Don’t Overlook The Words

When it comes to marketing, words are a valuable tool. From what they say to how they are presented, the text portion of your ads, social media posts, e-mails and web pages deserve as much consideration as your graphics and photos do.

Know what You’re Selling

While choice of words can depend on the ad focus, such as semen or upcoming consignments, one constant remains - every ad you do is promoting your breeding program and ranch. The purpose of your ad can vary, but we’ll look at three of the most common ad topics.

A. Ranch Focused

There is nothing wrong with simply putting your ranch name and logo at the top of an ad with animals you’re featuring underneath. However, adding a secondary line such as “Building a Strong Foundation” or “Stacking Exciting Genetics” or something more specific to the area or ranch“Come see us in the beautiful state of Wyoming” can encourage people to stop and take a look at the animals you’re showing.

Equally important is driving them towards your website or Facebook page if you have one. Don’t just say “visit us on...”, rather make them feel like they need to look. Something like “See even more outstanding Longhorns at...” or, “don’t miss seeing our latest calf crop on...”

B. Bull focused

People tend to get much more creative with their bull ads. Often the bull’s name lends itself to a play on words or more dramatic presentation. If the bull has a super cool name or has become known in the industry just the name may be a good header. However, especially when introducing young bulls, the header needs to draw a person in to “need” to read the rest of the ad.

While “Bull Power” is the first phrase that jumps into many minds, there are lots of ways to convey that message without using the same phrase everyone else does.

Words such as “Strong”, “Strength”, “Proven”, “Productive”, and “Rock Solid” could be combined with the word “Genetics” or even stand alone. While too many words can make a reader skip the lines, often on a header a short phrase can create curiosity and draw a reader in.

Think of something like “Put Premium Genetics In Your Herd” or “He’s Rock Solid” with a secondary line of “Genetics, body, horn and color”

C. Consignment Focused

If you invest your money in an ad to promote your consignments for an upcoming sale, your purpose is to encourage people to buy those specific animals. Consider how strong your offerings are before you choose what to highlight to draw people in. You may be consigning an animal someone else bred or one that, while it is a solid offering, is not the best you have in your program or an example of the direction you are going with your herd.

If you are going to a premium sale and feel like you’ve gone above and beyond to bring your best, then by all means shout it out. “Bringing Our Best to the (Name of Sale)”, Exceptional Offerings From (Your Ranch Name)”, or “Females To Build A Program Around” are indicators that you’re offering animals that are a notch above.

However, when you are bringing animals that you want to move due to them not fitting the direction you are taking or you are simply thinning your herd and some good ones have to go, highlight what is honestly great about the animal. Phrases like “Proven Producer”, “Solid Genetics”, “Great Mama With Tons of Milk” and “Out-produces herself every time” can grab attention with desirable traits breeders find value in.

PreSenting the wordS

The attention grabber, such as a headline or burst, should be the largest type. The mid-size type should have important information that you wish to highlight more. Sometimes that is semen sale information, lot numbers, and for some ads, the animal names. Small text is best for dates of birth, sire x dam, and possibly contact info. This is all very dependent on what is being presented and what emphasis is for a particular audience. However, there are some truths about type in ads that hold no mater what fads may come and go. If your goal is to have someone read the information in your ad, take heed.

1. ALL CAPS IS HARDER TO READ. While all caps works in many cases on headlines, animal names, or larger type, it is hard to read in multiple lines of text or when it is a condensed font. If you do not like the look of Upper/Lower for your wording, try Small CapS to change it up and make it a bit easier to read.

2. LINE SPACING AND LETTER SPACING Line spacing is the space between two rows of text. If that space is too small, a reader’s eye has trouble reading lines of text. If the two lines of text touch many eyes prefer to skip right over it not actually getting the message.

Letter spacing is the actually space between the letters in a word. Often, to make text fit into the space available text may be condensed and the character spacing reduced to fit more words into a set space. The “tighter” the letters are together the less legible they are.

3. FONTS There are literally millions of typefaces out there to be used in your marketing. Don’t use try to use them all in your ad.

Specialty fonts are great when getting artistic with an animal name or when it enhances the look or message of your ad. When it comes to novelty or unusual fonts here’s a few things to remember:

1. If you can’t read it at a glance, don’t use it.

2. Don’t use them on smaller type or “meat and potatoes” information like dates of birth, sire x dam, contact info.

3. If you need it to be upper/lower case or include special charters like an apostrophe or numbers, confirm the font has those options. Even if you are using standard fonts that are made with legibility in mind you still have to watch for certain issues like:

1. Size Matters. No type that you need to be sure is read should be less than 8 pt. Below

4 or 5 pts on a print ad a it may be barely legible.

2. Thin type. Sometimes in 4-color printing very small thin type can close in making it even harder to see. Even on a screen, it’s harder for the eye to make out.

3. Narrow fonts. There are typefaces that are designed very narrow and tall, and some may even be bolder than a thin typeface. It helps greatly when space conservation is necessary, but these too get harder to read the smaller they are.

4. Always Check Legibility. If you are sent an ad proof or you build one yourself, give it the glance test. Look at it quickly. See what your eye does and does not read through. If you have to stare at anything more than a second to figure out what it says then you may need to take a look at reason you found it hard to read. In some instances it may be color conflicts rather than font issues. But if the color contrast is pleasing but your eye is still struggling to pick out the words quickly, it will pay to take a closer look at the type choices, line spacing and letterspacing of your text in question.

Always remember, an ad that draws your eye in with splashy graphics has failed if they can’t read the message they were presented quickly and clearly.

By Andrew Shagoury Chairman, TLBAA Beef Committee