Designing your own magazine ad and writing your own column: what to do yourself

Which parts you can handle and which you should hand off

Yes, you can do a good share of it yourself. The message, the photos of your real work and team, and above all the expert column should come from you, because nobody knows your customers and your trade the way you do. The parts worth handing off are the layout and final design of a display ad, and a careful outside edit of anything you write. A strong idea in an amateur layout reads as an amateur business, and that impression lasts all year.

I publish The Good Life Park Cities, a monthly community magazine mailed to targeted neighborhoods in the Park Cities, and I help sponsors shape their message and their articles so they read as useful content rather than an announcement. Here is how I would divide the work if you are deciding how much to do on your own.

Start with the message, which only you can write

Before anyone opens design software, write down in one sentence what you want a household to know about you. Not a list of services, but the problem you solve for the family reading it. "We fix the air conditioner the same day, and we tell you when it does not need replacing" says more than a block of service names. A designer can make that sentence look good; only you can know it is true and that it matters to your customers.

Then decide the one action you want a reader to take: call, visit, scan to book, stop by on a certain weekend. One action, stated clearly, beats three competing ones. Keep the same sentence and the same action all year if you can, because a neighborhood ad works by repetition, and repetition needs something stable to repeat.

Test the sentence on someone who is not in your business. If they can repeat it back after reading it once, it is clear enough to print. If they ask what it means, rewrite it in simpler words. A headline that makes sense to a neighbor flipping pages at the kitchen counter will always outperform one that makes sense only to people in your trade.

• One sentence about the problem you solve for the reader.
• One action you want them to take.
• One proof point you can stand behind, such as years in business or a specialty.
• Your name, phone, web address and, if relevant, location, checked twice.

Photos: the part owners most often get right

Real photos of your own work, your team and your storefront are one of the most valuable things you can supply, and you do not need a professional for many of them. A well-lit photo of a finished project, a smiling team in front of the truck or a clean shot of your shop tells a neighbor you are real and local in a way stock imagery never does.

A few rules help. Shoot in daylight, keep the background tidy, hold the phone steady and take more shots than you need. Avoid photos with clutter, dated signage or people who have not agreed to appear. Send the largest original file you have, since a photo that looks fine on a phone screen can print soft. If a photo is weak, it is better to leave it out than to let it drag the ad down.

If you photograph a customer's home or project, ask permission first and leave out house numbers and anything that identifies the address. Neighbors notice, and a homeowner who agreed to appear becomes a quiet advocate for you every time the issue is on someone's counter.

Where DIY layout goes wrong

Layout is where most home-made ads fall apart. Owners tend to fill every inch, use several typefaces, shrink the phone number to fit another service and choose colors that do not match their sign, truck or website. On a printed page, clutter reads as noise and gets skipped.

Print also has technical requirements that screen design does not: image resolution, color handling, bleed and trim. Ask your publisher for the exact specifications before anyone starts, and expect to review a proof. If your brand already looks inconsistent across your website, brochures and signs, fix that first, because the ad will inherit the problem. A designer such as the one who wrote why your website, brochure and logo look like three different companies can set the look once so every piece matches.

• Too much text: aim for a headline, a short line of support and the action.
• Too many fonts and colors: two typefaces and your brand colors are plenty.
• Tiny contact details: the phone number should be easy to read at arm's length.
• Low-resolution images or logos pulled from a website.
• A look that does not match your truck, sign or website.

The sponsored column should come from you

The expert column is different. It should be written by you, or at least from your words, because readers can tell when a piece was produced by someone who has never done the work. In our magazine, sponsoring businesses contribute articles in their field; recent issues have carried pieces on HVAC maintenance, fall roof care, hormone health and avoiding moving mistakes, each credited to the business that wrote it.

The best columns answer one question a customer actually asks you, in the season they ask it. A roofer on what to check after a storm, an HVAC company on what to do before the first cold snap, a dentist on what parents ask before school starts. Write it the way you would explain it across a kitchen table: plain words, specific advice, no sales pitch until a short line at the end saying who you are.

How to draft a column readers keep

If you are writing your first column, a simple structure works. Open with the situation the reader is in. Explain what is happening and why. Give them two to four things they can check or do themselves. Tell them when it is time to call a professional and what a good one will do. Close with a single line about your business. Keep it to the length your publisher gives you, and cut anything that sounds like an advertisement.

• Pick one question you hear every week.
• Write the first draft fast, the way you would say it.
• Cut jargon and every sentence that praises your company.
• Add one practical tip the reader can use today.
• Check every fact, figure and claim before you submit it.
• Have someone outside your trade read it for clarity.

Staying on the right side of advertising rules

Whatever you write or design, it has to be accurate. The Federal Trade Commission's advertising guidance for small businesses says advertising must be truthful and non-deceptive and that advertisers need evidence to back up their claims. That means no promises you cannot keep, no comparisons you cannot support and no testimonials that do not reflect a real customer's honest experience.

For sponsored content, the FTC's guidance on native advertising adds that an ad should not suggest it is anything other than an ad. In practice, that is easy to respect: a column credited to your business, offering genuinely useful information, is both honest and more persuasive than anything disguised. If your trade has its own advertising rules, as many licensed professions do, check them or talk to an attorney before you publish.

When paying for help is clearly worth it

Some situations call for a professional from the start. If you have no consistent logo or brand colors, if your business is in a field where looking polished is part of what clients pay for, or if you simply do not have the time to get it right, hire design help. The cost of a year of an ad that looks homemade is higher than the cost of doing it properly once.

Writing help is worth it when you know your subject but freeze at the blank page. An editor can take a recorded conversation or rough notes and turn them into a clean column that still sounds like you. What matters is that the knowledge and the voice are yours.

If you do hire help, make the designer's job easy and the result will be better. Send your logo as the original vector or high-resolution file, your brand colors, the publisher's exact size and file specifications, the one sentence and the one action you settled on, and the best three photos you have. Ask for two rounds of revisions at most, and judge the draft by holding it at arm's length: if you cannot read the headline and the phone number in two seconds, it is not finished.

How I work with sponsors on creative and columns

When a business starts with me, we begin with the message: who you serve, what problem you solve and the one sentence you want residents to remember. I help shape the ad so it holds up for a year and help shape the column so it reads as useful content. You supply what only you can: your knowledge, your photos and your voice.

From there you review proofs before anything prints, and we adjust over the year if something is not landing. If you want to know what happens step by step after you book, read what happens after you book a magazine ad. If you serve the Park Cities, my guide to marketing to Highland Park and University Park residents covers how to pitch a message to that audience, and why the households that should be your best customers have not heard of you explains why consistency matters more than cleverness.

Questions people ask me