| Tips On Advertising |
When deciding on where to advertise for new customers -
__________________________________________________
Three Good References: Do not advertise or utilize any source until you have spoken with and received three good
references from current or recent advertisers with services similar to yours. If a company can not provide you with
references (again from services or products like yours) DO NOT USE. Sounds so simple. Very few companies do it.
_______________________________________________________________
Long Term Customers: Does the advertising you’re considering have long term customers who utilize it over and
over? Companies don’t stop using good advertising methods. Ask them for the last year’s worth of their product (if a
magazine, direct mail piece, or other print) and see what the turn over of advertisers is. If it’s a non print opportunity,
ask for references that have used the method for at least a year.
We research new advertising opportunities for clients every year. 90% get a thumbs-down just based on the above.
______________________________________________________________
New Advertising Opportunities: DO NOT USE new advertising companies.
They have no history and some of the largest money wasters are new companies with great stories. If it works they will
be around when it’s proven and safe for you to spend money with them.
________________________________________________________________
Don’t Get Sold! The word sales means to persuade. Don’t let a good sales person make your decision. The sales person
is there to provide information to you so you can persuade yourself. Think of sales reps as information givers, and you
be the judge based on facts.
________________________________________________________________
Image: Only advertise with companies that attracts your type customer. Coupons attract price buyers. If you’re not a
price seller why would you waste your money advertising to the wrong type prospect?
________________________________________________________________
Design Image - Have a professional design your advertising if you’re not a marketing pro.
A well thought out and designed advertising piece (Direct mail, Yellow Page, magazine, TV buy, Radio, Web and other)
will generate three or four times the response as the generic owner or non marketing pro produced advertising. For a
few hundred dollars you will see a huge impact on the response. And it’s a one time investment.
Don’t have the company providing the advertising do the advertisement or your ad will look and sound just like all the
others.
As an example, I see companies use Pay per click advertising on the Internet attached to a cheap and poorly put together
web site all the time. They’re getting 25% of the response my clients get for the same money because they only spent a
few dollars on a web site. For an extra $2000, they could sell four times as much!
________________________________________________________________
Don’t Advertise Until You’re Ready to Provide
Great Service: I had a friend that spent a lot of money on hosting a live remote radio program at one of his restaurants.
The turn out was excellent. So good in fact that people had to wait a long time and the staff was completely swamped.
The service was poor, and they ran out of many items.
All they accomplished was spending money and sending hundreds of potential customers away never to return.
________________________________________________________________
Free Advertising and Marketing: Any advertising and marketing that works is in essence free. It’s throwing away
money if it dose not. Do your homework.
________________________________________________________________
The “It Takes Repetition for Advertising to Work” Line: Yes, you need to continually reach your target in new and
different ways. No, sending the same direct mail piece and getting a bad response time after time does not qualify as a
good plan. If it’s not working after the first one or two times -stop it, and figure out what’s wrong. Is it the message?
Is it the offer? Is it the demographics? Is it the timing?
________________________________________________________________
Change Your Message: Sending the same post card, letter, direct mail piece, or saying the same thing over and over in
advertising is another waste. Plan on changing your offer, or message every chance you get.
Learn from the big guys. McDonald's is always offering new incentives, or products. You know what? They do it not to
sell you a new sandwich; they do it to keep you listening.
________________________________________________________________
To Everything There is a Season - Time Your Advertising: Buyers purchase your service or product at predictable and
logical times.
For some companies this is a “season” A landscaper in Denver is going to sell 70% of their customers during four
months of the year. Spending advertising dollars in December for a landscaper is wasted dollars. Know your customers
buying cycle and advertise in these periods.
Timing can apply to a season, certain key days during the month (1st and 15th) certain days of the week. Friday
Advertising is a waste of money for several type businesses. You need to understand when your prospects look for your
service, and where.
Did you know for instance that a direct mail piece or flier that arrives at a home on Monday will get two or more times
the response than one delivered on Friday for a home improvement company? You may save .05 with a company that
delivers whenever they want, but you’re losing response and a lot of dollars. Are you advertising to save money or sell
more customers?
________________________________________________________________
Happy Customers: Referrals from happy customers are hands down, no question asked, flat out, absolutely,
bar none, I am not joking - your best advertising. Yet, referrals are a lot like the old saying about weather.
Every one knows about it but no one does any thing about it.
