Don’t Spend Another Penny On Advertising Until You Read This

How do you know if your advertising is working? I often review newspapers, yellow pages and other forms of media to critique ads for their effectiveness. Unfortunately, most small business ads are a waste of money and effort. Now I must admit that I’m making a bold statement, but many studies support my claim.

The classic example of an in-effective ad is the display ad with the company name at the top, a phone number, maybe an address and line that says call for information. This type of ad gives your potential customers no reason to contact you. They have no attention grabbing headline, offer no benefits and a weak call-to-action.

Many small business owners mistakenly believe that simply getting their company name out will result in a flood of business. If all your competitors are “getting their name out” too, why should people do business with you instead of your competitors?

What’s the purpose of your ad?
Before you spend money on advertising you should ask yourself what’s the purpose of your ad. What results do you want to get from running your ad? Please don’t say to get your name out. Unless your name is Wayne Gretzky or Michael Jordon your name’s probably not going to attract many new prospects.

If your objective is to attract new customers, then you have to design your ad in a specific way that will get people to pick up the phone to call you or go to your web site to download
something for free.

Your goal with this type of two- step, direct response advertising is to get people to identify themselves as your prospects. You want to offer them something they value for free so you can capture their contact information and follow-up with further marketing activities.

Are you running your ads in the right place?
Most businesses decide to run an ad when they get a call from an advertising sales person offering them a “good deal”. Little thought about whether the media is widely read, heard or seen by their target market goes into their decision.

How many of you have a clear profile of who you want to do business with? If you try to advertise to everyone, you’ll end up selling to very few.  Develop your customer profile and pick your niche. Then target and focus your advertising dollars and efforts to your niche.

JUST FOR LAUGHS


When the store manager returned from lunch, he noticed his clerk's
hand was bandaged, but before he could ask about the bandage, the
clerk had some very good news for him.

"Guess what, sir?" the clerk said. "I finally sold that terrible,
ugly suit we've had so long!"

"Do you mean that repulsive pink-and-blue double-breasted
thing?!" the manager asked.

"That's the one!"

That's great!" the manager cried, "I thought we'd never get rid of that
monstrosity! That had to be the ugliest suit we've ever had! But tell me.
Why is your hand bandaged?"

"Oh," the clerk replied, "after I sold the guy that suit, his guide dog bit me."