is unrelated to your product and business message. There’s an awful habit that many businesses fall into of trying to lever in puns or well-known phrases—a belief born from reading too many tabloid papers.

If you’re able to use clever wordplay to get your point across then that’s great. But trying to “be clever” should never be your motivation for writing a headline.

Don’t use humor for the sake of it (and avoid the dreaded “pun”)

Here is a comparison of actual headlines for similar products with very different treatments:

“Regardless of the right to bear arms, we in no way condone the right to bear feet.”

In my opinion, this headline for Kenneth Cole shoes (above) leaves the viewer wondering: What’s being sold here? What point is being made? How can this information be acted upon?

In view of the fact that this ad was also trying to somewhat make a social statement, it just seems like the wrong place for a “pun” and the whole thing results in a confusing statement with forced humor.

“Metro Shoes back-to-school sale—happy feet make happy people!”

At first glance, this headline (above) could be viewed as fairly unremarkable. However, this headline for Metro Shoes is doing its job because it’s clearly defining a message and a purpose for this piece of promotional literature.

A headline should tell the viewer:

• Who you are
• What you’re selling
• What problem you’re solving

Headline examples

Here are just a few examples of headline strategies that you can adopt for your own business.

• Scare the viewer: “A little mistake that cost the farmer $3,000 a year!”
• Ease the viewer: “Good mornings follow a good Nytol.”
• Impel the viewer: “Nothing hurts more than sitting on a couch.”
• Intrigue the viewer: “How does the man who drives the snowplow drive to the snowplow?”
• Inspire the viewer: “Don’t dream of winning. Train for it.”
• Humor the viewer: “An English ale so authentic it’ll make your teeth crooked.”

2. The brain of a promotion: The copy

Be smart about writing your body copy. Whether you’re writing a paragraph for an ad or an entire brochure, the body copy should reflect your business’s brain and voice. Don’t just cut and paste a copy style; know who you are and who you’re talking to.

If you’re advertising a tech business, you need to sound informed and intelligent; however, if you own an events business, sounding “techy” rather than fun and upbeat is clearly the wrong approach.

Have a plan for your copy

• Think before you write: consider what you have to offer and write down the features—and more importantly, the benefits of your products and services
• Know your audience: be clear about who you’re talking to and adopt the voice of your copy accordingly
•  Use simple words when you can: be natural but intelligent, and avoid marketing lingo
• Never write passively: don’t say “we try to provide the best service” when you can say “we provide the best service”
• Tell a story:
  • Introduce yourself
  • Tell people what you’re offering—not just on the surface, but what you really offer as a result of your product or service
  • Tell people why you’re offering it
• Give people a firm conclusion: offer a takeaway from your story

Take action from the start

Describe the benefits customers get from your business as soon as possible. The benefit is really what customers are after; is it cheaper, is it faster, is it newer, will it make my hair grow back?

Split your copy into subheadings

Don’t write in long paragraphs. Make your paragraphs short and sweet and make sure each paragraph has a subheading to help organize your copy into an easy-to-follow story.

When people read your promotion, the subheadings should give a great summary of what you’re offering without the need to read each paragraph.

Bullets and other tricks are your friends

Don’t be afraid of bullets or itemized info. Summarized lists of features and highlights are a quick and effective way of drawing attention to major benefits while giving the viewer easily digestible information.

If you can put a complex piece of info in a simple data graph or graphic, then do so. A picture can say more in one second than an entire paragraph or even page of copy.

Include a call-to-action (CTA)

Don’t ever forget what you want people to do with the promotion you’re offering. Getting customers to do what you want is a bit like herding cats!

People have short attention spans and getting them to see your phone number, redeem your coupon, link to your web address, or visit your store is far more important than getting them to read any of your body copy.

Make your call-to-action easily seen and build in motivation as to why the reader should take that action. The following CTAs are just a few examples of commonly used CTA verbiage:

• Call now at
• Join the party at
• Discover the secret at
• See how we did it
• Make a difference at
• Go to our website
• Sign up for free at
• Indulge yourself now at
• Call now to speak to a success expert
• Like free prizes? Like us on Facebook!
• Find your own style at

3. The body of a promotion: The design

The design of your promotion is not only what makes it attractive, it’s also what helps the viewer make sense of the information you’re presenting. It’s the meat of your literature that fills out the bare bones of an idea.

Design harmony

It’s imperative that you understand the relationship between words and images. Before you even start your design, consider the following:

• Never use an image because it looks “nice”—every image you use in an ad, brochure, or other promotion needs to relate to a headline or a piece of information that you’re presenting
• It’s all in the composition—have a visual plan of where your copy will sit and where the related images will best complement these info points
• On brochures and other literature in which there are a lot of copy points, consider adding captions underneath each image
• Use color blocking, different font styles, and other tricks—treat copy as another aspect of your design that needs design attention
• Make every block of text readable—although it depends on the font and the reader, as a rule, each section of body copy should be at least 10 point in font weight with image captions no less that 7 point

Harmonize your promotion to include both images and copy. Think of your images and copy running down the beach, hand-in-hand together! They are supposed to be a team that works in unison.

Rule of threes

If you’ve never heard of this term, the rule of threes is a great composition guide to consider for every page of literature you produce. It’s a great rule to follow that allows you to design in a way that naturally conforms to the way a viewer sees and follows visual information.

By splitting your page into three vertical or horizontal sections, you can create a layout that has natural structure and eye-flow.

Every promotion is different, but whether it’s a brochure, sell sheet, flyer, or advertisement, it needs to have a powerful structure and a strong message to effectively support your business.