Have a referral program in place for every customer. Make it the foundation of your advertising program. I have
purchased several referral program guides and developed and implemented referral programs for many clients and every
one of the companies that I was a partner or owner of. Nothing beats referrals. If you do nothing else, start a good
referral program. Track it, promote it constantly, and focus on it.
The first sign for me of a company that needs our services is they have no defined referral program. (Our company does
90% of our business through referrals.)
________________________________________________________________
Be a Sharp Shooter, target and reach.
It can save you a lot of money. If you don’t know who your ideal prospects are down to their shoe sizes, you’re
spending way too much money reaching them.
In today’s database world, you might be surprised how targeted you can become with your advertising. Once you have
your market truly identified, your cost to reach them will go way down and your response will go way up.
________________________________________________________________
Spend Every Dollar You Have: If a specific advertising method is working, spend everything you can on it as long as
you can support the new sales. Why companies have some methods that work, and then continue to use others that don’
t will always amaze me. Spend your time and money on the stuff that works. Find more of it, spend more on it, until you
maximize its return.
________________________________________________________________
Margin and Volume - Define Where You Advertise: The margins you have in your service or product and the
volume of available new prospects will define your method and budget for advertising.
A large volume of potential customers brings down your cost of reach.
A large margin allows you to spend more to reach your target.
If you have a large volume of potential customers with a large margin of profit (or gross margin) - you can advertise a
lot. If you have a small volume of potential customers (a service or product for a specific small category of customer)
and a small margin - you’re going to be limited to the methods you employ.
A business broker knows that they may only see 10 or 20 good new prospects a year, which is a tiny market, but their
margins are good. In this case they will have dollars to advertise wisely but not abundantly. McDonald's has a huge
volume and an decent margin. They can advertise a lot as the cost of “reach” is very small.
Those are the top tips. If you utilize them consistently, I am confident that you will save money (which goes right into
your profit) and produce more revenue for the dollars you spend, which produces more profit!
Feel free to pass this on to any other business owners or managers that you think would find it of value.
Of course we have not even looked at your marketing message, your incentive to call or visit you, or your design
elements. We have a separate “tips” piece on that and an individual piece on selling. Just call my office or email me
directly if you would like a copy of any of those.
Copyright My One Call, LLC 2007- 2009
__________________________________________________
Three Good References: Do not advertise or utilize any source until you have spoken with and received three good
references from current or recent advertisers with services similar to yours. If a company can not provide you with
references (again from services or products like yours) DO NOT USE. Sounds so simple. Very few companies do it.
_______________________________________________________________
Long Term Customers: Does the advertising you’re considering have long term customers who utilize it over and
over? Companies don’t stop using good advertising methods. Ask them for the last year’s worth of their product (if a
magazine, direct mail piece, or other print) and see what the turn over of advertisers is. If it’s a non print opportunity,
ask for references that have used the method for at least a year.
We research new advertising opportunities for clients every year. 90% get a thumbs-down just based on the above.
______________________________________________________________
New Advertising Opportunities: DO NOT USE new advertising companies.
They have no history and some of the largest money wasters are new companies with great stories. If it works they will
be around when it’s proven and safe for you to spend money with them.
________________________________________________________________
Don’t Get Sold! The word sales means to persuade. Don’t let a good sales person make your decision. The sales person
is there to provide information to you so you can persuade yourself. Think of sales reps as information givers, and you
be the judge based on facts.
________________________________________________________________
Image: Only advertise with companies that attracts your type customer. Coupons attract price buyers. If you’re not a
price seller why would you waste your money advertising to the wrong type prospect?
________________________________________________________________
Design Image - Have a professional design your advertising if you’re not a marketing pro.
A well thought out and designed advertising piece (Direct mail, Yellow Page, magazine, TV buy, Radio, Web and other)
will generate three or four times the response as the generic owner or non marketing pro produced advertising. For a
few hundred dollars you will see a huge impact on the response. And it’s a one time investment.
Don’t have the company providing the advertising do the advertisement or your ad will look and sound just like all the
others.
As an example, I see companies use Pay per click advertising on the Internet attached to a cheap and poorly put together
web site all the time. They’re getting 25% of the response my clients get for the same money because they only spent a
few dollars on a web site. For an extra $2000, they could sell four times as much!
________________________________________________________________
Don’t Advertise Until You’re Ready to Provide
Great Service: I had a friend that spent a lot of money on hosting a live remote radio program at one of his restaurants.
