Key Points To Remember Before You Spend Money on Advertising

March 21, 2008

So you have saved up some money and now you are ready to start running an advertisement on radio, television, new papers, or the web.

Before get out that checkbook and start spending your hard earned money, here are a few things that you need to remember:

Your ad should create or magnify the desire and sense of urgency to buy your product or service. This may sound obvious, but most small and mid-size businesses copy big-name branding ads that offer little in the way of a call to action.
Drive home your product and service benefits that your customer can relate to. Features are fine, but benefits sell. Talk about what your customer cares about and what the customer gets as a result of using your product or service. Sell the sizzle, not the steak. Sell me a way to keep my food cold, not a refrigerator.
Present compelling reasons why your product or service is superior and unique and the only rational choice to purchase. When you lead the customer through a logical sequence that helps make sense to the logical left brain, then the emotional right brain can pick up on cues why the customer really wants to buy your product or service. In short, make it super easy to buy.
Provide a way for the customer to purchase your product or service when they first see it. This is another way to say make it easy to buy. The fewer steps between you and your customer the better. If the customer needs to call, don’t make the customer go to the website to get the phone number, provide it right there or in your ad.
Get to the point and try not to be too wordy with your content. Confusion kills sells. Stay concise, specific and on point in your copywriting.
Challenge yourself and every partner you work with to provide reports and tracking for every ad and every campaign you use. A wise person once said, “What you can measure you can manage.” Measuring in advertising is critical. If you run an ad, set up a separate webpage or call in code or response code in the case of direct mail for each outlet so you can measure the efficacy of your program. If you tweak the campaign, then you will know what is working and what isn’t. It can be super easy to track - don’t overcomplicate the process.
Have your site and systems ready for any increased traffic you receive from your campaigns. Again, seems obvious, but you would be surprised how many companies - small and large alike - that do not consider this. If you are conducting a PR campaign that integrates with advertising, be sure that your hosting company has the bandwidth to handle a surge in web traffic. If you will have customers responding via telephone, be sure reps are trained to increase conversion rates. Walk through the backend to ensure you have considered the ins and outs of the sales process.
Know your target market and ideal client profile. If I had a dollar for every company I’ve met that has spent tons of money on advertising and marketing to a target market that was not ideal, I could easily pay for your next advertising campaign in spades. Be sure that you can describe in detail your ideal client profile and then go where your market goes when you plan to advertise.
Stick to your budget. Know your budget and stick to it. Don’t look at advertising rates and ditch your campaign. Take your budget and say, “How can I get what I want with this?” Everyone is creative in their own way. Use your strengths to capitalize on your existing budget, and get what you want.

One of the biggest mistakes I see when it comes to advertising is that business owners throw all their money in one basket. If you don’t have the budget to invest in repetitious ad campaigns (especially if you are new to copywriting), then don’t advertise at all. Advertise in other ways that may be more effective - promotional advertising, PR, special marketing campaigns are all ways to get more bang for your buck. Typically, your target needs to see you seven to nine times before prompted to buy. With integrated marketing, your target may notice you in a radio ad, a newsletter you send out, a direct mailer campaign you are running, a run-in during a local community charity drive, and in several other ways. If you advertise in one way, then your target must see you seven to nine times in that one way to prompt buying. Soon you see that putting all your ads in the print advertising basket seems like a bad idea. If you go that route, be sure to hire a successful copywriter to write your copy!

Best of luck to you!

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