With the biggest retail period of the year looming, businesses are jostling to get noticed amongst the throng of Christmas advertisers. This is a costly business, however I am constantly surprised by the number of businesses that have no measurement of the actual effectiveness of their advertising dollar.
There’s a standing joke in the industry that 50% of your advertising is wasted. The problem is identifying which 50% it is! In fact, the 50% estimate is being generous. It’s probably closer to 100% that’s wasted – and at least you know which 100% it is&yours!
The more cynical amongst us would go a step further and point out that the only organisation that benefits whether your advertising works or not – is the media company you use.
This, however, does not deny the value of advertising.
On the contrary, advertising is one of the best ways to increase your sales. The folly is spending on advertising that doesn’t work. You can learn how to create advertising that does work, and you can test the results.
Effective advertising is clearly one way to create new customers. This is a specialised area in itself, but there are 4 absolutely critical things to get right:
Target your customers – never try to appeal to everyone. Focus specifically on those people you know will benefit from your product/service. How you word your headline will be the primary factor in accurately targeting your offer.
Make your offer compelling and relevant to the market you target. Don’t be cute or clever. Say it exactly as it is.
Graphics and layout will make your ad readable and noticeable. Don’t try to make your ad look like an ad. Make it look like something worth reading.
Write your copy in terms that your readers can clearly understand. It must be specific and believable, with a clearly defined target market, and a compelling and well stated offer.
It is also important to be very specific about the objectives of your advertisement. Be aware of the limitations of the particular media that you have chosen. Every media has strengths and weaknesses – radio is good at some things, television is good at others. Newspaper has both good and bad points. Make your choice of media spend based on the clear objectives that you want to achieve
Don’t lose sight of the fact that the advert should, in the first instance, drive customers or potential customers to contact you.