The turn out was excellent. So good in fact that people had to wait a long time and the staff was completely swamped.
The service was poor, and they ran out of many items.
All they accomplished was spending money and sending hundreds of potential customers away never to return.
________________________________________________________________
Free Advertising and Marketing: Any advertising and marketing that works is in essence free. It’s throwing away
money if it dose not. Do your homework.
________________________________________________________________
The “It Takes Repetition for Advertising to Work” Line: Yes, you need to continually reach your target in new and
different ways. No, sending the same direct mail piece and getting a bad response time after time does not qualify as a
good plan. If it’s not working after the first one or two times -stop it, and figure out what’s wrong. Is it the message?
Is it the offer? Is it the demographics? Is it the timing?
________________________________________________________________
Change Your Message: Sending the same post card, letter, direct mail piece, or saying the same thing over and over in
advertising is another waste. Plan on changing your offer, or message every chance you get.
Learn from the big guys. McDonald's is always offering new incentives, or products. You know what? They do it not to
sell you a new sandwich; they do it to keep you listening.
________________________________________________________________
To Everything There is a Season - Time Your Advertising: Buyers purchase your service or product at predictable and
logical times.
For some companies this is a “season” A landscaper in Denver is going to sell 70% of their customers during four
months of the year. Spending advertising dollars in December for a landscaper is wasted dollars. Know your customers
buying cycle and advertise in these periods.
Timing can apply to a season, certain key days during the month (1st and 15th) certain days of the week. Friday
Advertising is a waste of money for several type businesses. You need to understand when your prospects look for your
service, and where.
Did you know for instance that a direct mail piece or flier that arrives at a home on Monday will get two or more times
the response than one delivered on Friday for a home improvement company? You may save .05 with a company that
delivers whenever they want, but you’re losing response and a lot of dollars. Are you advertising to save money or sell
more customers?
________________________________________________________________
Happy Customers: Referrals from happy customers are hands down, no question asked, flat out, absolutely,
bar none, I am not joking - your best advertising. Yet, referrals are a lot like the old saying about weather.
Every one knows about it but no one does any thing about it.
Have a referral program in place for every customer. Make it the foundation of your advertising program. I have
purchased several referral program guides and developed and implemented referral programs for many clients and every
one of the companies that I was a partner or owner of. Nothing beats referrals. If you do nothing else, start a good
referral program. Track it, promote it constantly, and focus on it.
The first sign for me of a company that needs our services is they have no defined referral program. (Our company does
90% of our business through referrals.)
________________________________________________________________
Be a Sharp Shooter, target and reach.
It can save you a lot of money. If you don’t know who your ideal prospects are down to their shoe sizes, you’re
spending way too much money reaching them.
In today’s database world, you might be surprised how targeted you can become with your advertising. Once you have
your market truly identified, your cost to reach them will go way down and your response will go way up.
________________________________________________________________
Spend Every Dollar You Have: If a specific advertising method is working, spend everything you can on it as long as
you can support the new sales. Why companies have some methods that work, and then continue to use others that don’
t will always amaze me. Spend your time and money on the stuff that works. Find more of it, spend more on it, until you
maximize its return.
________________________________________________________________
Margin and Volume - Define Where You Advertise: The margins you have in your service or product and the
volume of available new prospects will define your method and budget for advertising.
A large volume of potential customers brings down your cost of reach.
A large margin allows you to spend more to reach your target.
If you have a large volume of potential customers with a large margin of profit (or gross margin) - you can advertise a
lot. If you have a small volume of potential customers (a service or product for a specific small category of customer)
and a small margin - you’re going to be limited to the methods you employ.
A business broker knows that they may only see 10 or 20 good new prospects a year, which is a tiny market, but their
margins are good. In this case they will have dollars to advertise wisely but not abundantly. McDonald's has a huge
volume and an decent margin. They can advertise a lot as the cost of “reach” is very small.
Those are the top tips. If you utilize them consistently, I am confident that you will save money (which goes right into
your profit) and produce more revenue for the dollars you spend, which produces more profit!
Feel free to pass this on to any other business owners or managers that you think would find it of value.
Of course we have not even looked at your marketing message, your incentive to call or visit you, or your design
elements. We have a separate “tips” piece on that and an individual piece on selling. Just call my office or email me
directly if you would like a copy of any of those.
Copyright My One Call, LLC 2007- 2009
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