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Do Your Adverts Get You More Sales?
Philadelphia retailer and US Postmaster General, John Wanamaker, once said, "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half." If you're spending $10,000 a month on advertising $5,000 is going straight down the tubes. That wastes $60,000 of your hard earned cash every year. Money you could spend on better, more focused marketing. Imagine if you could work out which half works and spend only on that half. The good news is you can. All will become clear in a little while. In the meantime let me explain how advertising works. Broadly there are two types of advertising. One is Branding and Positioning (BAP) and the other is Direct Response (DR) advertising. Branding and Position concentrates on getting the company's name, or service or product continually at the forefront of its customer's minds. As you can imagine this needs continual advertising activity and can cost megabucks. Companies doing this type of advertising include Coca-Cola, British Airways, Nike and MacDonald's. These are all major companies and everyone already knows their name and what they stand for. Why do they do it? The simple answer is that they're in a highly competitive market. They want to retain their large market share by ensuring that the most recent ad a prospect remembers is for their service or product. So when they're thirsty it's a Coke. If they're hungry it's a Big Mac if they want to fly they choose the World's favourite airline. Picture the mountains of money that go towards that aim. But picture too the accountants horror - they don't know which campaign makes a profit. Profit is the one thing that tells you if your campaign is working. If you know your ad makes more revenue than it costs to create, run and service you'd keep running it wouldn't you? Unfortunately Branding and Positioning (BAP) advertising can't be evaluated. You just don't know whether it's worth doing or not. How do you know which advert finally persuaded your prospect to do business with you. Interestingly Bill Bernbach one of the founders of modern advertising said that, "Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it." So why bother doing BAP advertising? Probably because advertising agencies are happy to use BAP advertising for almost any company. Any slowdown in sales can't be attributed to their adverts. Any increase is claimed to prove the advert is working. In reality you don't have a clue. Former Canadian policeman turned fabulously paid copywriter John E. Kennedy coined the phrase, "advertising is salesmanship in print". Would you tell a salesman to go see a prospect and to strip customer oriented benefits from their presentation? Also would you tell them not to ask for the order? You'd be laughed at and if you insisted you'd probably go out of business and certainly lose your salesmen. BAP advertising does exactly that to your customer. In contrast Direct Response (DR) advertising is able to directly relate a specific advert to an increase in sales. Or alternatively highlight a problem ad that needs fixing. This type of advertising seeks to inform the prospect as to how your product or service improves their life, rights a wrong or smoothes a problem. Additionally, DR advertising almost always asks for a response. Either to call in to buy immediately (unusual), to get a free sample, free report, free voucher, free experience or other intermediary step before buying the target product. Imagine the calls, letters and emails you can get from advertising that encourage your prospects to take action to contact your company immediately. You get to see whether the campaign is working. That means you can step in and tweak it if it's not. But it also allows you to test different aspects of your advert to try and increase response further. So for instance you could run two adverts with the headline changed on one, or a different offer on one or a free-phone number against a geographic number. You can see how every single word and picture in your advert performs. Doesn't that just feel better? You've control over your spend and the customers who are bought for your advertising dollar. There are many people who would agree that DR advertising is the right way to advertise. But they still don't do it. Why? Usually the reason is simply one of ego. Direct Response adverts don't tend to be pretty or to win the Cannes Advertising Lions awards. If you're the head of the company or you're the director of sales imagine how tempting it is top run ads that might win awards? You already have sales coming in. Running a BAP advert will still get sales coming in. And you might win that Lion at the Cannes awards for best advertising. You're fooling yourself if you think it's for any other reason. Because almost without exception Direct Response adverts will pull more sales than BAP adverts. Yet many advertisers don't realise it. They're convinced that an advert has to look "professional" to sell. WRONG! Do you want more sales? If you do, and I'm sure you do use the following steps: Step 1: Learn how your products relate to your users. Which emotions, feelings and beliefs does it generate or speak to? Step 2: Assess the best way to convey that to your ultimate user. Step 3: Do the newspapers/magazines/radio/tv channels you've chosen to advertise in get read by your preferred prospects? Step 4: Check and test each ad with a single entry in your chosen media. (Do not run ad series until you've tested the pulling power) Step 5: Buy the smallest display ad possible. Then each time it makes money buy the next size up until it starts to lose money. Then go back to the last one that made money - the optimum size. Step 6: Continually run split tests to find the best pulling direct response for your product Step 7: Use some of your advertising saved to buy other means of marketing Jim Symcox, also known as the Marketing Magician has worked as a consultant since the mid 1980's. He is a marketing coach, copywriter and the author of "How to Leap Ahead Of Your Competitors". web: http://www.acornservice.com
