Press Releases | Press Release Distribution | Submit Press Release - The Eight Essentials of Advertising Success

You are

News

Marketing and Advertising

The Eight Essentials of Advertising Success

Quiz

Free Press Releases

The Eight Essentials of Advertising Success

Written by Jon Dean
Thursday, 12 June 2008
Most small and medium sized businesses are getting their advertising strategies wrong. Here are the eight essentials for getting it right. 1, Advertising is not a 'silver bullet' Many businesses that want to expand believe that the best - or sometimes only - way to entice more customers is to advertise. This is a big mistake and one that could ultimately lead them down the same road as thousands of other businesses - to huge financial waste. There seems to be a general perception that if you are in business then you have to advertise. Isn't that what businesses do? This is dangerous for many reasons, most notable of which is because it stops you from thinking about all the other options that are open to you. Options which may be cheaper and are likely to produce greater results. Often businesses of a similar type all advertise in one or two key publications. Just because your competitors are in there week in week out, doesn't mean that the ads work. This might initially seem strange to you but I've seen it time and time again. It is likely that they've been sold the advert on the basis that 'everyone's in it' and they are following the herd and not measuring response properly. Because everyone else is in there you assume that it must just be your advert that's wrong but this is very often not the case. The only people who are making money from those adverts is the publisher. Before you consider advertising I strongly recommend that you consider the rest of your marketing mix. Are you using any of the following?: * Direct Mail * Direct selling * Internet marketing * Telephone marketing * Public relations * Joint ventures and alliances * Referrals * Trials & demonstrations This is just the beginning; your business really should have several marketing strategies in place before you consider advertising. The best bit about considering these first is that many of them are free or at least far cheaper than advertising and just as likely, if not more likely, to bring you in profits. Why waste money on advertising? 2, Direct response advertising is the only way to advertise for most businesses Advertising largely falls into two groups; brand advertising and direct response advertising. Brand advertising is the kind that is used by the likes of Coca Cola. It's enough for them just to promote their brand to the masses on the assumption that everybody knows what the product is, but by polishing the brand it keeps it in our minds and creates positive images for us. It is very powerful but only when the brand is so very established in the audience's mind. Without this it would be a complete waste. Direct response advertising does exactly what it says - it elicits some kind of measurable response. This is often known as a 'call to action'. The advert could direct people to your website or it could get them to pick up the phone. It could get them to come to you directly, particularly if you are a running a business in retail or which offers an experience of some kind. What ever the response is, you need to be able to manage it and measure it. It is only direct response advertising that 99% of businesses should use for 99% of the time. Following this rule on its own could save (and make) you thousands of pounds. Using advertising to promote a brand that nobody knows or cares about is probably the single biggest factor in advertising wastage.It is certainly one of the most forgotten points in radio and television advertising. 3, Test and measure If you are currently advertising, or are going to start this is absolutely vital and goes hand in hand with the above point. Because if you are trying to get a response, you will know straight away whether you get one or not. If you are trying to get a response in your adverts and you don't get one, then that is a test with a result. The result being that the advert didn't work. If you do get a response you also have a result. You need to know precisely how many people responded. For many businesses this can be a manual process but if you are talking about hundreds or thousands of responses then you should look for a way to easily automate this. This could be a separate telephone number, unique web page or dedicated reception desk or turnstile. It is important to know exactly how many people respond. There are some successful advertisers who 'know that they do deals' from of their advertising. They 'know' that their ads work. The problem is that even if this is the case (and often they're wrong), unless you test and measure, you have no idea how to make them any better. And isn't that what we're trying to achieve? The most profitable advertising possible? 4, If it's not profitable, stop it! It sounds so obvious, but when people aren't testing and measuring properly, they allow their businesses to continue to run ineffective adverts over and over again. One of the biggest problems here is that despite the fact that adverts seem to just bring in an unquantifiable loss for most businesses, those same businesses are devoid of ideas to bring in business by any other means. They also fall into the traps of listening to advertising sales people who will tell them that they need to have advertised in at least x number of publications before they get a great response. This is absolute rubbish. In some cases unsuccessful advertisers actually start spending more in the belief that it will illicit a better return. It always will - for the publisher. Please, do the obvious thing. If you are not getting a response which you can measure and turn into a profit, stop spending the money. If you follow the rules outlined here you will either run only profitable ads or no ads at all. 5, The biggest difference will come from the headline Your headline is what catches the audience's attention, whether it is written in a newspaper or magazine or presented on the radio or television. Sure you might put in an attractive picture; if you're selling wine, a picture of a lovely looking glass of wine will capture attention, but once that is caught, your audience will automatically take in your headline. So make the most of it. Don't do what most businesses do and make the headline about them. Nobody gives a