How to Avoid Failure in Your Small Business Advertising


Small business advertising shouldn't be done like most of the advertising you see on T.V.... or hear on the radio. There ARE exceptions, of course. But for the most part, small businesses shouldn't do much of the following:

1) Institutional advertising (a.k.a. "Madison Avenue" type advertising).

2) Public relations or simply publicity seeking.

3) Any type of response advertising that's non-measurable.

The kind of advertising you SHOULD be doing is measurable. By this I mean you can...

a)... control costs.

b)... measure results.

Small business advertising that doesn't fit these criteria is mostly like throwing money down a hole. (Like I said, there are exceptions. But if you try to promote your business using public relations you'd better have a business that can benefit from that...plus get the help of a professional who specializes in it.)

Institutional... Madison Avenue type stuff... doesn't work in small business advertising any more than it effectively works for big companies using it. It's just that big companies typically have big budgets they can spend on bad advertising without going under financially.

That's a luxury most of us don't have.

Direct marketing is different. You can control its costs. Taylor it to your ad budget. And measure its effectiveness based on response to the offer in the ad or sales letter.

Examples of response triggers used in effective small business advertising include:

* Phone calls asking for a direct response... like a sales appointment... or a purchase... or an invitation to come into the store with a certain customer "code" one can use to receive a gift or purchase discount.

* A TV or radio commercial that asks for a direct response... like having the customer write or call in and tell what station they heard the ad on to get a free gift or special discount.

* Any type of media that asks for a direct response... like redeemable coupons sent through the mail... a sales letter send through the post or Email, with an invitation attached for a special "after hours" sale... a postcard offering a 2 for 1 restaurant special... or an invitation to call in and ask for free information.

Your small business advertising is going to be very wasteful unless you make the right offers to the right people. Being in tune with the needs, desires and motivations of your potential customers is crucial.

For example... if Jack's Sporting Goods store advertises a 30% discount sale on all golf equipment by sending 5,000 brochures through the mail to nearby residents the waste-factor is going to be extremely high.

After all, how many of those residents are golfers? Probably only a small percentage. And of those who are golfers, how many of them will come in for Jack's sale?

In this case, most of his small business advertising dollars are wasted.

However... if Jack takes that same offer... and sends it directly to 500 golfers in his area the response will be much higher. He's able to get the names and addresses of likely golfers from a list broker by renting the names of people in his area who receive golf magazines.

See the difference?

Jack doesn't even have to mail out all 500 letters at once. If his budget is a little tight, he can stagger his mailing over a period of days. Or even limit the sale to those bringing in a coupon received through his mailing to test the effectiveness of his direct mail campaign.

Any small business advertising failing to...

* offer a free gift(s)

* give a time limit on the offer so buyers will be motivated to act quickly

* award a bonus or premium of some sort just for coming into the store

* present a sale or discounted pricing

* announce something new (i.e., product, service, price)

... should be avoided. As a matter of fact... the more of these elements in your advertising the better.

An ad containing each of the above ingredients... targeting prospects known to be interested in the product/service... stands a very good chance of being a winner.

Your small business advertising doesn't have to fail. Once you learn the key ingredients you'll never again worry about throwing advertising dollars away.

Joe Farinaccio is an advertising specialist and copywriter. To get LOTS of information on getting customers to call... and buy stuff... visit his website at:
http://www.sales-letters-and-marketing.com.