Latest News:Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for news Game news: 'GTA IV' hits 10 million, EA meets ESPN (AP via Yahoo! News) Real news from the virtual world: News and notes on the PGA Tour's top 20 golfers (USA Today) Get the latest news and notes on the top 20 golfers on the PGA Tour. These rankings are based 2006-07 PGA Tour results. UAL shares walloped by new posting of old news (Reuters via Yahoo! News) A nearly 6-year-old news story on the 2002 bankruptcy filing of UAL Corp resurfaced on the Internet on Monday, clobbering the airline's shares briefly as some traders mistook the report as current and plausible news. Asyncast delivers custom news to hands-free mobile devices (CNET) The company's Rocketron service allows users to set preferences for the kinds of news stories they want to hear, as well as filter controls for news they don't want. Young adults want less election news (UPI) EVANSTON, Ill., Sept. 8 (UPI) -- U.S. young adults say there is too much election-related news on Internet news sites, a university study indicates. CNET News Daily Podcast: The new Zune plays its tune (CNET) Microsoft lets "slip" Zune news one day before Apple's big shindig. Big ad group says Google-Yahoo is a bad idea. Who says real spies don't dig social networking? Game News: 'GTA IV' Hits 10 Million, EA Meets ESPN (CBS News) Real news from the virtual world: ABC News gets first Palin interview (Reuters via Yahoo! News) ABC News' Charles Gibson has snagged the first interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin since she was named the GOP's vice presidential pick on August 29. United Airlines hit by 5-year-old news (UPI) CHICAGO, Sept. 8 (UPI) -- United Airline's stock value plunged Monday after a 5-year-old news story was posted on a Florida newspaper's Web site. UPI NewsTrack Entertainment News (UPI) Spears wins 3 MTV Video Music Awards ... 'Wrestler' wins Golden Lion in Venice ... Report: MSNBC shuffles election anchors ... Iconic Astroland park closes ... News from United Press International. Site: news - Google News Palm Shares Soar As New Smartphone Wins Wall Street Praise - CNNMoney.com
MORE RESOURCES: Site: Yahoo! News Search Results for advertising Ad-averse Mobile Users Will Pay to Avoid Advertising (Cellular-News.com) Mobile providers looking to boost their revenues through content downloads and advertising are in for a rough ride, according to a new study by market researchers TNS. A Web advertising dark horse goes on the offensive (Market Watch) While its rivals have been fetching multibillion-dollar acquisition offers from the likes of Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., online-advertising firm ValueClick Inc. has been busy digging its way out of a legal mess. Intergi's Video Game & Entertainment Advertising Network Has Largest Potential Reach in U.S. According to Newest ... (Centre Daily Times) Intergi (www.intergi.com), a leading video game and entertainment site representation company and advertising network, today announced that it now has a total potential advertising reach of 52.4 million unique visitors in the United States, topping other targeted ad networks - including bellwethers such as Advertising.com Games and Yahoo! Games. Based on the latest data from the August 2008 ... Largest ever advertising billboard at London Bridge Station (London SE1) A huge advertising billboard has been unveiled at London Bridge Station to promote the NSPCC and brighten up hoardings on the concourse. Online Brokerage Sites See Increased Visitors With Ramped up Online Advertising Efforts (PR Newswire via Yahoo! Finance) comScore, Inc. , a leader in measuring the digital world, today released a study of the online trading and brokerage industry showing strong visitor growth to online brokerage sites coinciding with heavy online advertising efforts by several of the key brokerages. Advertising spend in Qatar crawls (MENAFN) Advertising spend in Qatar crawls Intergi's Video Game & Entertainment Advertising Network Has Largest Potential Reach in U.S. According to Newest ... (Business Wire via Yahoo! Finance) DEERFIELD BEACH, Fla.----Intergi , a leading video game and entertainment site representation company and advertising network, today announced that it now has a total potential advertising reach of 52.4 million unique visitors in the United States, topping other targeted ad networks - including bellwethers such as Advertising.com Games and Yahoo! GCC advertising expenditure rises by 23.6% (MENAFN) GCC advertising expenditure rises by 23.6% NeoMedia and Format Dynamics Join Forces to Integrate Innovations in Online & Offline Advertising (Marketwire via Yahoo! Finance) NeoMedia Technologies, Inc. (OTC.BB: NEOM), and Format Dynamics, Inc., today announced a strategic alliance designed to accelerate innovation in both online and offline advertising. Bald Is Beautiful (Advertising Space) (CBS News) New Zealand's national airline is offering to pay bald travelers to use their heads - literally - in a new advertising campaign. Site: advertising - Google News SMU to launch graduate advertising program - Bizjournals.com
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