Why Most Advertising Does Not Work
e-Marketing Company
Let's start with the simple stuff. If you are running advertising that
is not working, please stop it!
This applies to you whether you're running ads in newspapers,
magazines, or on radio, television, billboards, posters, taxis or
buses.
I know it sounds obvious but here's what often happens: People run
advertising because they feel they ought to. They're not really sure
if it's working but they are hesitant to stop it because it may be one
of their main forms of marketing.
By the end of this report you will have enough information to ensure
that you are never in that position again. You will either be running
great ads that produce great results, or you will be spending your
marketing money elsewhere.
2. Only use Direct Response Advertising
There are two types of advertising - direct response advertising and
brand advertising.
Understanding the distinction between the two will immediately save
you a fortune.
Brand advertising is used by companies like Coca Cola and the large
car manufacturers to build and increase awareness of their brand.
Unless you have huge amounts of money which you are happy to lose, you
should avoid brand advertising at all costs. For a small business it
is a complete waste of money.
The only type of advertising you ever want to consider is direct
response advertising. The only purpose of direct response advertising
is to produce a clear response.
The type of response may vary depending on the type of business you
are in and your overall marketing strategy. You may want the response
to be an immediate purchase. You may want the response to be for
someone to contact you to ask for a brochure.
The great thing about direct response advertising is that you can
instantly tell whether it is working (see the next point) It either
produces a response or it doesn't. One of the reasons that most small
business advertising does not work is that it's a combination of half
hearted direct response and highly ineffective brand advertising.
Fortunately, you now know the difference. In the land of the small or
medium business, direct response is King!
3. Testing and Measuring
It is absolutely essential that you test and measure all of your
advertising.
If we are going to engage in direct response advertising we obviously
need to be able to measure that response, otherwise we are not going
to know if the ad is working.
At the very least we need to know how many people responded, how many
of them were converted to a sale and what that is worth to you. Then
you need to compare that figure to the cost of the ad and you can
immediately work out how profitable the ad was, or whether you should
stop running it.
So many businesses just allocate a certain mount of money to an
advertising budget, spend the money every year...and they've only got a
vague sense of whether the ads are working are not. This is crazy. If
your ads are working, you want to roll them out on a larger scale. If
they're not, STOP and use the money on one of the dozens of other
marketing strategies that can bring you a 100 or 200 or 300% return on
your investments.
You will obviously need some sort of system for asking people who
contact you for the first time where they heard about you. If you have
a larger business, you may even want to set up a separate phone line
with a number that only appears in your ad. If you're directing people
to a website, you may want to set up a special web page that also only
appears in your ad. This will ensure that you can clearly identify
when people are responding to your advertising.
One of the reasons that Radio and TV Advertising can be so high risk,
is that it's very difficult to test it on a small scale. You should
never invest in Radio and TV Advertising unless it's money you can
afford to lose.
4. Your Headline is the most important part of your Ad
In the ad itself the most important element is the headline. The
headline is either the heading that goes at the top of the ad or if
there's no heading it's the first words of the ad. If you're on the
radio it's the first thing people hear. If it's TV it's the first
thing they see and hear. The headline needs to grab peoples'
attention. One change in a headline can produce a 50-100% increase in
response.
One of the biggest challenge that any print advertiser faces is
getting people to read their ad - let alone for the ad to produce a
result. So the main purpose of the headline is not to sell your
product - it's just to get people to read your ad.
The headline should be about your readers - not about you. If your
headline has the name of your business in it, you are probably losing
out. Imagine you owned a company selling £10 fire alarms. Which of
these headlines do you think would be most likely to get the reader's
attention:
Simpson Fire Alarms - Your Guarantee
of Safety
OR
Is your Family's Life worth the
price of a round of Drinks?
Be adventurous with your headlines. Test different versions to see
what works best. There are no rules - except what works.
5. Remember AIDA
There's a classic formula used by advertisers and it's well worth
remembering. The formula is AIDA. This stands for
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
If you follow this formula in every ad that you write or produce, you
will greatly increase your chances of success.
Attention - the first thing your ad needs to do is grab the reader's
attention. You achieve this with your headline.
Interest - once you've got their attention, you need to create an
interest in your product or service.
Desire - There is a big difference between being interested in a
product or service and desiring it. You need to convert the reader's
interest into a strong desire for what you are offering.
Action - Even if someone desires what you have, it is not enough until
they take action. At the end of the ad you need a call to action. Tell
people exactly what they need to do to follow through and make it easy
for them to do so. This is where many people go wrong. Even if you
have a good ad, you still need to tell people precisely what to do -
how to take action.
6. Benefits, Benefits, Benefits
One of the principles that should drive all of your marketing is
communicating the BENEFITS of your product or service.
