How to Get the Most Value for Your Advertising Dollars
Have you ever placed an ad in a magazine or newspaper and then eagerly waited for the phone to ring as soon as the publication hit the news stand? Were you disappointed with the results? People often are until they realise a successful ad usually doesn’t happen by chance. A good ad requires a lot of planning.
Marketing and promoting your business is a complex area of your overall business management strategy and will need a lot of focus. An overall marketing plan should encompass many sub-areas including knowing who your target market is and where to find them, market research, advertising, promotions, public relations, image and branding. Phew! And then in most cases, each of those areas can again be broken down into further sub-categories. With that in mind, it’s not possible to cover all of those topics in one article, so for now we’re focusing on print advertising.
By print advertising, I’m referring to display ads and inserts in magazines and newspapers. Other forms of print advertising can include direct mail campaigns, classified and directory listings and brochures, but we’ll talk about these another time.
Here are some points to help you create winning advertisements for your business, ensuring that you get exceptional value for your dollar.
• Know who you are marketing to. Who is your target market? Where will you find them? What publications do they read? Then contact these publications and ask about their reader demographics.
• Most experts advise that you need to run a series of ads to get your message across, and that these ads should preferably be run through a number of media outlets. A one-off ad in a publication will not necessarily rate much of a response. The repetition creates a lasting impression along with credibility. Many prospects are sceptical of ads and will want to know that you are serious about your business. Once they’ve seen your ad a few times, they’re more likely to realise that you’ll (hopefully) be around for a while. Statistics prove that people will see an ad an average of six times before they will buy your products or services.
• What is the purpose of your ad? Are you trying to educate the masses or tell people ‘Here I am’? Do you want people to visit your website? Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to phone you? You need to have a clear idea of what you want BEFORE placing your ads.
• Consistency is important. A regular small ad will be more effective than a one-off full page ad.
• Weekly and monthly publications often offer a discount if you pre-book multiple ads in advance.
• Consider using editorial style ads, or ‘advertorials’. These are paid for ads that appear like editorial content. People will generally accept what they read in an editorial as fact, whereas they may be sceptical about claims being made by typical display ads. Research shows that advertorials generally have a higher response rate than display ads. In fact, with a great headline and good content, 50% more people are likely to read your advertorial than they would your display ad.
• Follow the AIDA formula – Attention Interest Desire Action. That’s what you’re trying to create in your ads.
• Create your ads in the same style and image as your stationery and everything else used to promote your business, including fonts and colours.
• Include a large, bold, attention grabbing headline. Now, where do you place that headline? No, not at the top of the ad. Tests prove that the best place to put your headline is about a third or a quarter of the way down the ad. This is where the eye is automatically drawn to first. And don’t use a fancy or narrow font as this is more difficult to read. Keep it bold and clear.
• Your headline should contain the main selling point.
• Don’t use a full stop at the end of your headline.
• Remember: Make your message clear. Tell readers what you want them to do – phone, visit, buy, signup for… This is called your ‘call to action’. This is where you must (a) know what you want, and (b) TELL PEOPLE WHAT TO DO!!! ‘Call for your free sample,’ ‘Register for our latest workshop,’ ‘Buy all your Christmas presents from us!’
• Tell your prospects not only what to do, but by when. People often intend to respond, but they get busy or lose your ad or… forget! Give them a reason to respond NOW. Give them an expiry date for a special offer, or a discount if they phone before a set date, or something that’s only available to the first 50 callers.
• Make it simple for prospects to respond to your ad. Tell them what number to call or what website to visit, and make these details clear and easy to find. People will usually give up if it seems too hard.
• Make sure you include the product/service’s benefits to the reader. Prospects don’t care about the features – they only want to know WIIFM – ‘What’s in it for me?’
• A great way to encourage a response to your ads is to include a coupon for a free something. A free consultation… a free sample… a free whatever-you-can-think-of-that-people-will-value.
• Keep in mind though that research shows that higher income clientele will rarely cut out a discount coupon.
• Where possible, include your unique selling point – why should your prospect buy from you instead of your competitor?
• If your ad is small, offer one single but huge benefit to your prospect, rather than trying to squeeze a dozen into one tiny space.
• There are many words that are hugely successful and are often referred to as ‘hypnotic marketing’. This is an entire article in itself, but for now, try to incorporate the words ‘you’ and ‘your’ into your ad. This involves the reader and makes it all about them.
• If there’s room, back up your claims with facts, figures and testimonials.
• Don’t ramble. You will have limited space in an advertisement and every word counts. As soon as you start to ramble, you lose your prospect.
• Write as you speak – but without the jargon and technical stuff. Don’t try to impress people with big words.
• You need to track your response. In the early days of your business, many advertising decisions will be based on guesswork, using these guidelines, of course.
But as your business grows and you document your advertising results, you will build a clear idea of what methods work best and whether they give a satisfactory rate of return.
• Put a code on your ad so you can track it. There are ways to do this without it looking tacky. For example, in a Business Mums Magazine ad, ask readers to email you for a free sample. Tell them to enter the code BM-sample in the subject line so that you know to send them a freebie. In your local paper, run the same ad but ask people to enter the code LP-sample. To the reader, that’s just your way of knowing that they’re entitled to a free sample. But to you, that’s how you know which ad people are responding to.
• Another way of tracking your response is to make sure that you ask EVERY customer and potential customer, ‘How did you find out about us?’ So simple!
• Keep your layout simple and never, ever let your graphics overpower the wording.
• Avoid writing over the top of pictures as this detracts from the message.
• Serif fonts (the ones with ‘feet’ such as Times New Roman and Courier) are easier to read in print. Try to keep the font size at 10, 11 or 12 point for the main part of your text. (Sans serif fonts such as Arial or Verdana are better for online material).
• Avoid words in ALL CAPITALS, italics and shadows as these also distract from your message.
• For advertisements on flyers, either as mailbox deliveries or magazine or newspaper inserts, consider sharing the flyer with another business. You print on one side, they print on the reverse and you share the costs.
Now, keeping these points in mind, get creative and design a winning ad for your business.
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