Determine These 3 Things Before You Begin Any Marketing Effort... And Triple Your Results.
By: Bill Ellis
Begin with the end in mind. Simply, put, you've got to know what you're trying to accomplish before you even start your marketing efforts. And you'd be surprised how many don't. Here's a quick outline of the three most important things to know when getting started:
Point #1: Know Your Objective: Sounds simple, doesn't it? It's almost too simple. But you'd be surprised. Most people say, "My objective is to make money. To make sales. To generate business. What else is there?" Well, there are lots of other things... specifically, you need to decide if you want your ad to generate leads, generate sales, move the buyer to the next step in the sales process, or a combination of these things.
Many advertisers assume that everyone who sees their ad will be ready to buy, and waltz right in and plunk down cash. But it just isn’t so. Let me give you an idea... We have a client who owns an upscale, beautifully merchandised natural foods store. He only carries the best of everything natural and pure. He blew a ton of money on radio advertising that was very typical advertising.... You know "We carry this, this, and this. Only the finest that. We're committed to this. Our store is located at XYZ shopping plaza; we're open from 10 to 6 everyday."
It's not my opinion that his ad was horrible. The lack of results proved it. So, true to form, he complained and whined that radio advertising won't work for a natural foods store. But there's a difference between the medium and the ad itself! In this case, the medium wasn't bad.... it was his ad
Here's what we did. Instead of assuming that everyone was just waiting to hear his ad so they could finally find a place to empty their wallets, we assumed that nobody was interested in this store, and they would need a very low-risk way to find out more about the store before they would even invest the time to come check the store out. In his store, various manufacturers conducted product demonstrations on a regular basis often providing free samples, cooking classes, etc. Interesting stuff, but customers were generally unaware of what was happening until they visited the store.
So we created a little thing called the "Special Events List" which is simply a list that's printed out every two weeks of everything that will happen, in the store, during the next two weeks. Then, in the radio ad, we talked a little about the store, but instead of only giving people the option of coming into the store; we gave them a lower-risk option of calling in to get put on the "Special Events List". Well, walk-in traffic nearly doubled, but more significantly, they took over 30 calls a day from people who just wanted to be on the list. The point is this: sometimes it's appropriate to try to generate sales from the ads. In a lot of cases though, it's smarter to try to generate leads from the ads. You just need to make sure that you know exactly what you're trying to accomplish before you start.
Bill Ellis is a former CEO and Senior Executive with several companies. He currently works as a consultant helping companies grow their business. His website FreeBusinessConsultants.com at http://freebusinessconsultants.com provides free online business information and email business consultations for startups and existing businesses.
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