stuff about you. They want to know what's in it for them. You may have heard those words before, but take it on board. Your audience needs to know what's in it for them. Get the benefits of your product or offer over. Not the features (what is does), but the benefits (why somebody should care about it). If these words are unexciting, you've lost them. If you make it unbelievable you've lost them too. Consider this. You're looking to buy a new kitchen and see the following three headlines: R Smith & Company Kitchen Installers Revolutionary New Kitchens - The Best Kitchens in Town! Kitchens You'll Love To Live In Which one is most likely to capture the attention of your audience? The last one creates an easily understood message and a mental image which is likely to fit with the desires of the audience. Your advert is then more likely to be read by more of the audience. Of course you should never assume too much in advertising or any other marketing form for that matter. You should pick a headline using this knowledge but you should always test new headlines to see which generates the greater response. Remember - the headline attracts the attention. It's purpose is not to sell. That's the job of the copy. 6, Use clear, credible copy Your copy is the text in your advert. It should be written clearly in the kind of language that you might imagine that your audience would use, or aspire to use, amongst their peers. It might work to use teenage texting language to sell digital products to teenagers, but it's unlikely to sell many dining tables. The main thing to concentrate on is what your product actually gives to people - the benefits. Your copy should be almost entirely about benefits although features can be used to substantiate claims. For example: Our dining tables are made from Mexican yew Means very little. Unless somebody really knows the benefits of this kind of wood then it is not sparking anybody's imagination. It is a feature but the audience has no clue about the benefits. Our dining tables will radiate in your home Sparks the imagination. It is a benefit claim. This is far better copy but customers need proof because all companies, including your competitors, will make claims about their products. Our dining tables will radiate in your home as they are made from Mexican yew.Customers will understand the benefit to them, and will know why it will provide this benefit. Subconsciously the audience is also getting the feeling that you know what you are talking about because you are able to substantiate your claims. Keep your copy simple, people will only buy when they understand the benefits. Don't over complicate it and try not to use too many adjectives. If everything is new, revolutionary, sensational, then you will tire your readers. 7, Negotiate hard You should always push hard for a deal with advertising. Rate cards usually have at least 25% that can be negotiated away without trying too much but you should go much further than that. If you are testing a new publication or media, don't be tempted to get a better deal by signing up for an extended period. You need proof first. So instead you should negotiate on the following points. 1, You must be guaranteed a spot on the right hand page of a newspaper or magazine. This will always generate a better response because of the way in which our eyes fall when we read. Paying the same for a left hand page is like ordering a pint of beer, paying for a pint of beer and getting a half. If you can't be guaranteed a right hand page, don't advertise. Tell the sales person that you are happy to spend money with their publication but you need to know what you are getting. 2, Play the deadline game. A publication will make a given amount of money depending on how many adverts it holds. It's going to make more if your ad goes into it, even if it goes in at a reduced rate. Advertising salespeople will hurry you to get your ad in before deadline day but will always 'cushion' that deadline by a few days. Have your ad ready and let the salesperson sweat a bit on whether they're going to get your business or not. If the publication is frequent (i.e. not annual) don't worry about missing an issue if the tactics don't pay off first time. Advertising salespeople will tell you that this edition is vital because of a certain article which will draw people to your advert. Whilst some fluctuation in response is possible, if the publication is right for you one article will not make a huge difference. It is very likely that if it's an issue that is important to the readership it will be covered again in any case. Of course, if you follow all these essential rules and you end up with a profitable advert, you could tie in for a period to cut a good deal. Please don't do this without experience. Don't sign up for a year if you only sell air conditioning units and your adverts are not going to be effective over the winter months, for example. 8, Cut your own path Many businesses do what they feel they are supposed to do. Plumbers advertise in the Yellow Pages, car leasing companies advertise in car magazines, etc. If you are a car leasing company that doesn't advertise in a car magazine you might feel like you're missing out, especially when the advertising salesperson tells you that everyone else is doing it so it must work. The truth though is that everyone else has been given the same story. It's unlikely that everyone else has read this, so you already have a huge advantage. They are probably running ineffective adverts and wondering why it's just theirs that doesn't work. Use your imagination and try marketing or advertising somewhere else. Test it, measure it, make a decision on whether to change it, repeat it or drop it. Re-read the first point too. My strongest advice to you is that you should only use advertising as part of a broader marketing mix. If you are reliant on advertising and advertising only you are almost certainly going down a very rocky road. If you have a good business then it will flourish, but only if you put many marketing ideas into practice. No business can become truly successful solely through advertising. It just won't happen. Real success and freedom from the torment of trying to get to get adverts to work whilst watching your profits vanish will only come with a rich and varied marketing mix. Bookmark with: Delicious Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon What are these?

< Prev		Next >

Contact Us | Press Releases | Site Map | Life Jackets