How to Make Advertising Work for Your Business
April 4, 2010
Pick up a newspaper, magazine or advertising circular and look at the ads. What do you see? A whole bunch of the same thing: a list of services; a company name; a tagline; a pretty graphic; and maybe an offer.
Most businesses think of advertising in one of two ways: 1) Put your company name in front of enough people enough times so they’ll remember you when it’s time to buy. … or 2) Put an “amazing” offer out there and people will be compelled to respond (whether they’ve made the decision to buy or not).
The first scenario is called ”top of mind” advertising and unless you have a multi-million dollar marketing budget it’s very difficult to buy top of mind brand awareness. In the second example advertising sales people want their advertisers to see results (because results sell more advertising), so they recommend you put an offer in your ad: Get 10% off service, $5.00 of a product, buy one get one free, etc. And sure, that works - sometimes.
Let’s Analyze the “Compelling Offer” Approach:
Does putting an amazing offer in front of people influence them to buy even if they don’t have an immediate or compelling want or need? Does an amazing offer force someone to buy if they don’t have a budget? No, it doesn’t. So your ad gets completely ignored and you don’t get any response. (Ok to be fair – best case scenario – someone may clip it, stick it to the fridge where it will hang for a month or two before it ends up in a drawer or in the trash).
How an Ad Gets Seen….or Not.
Consider this scenario: I’m looking at an ad in the free local magazine that comes in the mail every month; it’s an ad for a $75 carpet, tile or grout cleaning. Well, my tile and grout happen to be pretty clean- well clean enough for me right now. So I’m not interested in spending $75 to get it cleaned, even if it is a great deal. I ignore the ad and move on.
Now let’s think about this… I am a tile owner. At some point in my life I may need tile cleaning services. However, did I notice the name of the business offering the deal? NO. Do I know how they are different from every other steam cleaning company out there? NO. Has this ad given me a reason to remember them when I am ready to get my tile and grout clean? NO. Has this ad engaged me in any way? NO.
Old School Advertising Doesn’t Work!
And what’s the traditional reaction when advertising doesn’t 
work? Ask any advertising rep and they’ll tell you - you need to advertise MORE (i.e.: spend MORE money), so that when your prospect is ready to buy they will see or remember your ad and call you. But how much are you willing to spend to make a sale?
So let’s say you spend $175 / month on the ad and it takes me 6 months to decide I need to clean my tile. Let’s say I happen to choose you because I remembered seeing your ad in the magazine for the past six months and because your offer is better than the other guy who is doing it for $100. You’ve just paid $1050 to get my $75 sale. Sure, you may up-sell me, I may become a regular customer and my life time value may be in the thousands – but those are big “ifs”. Think about that: you are spending hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars hoping to reach a prospect at exactly the right time in their buying process. Doesn’t that seem like a pretty large gamble to you? No wonder businesses think advertising doesn’t work!
A New Way to Advertise.
What if, instead of advertising with the hope of making your phone ring off the hook and breaking sales records immediately, you take a different approach! What if you try something Duct Tape Marketing calls the “2 Step Approach to Advertising”? What if, instead of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on print ads trying to find that needle in a haystack – that rare person who is ready to buy what you are offering the second they see your ad – you find potential prospects and get their permission to market to them on a more consistent basis and with more targeted offers while spending less money?
Here’s How 2 Step Advertising Works:
Create an ad offering a free report: “5 Easy Things You Can do to Keep Your Tile and Grout Clean”. Or better yet, “How to Remove Tile and Grout Stains Yourself”. OK, I know what you’re thinking… you’re thinking this is crazy and it’s going to cost you business –right? Well, you’re wrong. It won’t cost you business; in fact this approach will accomplish three things. It will:
- Get people to your website where they can learn more about you.
- Attract people who actually own tile and who will give you permission to market to them on a regular basis.
- Prove that you care more about helping people than making a sale (prospects love that).
The goal of marketing is to get people who have a need to KNOW, LIKE AND TRUST you so when they are ready to buy, they buy from you. Offering helpful and useful information helps build your KNOW, LIKE and TRUST factors and yes, increases sales.
