Persuasive Advertising - J. Scott Armstrong [178]
9.4. Structure of body text
When an ad has a lot to say (long copy), it is helpful to add structure to guide readers. This is especially so in ads for high-involvement products with strong arguments.
9.4.1. Use informative subheadings for long copy
Subheadings should provide only key words that tell your ad’s story in brief glances. They should catch people’s eyes when scanning.
Place the most informative words at the start of the subheading. Avoid using articles or superfluous words in subheadings. For example, scanning is more difficult if subheadings start with articles such as “the” or “an.” This principle is especially important in Internet ads, in which people tend to scan text, and search engines look for key words.
Readers seem to appreciate informative subheadings. In Wheildon (1995, p. 125), 78 percent of the subjects reported that subheadings were useful, especially in longer articles. None found them unattractive or intrusive. Nevertheless, in our WAPB analysis of the 422 print ads with long copy, fewer than half used informative subheadings.
Evidence on the effects of informative subheadings
Our analysis of print ads supports the use of informative sub-headings:
Print ads with informative subheadings improved recall. Our WAPB analysis of quasi-experimental data found 58 pairs of print ads in which one of the ads used informative subheadings while the other did not. Recall for ads with subheadings was 1.25 times better than for the ads that did not.
We also analyzed non-experimental data on print ads in WAPB. In comparison with the industry norms for each ad, the average persuasion score for the 103 subheadings ads was 6 percent higher than the comparable score for the 89 ads without subheadings.
9.4.2. Use reader guides for long copy with strong arguments
A variety of techniques can be used to add emphasis to items in ads with long copy. Emphasis is particularly relevant for ads that readers typically scan, such as Internet ads. Determine the most important points in the body copy, then emphasize them.
Drop caps (also called “oversized first letters”) used for first letter in the text represent one way to guide the reader’s eye to the start of the text.
Other reader guides include the pointing finger (introduced in the 1600s), dividing lines, bullets, arrowheads, different fonts, asterisks, marks in the margins, and boxes for key sections.
Punctuation also guides readers, of course. Consider the title of the book Eats, Shoots and Leaves. The omission of the comma could change the story from one about a hungry and dangerous intruder to one about pandas. Also, consider the opposite meanings of “Don’t stop” versus “Don’t, stop.” I had not realized the power that one can gain from using punctuation to structure text until I read the short book, A Dash of Style (Lukeman 2006).
Use reader guides sparingly. Adding more guides serves to lessen the impact of each one and the effect might seem pushy, especially for high-involvement products.
Avoid underlining text. This is especially important in Internet ads because underlining implies a link.
Avoid references to materials that appear elsewhere in an ad. It is time consuming and tiring for readers to have to jump around in the text. For this reason, ads seldom include cross-references; advertisers include them only when they do not want consumers to read specific material, such as “Use of this product can cause death.” The Internet provides a solution; if details are necessary, use links. However, avoid links that take readers to another website. If external links are unavoidable, place them at the bottom of the page, after the action step.
Evidence on the effects of reader guides
This principle is based primarily on received wisdom. Indirect evidence was provided in a Yellow Pages experiment. The issue was how to attract attention