Your ad needs to be a personal communication to the individual
reading, hearing or seeing it. And it needs to be about them. It needs
to address their needs, desires and fears and it needs to constantly
communicate the benefits of what you are offering.
Nobody will buy anything from you until they have explicitly
understood how they will benefit from what you have to offer. So
here's a useful tip. When you've written your ad, imagine stepping
into the shoes of your prospective customer. From this perspective
does the add fully convey what those benefits are? If not go back and
fine tune the ad until it feels right.
7. Don't Advertise on a Left Hand Page
If you're doing newspaper or magazine advertising, this one piece of
knowledge can turn an unsuccessful ad campaign into a successful one.
This has been tested again and again. When you read a publication,
your eyes are drawn to the right hand page as you flick through, so
statistically, more people will see your ad if it's on the right hand
page.
If you look at the big national magazines and newspapers, you will see
that most of the large advertisers are on the right hand pages. The
few that appear on a left hand page will be paying less because their
advertising agencies know that less people will see the ad.
When you book your ad space, tell them you want it on a right hand
page. Very few people in your position ask for this, so the
publication will normally oblige. If they tell you they can't
guarantee it - tell them you'll advertise in a future edition when
they can guarantee it. You'll soon discover how obliging they can be!
8. Never pay the full rate for advertising
The person selling you the advertising needs to know very early on
that you have absolutely no intention of paying the full rate.
Most advertising rate cards are far too high and you can always
negotiate. If you're a small business remember that large companies
who use ad agencies are buying based on the readership or audience
levels rather than the rate card - so haggle and negotiate. If you can
pay 20 or 30% less for your ads it can turn an unprofitable ad into a
successful one.
Here's another handy little trick to pay less for your advertising.
The closer to the deadline you can book your ad, the better. Sales
teams work towards targets and as the deadline approaches they get
more desperate to fill the ad space. They become far more open to
negotiation.
This applies to all forms of advertising. If your local radio or TV
station does not sell all its ad space that they have available for
tomorrow - it's gone forever. If you come along and offer them a deal
at what seems a ridiculously low price, you might be surprised at how
low they're willing to go.
9. Don't Follow the Competition
One of the biggest mistakes people make is advertising in publications
or on various forms of media (taxis, billboards, buses etc) just
because their competitors are doing so. Don't for a minute think that
all your competitors are there because their ads are producing great
results. They're more likely to be there because everyone else is and
most of them wont have a clue whether their advertising is working.
In fact, this is a well known sales trick used by the people selling
ad space. If they can get one or two of your competitors to advertise,
they can call you up and tell you how you'll lose out if you don't
advertise too. What they fail to mention is that your competitors
probably never test their advertising, often haven't got a clue how to
market and are only advertising there because they think you will.
This is a highly effective way to sustain the advertising industry.
It's not a great way for you to run your business.
10. Don't buy into the myth that Advertising is essential for your
Business Success
Now that I've shared some of the strategies for making your
advertising work for you - I'll let you into a secret. I'm not a huge
fan of advertising for small businesses. If you can get it right it
works brilliantly - but generally, advertising is one of the least
effective ways to grow a business.
There seems to be a cultural myth that to run a successful business,
you must advertise. Whoever came up with that one is the same person
who said that if you get a university degree you're guaranteed a
great, fulfilling career.
Advertising is just one of many marketing options that you have. But
you really shouldn't be dependent on it. In fact, here's a strategy I
use with my clients which is really powerful:
When I work with a client, one of my goals is to get them to the point
where they have so much great marketing going on it makes little
difference to their business if they stop advertising.
Why do I do this? Because quite honestly I've seen more business
owners pull their hair out through advertising problems than anything
else. Ultimately, my work isn't about marketing. It's about Freedom.
It's about giving business owners the freedom that comes from having a
successful and profitable business which is supported by multiple
pillars of marketing.
It's hard to be free when the future of your business involves trying
to get a couple of ads to work in a crappy local newspaper.
So start to think out of the box. Ideally, you should be using a
combination of up to at least ten other marketing strategies to grow
you business. They include (but are not limited to).
Telephone Marketing
Direct Mail
Internet
Email marketing
Direct Sales
PR (Why spend money on advertising when PR gives you coverage for
free)
Strategic Alliances
Lead Response Marketing
A multi level Referral system
Have a look at this list. How many of these are you implementing in
your business? More importantly, what would happen to your business if
you could start to combine some of these extra marketing approaches?
How would that effect your profits? What would that do to your
financial freedom?
Here's another thought. At least four of the items on this list will
cost you either nothing or very little to implement. Why throw money
at advertising when some of the best marketing is Free?
In the weeks ahead I'll be sending you Free tips and advice via email
that will show you how to achieve this. I hope that this is the
beginning of a great, long term relationship where I become the source
of leading edge information for you that will make a real difference
to your business and your profits.
Sincerely,
Scott Richard Adams, CEO
e-Marketing Company