The goal of 2 Step Advertising is to get prospects to your site and get their permission to engage them by collecting their email addresses. Once you have their permission you can email surveys, newsletters, tips and offers geared specifically to their needs on a monthly or bi-monthly basis for about a penny an email.
Think about how powerful that is: You get to communicate with a prospect who has given you permission to market to them for one tiny penny! That’s HUGE!
Your New Advertising Strategy
How many more responses do you think you can get when you stop selling in your advertiing and start offering helpful information? People hate to be sold. And that’s what traditional advertising is all about. What if you can get 10 new people on your email list from each ad? What if 1 of those people eventually buys from you at full price – or close to it? What is the cost of that one customer compared to the one you got by practicing traditional advertising? I guarantee that if you implement this approach as part of your marketing strategy you will get results and begin to see your business grow.
I look forward to reading your comments! Please click here. (And then scroll down to the comments section on the bottom of the page)
Take Advantage of Every Opportunity to Practice Effective Marketing
February 15, 2010
So you have an opportunity to showcase your business for FREE. Maybe it’s a tabletop display at a networking event or a new member table at a Chamber of Commerce mixer. What are you going to do with it? The biggest mistake you can make is to do nothing. 
But you think it’s a big hassle and you won’t sell anything anyway. Well, I have great news for you – you’re probably not going to sell a single thing; your job is not to sell- your job is merely to collect information. Now doesn’t that take the pressure off?
Although it would be nice to sell something every time we come in contact with people – that’s just not reality; and since most of us live in reality, we have to resort to Marketing. Instead of thinking a display table or booth is a big hassle and you won’t sell anything anyway, think of it as an opportunity to collect information – to build your email list. Building an email list full of people who have said, “yes, I want to receive more information from you, because the information you are offering is interesting, educational, and fun to read” is crucial to an effective marketing strategy.
Build your list by collecting cards. You can do this by giving away a free report, a free consultation, or even have a drawing for a Starbucks gift card. You can make a little inexpensive sign and put a fishbowl on your table inviting people to drop their cards for a chance to win and to be signed up for your newsletter, monthly tips emails, special offers ,etc. Offer a demo of your products or services, or simply ask the people you meet if they would like to receive your very educational and informative newsletter.
Whatever you do, don’t waste an opportunity to showcase your business, collect information and build your “know, like and trust factor”. Please click here to leave your comments.
5 Easy Ways to Build Your Small Business Email List
December 27, 2009
Congratulations! Your New Year’s resolution is to get serious about marketing your small business. 
And you’ve been reading my blogs, so you know that email marketing is a fun, effective and inexpensive way to do it. So now you’re tasked with building your email list. Where do you start? Here are 5 tips to get you started.
1. Put a Guest Book in your store, office and/or on your website and ask people to sign it. Put a space for their email address with the message, “Would you like to receive offers and special members-only discounts from us? Join our mailing list!”
2. When you are networking and people hand you their business card ASK if they want to be included in your newsletter and/or special offers email list. Don’t put everyone who hands you a business card on your email list – believe it or not, that’s illegal.
3. Give something away for free. Either in your store, office or on your site; offer a free report, a free gift, a free session, for example. It can be a raffle or something you give to everyone who signs up (if you do this, make it easy and inexpensive, a white paper is perfect). It doesn’t have to be much, something educational, like a report or a free consultation – or anything a client or potential client will consider valuable and useful. Make it clear that when they agree to enter the drawing they will also be agreeing to receive emails from you.
4. Put an opt in form on your website and Facebook page to sign up for a newsletter or special “members only” events and offers and drive traffic to it in your email signature, business card, signs in your office or store and in your social media accounts like Twitter.
5. Go through your outlook list or rolodex and contact each person one by one, asking for permission stay in touch via email more often. You can let them know that you publish a newsletter or send out special members only deals and you would hate for them to miss out.
Remember – as a small business, there are laws governing email. No matter how tempting it may be, never add people to your list who did not give you permission. Not only is it unprofessional and impolite it’s illegal.
If you have any questions about email marketing, list building or marketing in general, we’re here to help. Don’t hesitate to contact us at info@FortuneMarketingCompany.com
Please click here to leave your comments.
Happy New Year!
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