More Resources

How To Write Kick-Ass, Profit Pulling Adverts For Your Business?
Doesn't that just grab you by the eyeballs and make you stop dead in your tracks? I mean it's a little harsh - grammatically speaking - but holy smokes, it does it have 'stopping power'..
Customer-Involving Signage and Selling
Here's some easy ways to create signage that will attract, not annoy customers (and local government agencies that regulate signage):1. Since movement always attracts attention, any banner, sign set of a pole that might move with the wind or electrically-turned sign will stand out from the static messages around it.
Secrets to Profitable Mail Order Products
The most profitable mail order products are simple 3-to-5 page informational reports such as this one. Once you've got your act together, these 3-page reports can be produced for $10 per hundred or less, and sold for at least $200 per hundred.
The Motivational Triggers That Make People Buy
In order to sell more products and service, you need master customers' mind. Put youself into customers' shoes and think what customers want.
11 Ways To Make Your Business Cards Work For You
1. Spend money on decent quality business cards.
Small Cards, Big Ideas: Alternative Uses for Business Cards
Aggressive business card marketing isn't about handing your business cards out to everyone you see.The card itself must have a new use, an innovative design, or something other than the usual contact information printed on it.
Prove It! - Give Your Marketing and Advertising More Credibility
Your marketing and advertising won't be effective if your potential customers don't believe the claims you make. So how can you prove your that you can do what you say you can?Tone it down.
B2B Marketing Health and Elder Care Services
Quality Care Options is an established company advocating for the right of all seniors to receive excellent service and product. The organization recommends Certified Senior Approved Services to its elderly clientele.
Double Your Sales Potential With Double-sided Business Cards
Swapping business cards is one of the most basic and common forms of networking in the business world. With something that is so common practice, people often hand out cards blindly while not really thinking about what the card does AFTER you hand it out.
What Makes A Winning Online Ad?
Most people who have been involved with sales & marketing for any length of time have heard the axiom, "Sell them what they want. Then sell them what they need".
Unlock The Power Of Online Groups
Yahoo Groups: I see countless marketers on shoestring budges turn to traffic exchanges for free traffic. If they would spend the time creating online groups rather than clicking for traffic they would see much more quality traffic.
Radio and Television Ads: Clever Vs. Annoying
Ever heard or seen a radio or television commercial that you really liked and actually looked forward to hearing or seeing again only to be assaulted by another one so annoying it made you want to heave your radio or television out the window?What makes one commercial so enjoyable while others seem to be so abysmal? It's all in the ability to make the listener or viewer remember the ad in a creative, clever way and I'm about to give you some advice on how to do just that so read on!One of the most successful ways of creating clever ads is to add humor. Unfortunately that's not an easy thing to do as you have probably heard or seen many commercials try and fail.
Measure the Response of Your Advertising Campaigns by Using Promotional Products
For most companies, gone are the days of spending money just for the pleasure of seeing their name on TV or the Internet.Most companies today are forced to insist on results.
How to Make Your Claims Believable
When you hear claims like??Best Lawnmower in the country?Absolute Lowest Prices In Existence?Leaves your hair cleaner than any other shampoo?do you believe them?Or is there a certain degree of doubt in your mind about their credibility? Or whether they are 'hyped up'?Think about it. Everybody expects advertisers to exaggerate their claims.
Avoid Being Vague
We are bombarded with thousands of marketing messages daily?on television and the radio, on the internet, in magazines and newspapers, on billboards and other signs, and even at the bottoms and on the backs of receipts. The world is, indeed, a very noisy place.
Advertising Your Holistic Business
The most basic answer is the same answer as to the question, how does advertising work? Advertising works through repetition, and Holistic Hometown offers you that repetition.What all successful companies know is that advertising it a process.
LED Moving Message Displays
LED's are becoming more and more popular in all kinds of lighting fixtures. For simpler, slimmer design, moving message displays utilize Light Emitting Diodes (LED's) as the display technology.
Sex in Advertising: Does it Sell?
We're surrounded by advertisements that desperately compete for our attention. Everywhere we look, we find ourselves inevitably drawn to images of scantily clad attractive men and women that are supposed to somehow inspire us to purchase products they endorse.
Radio Advertising - Is it for Your Business? - More Small Business Power Tools
If you're a typical small business, you've probably been approached by at least several different radio station sales representatives. In most cases, he or she comes armed with all the latest rating information demonstrating, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that his or her station is number one among just the kind of people who would buy your products or services.
If You're Tired Of Adverts That Don't Work And Letters That Don't Sell, Then You Must Read This
Over the 32 years I've been involved in sales, marketing and management, I've discovered that there are two fatal marketing mistakes made by business owners.

More Advertising Information:

Related Articles

2005 Super Bowl Ads... Winners and Losers
Well, Super Bowl XXXIX is history. Too bad for the folks who consider themselves the always-pullin'-for-the-underdog type.
The Skinny on Billboards
Several years back the billboard people put a bigpicture of "Sharlene Wells, Miss America" onbillboards all over town. She was everywhere.
Commercial: Consumer - Discounts - Misleading Advertising
Marketing is an important tool for attracting customers. It is commonplace to see banners announcing bargains of "70% off the retail price.
Creativity and Getting Outside of the Box
Sitting in front of a blank piece of paper? Wondering where in the world to start? I have a suggestion. Turn the page upside down.
Cable TV Advertising; Mobile Detailing Customers
If you own a mobile detailing business or mobile car wash company you should have the local cable company as one of your clients. You may even find your self with some free publicity.
Radio Interview 101
Different Types of Station ContactReaching radio hosts (for the purpose of trying to get booked foran interview) can take on various forms, depending on the typeof station the show is done at. What's best? All of them at thesame time, of course.
Not Another Calendar! - Choose Advertising Specialties That Sell
As I was searching through a kitchen drawer the other day, I found dozens of pens, pencils, letter openers, sticky-note pads, oversized paper clips, rulers, dental floss, calendars, magnets, whatsits and thing-a-ma-bobs, each with the name of a business on the front. In looking through my "collection" I discovered some things I love and use and others that I can't imagine why I picked them up.
Direct Mail Rules of Thumb
First and foremost - You should identify your target market. Target your direct marketing lists.
How You Measure Yourself Is How You Motivate Yourself
One of the keys to strong positive mental attitude is what you compare your personal performance to. Do you compare your sales results to the top producer in your industry? Do you compare your basketball playing ability to Michael Jordan? Do you compare your last presentation to a speech delivered by Ronald Reagan or JFK? Or do you compare your results today, to those you had yesterday? Sports, sales, and the media teach us to compare our success against that of others, living or dead.
Create Your Own Business Cards, Part 1
In this lesson, we will create a business card, using Microsoft Word. I created a new template for my business card.
How to Write Great Headlines
According to experts, just changing the headline of an ad or sales letter has been known to dramatically improve the effectiveness of an ad or sales letter by up to 1700 percent! Yes, headlines are that powerful--and that important!An effective headline will do many things at once. It will attract the readers attention, convey benefits by appealing to the readers self-interest and it will set the stage for what is to come.
Online Classifieds
Choosing a Classified Website and creating your advertisements.The internet has opened a vast number of doors for people to market their products and services.
LED Score Boards
LED scoreboards can be utilized in most of the sporting event for eye-catching effects replace traditional scoreboards. This high- tech lighting system is both energy - efficient and able to produce a very bright light.
Increase Business By Being Nice
I have been reading articles on increasing sales using search engine optimisation as well as writing them for a very long time and I have not seen many which point out the best way to increase sales.The answer is obvious yet often overlooked; you just have to be as good to your customers as you would expect any other site owner to treat you.
Advertise Where Its Forbidden To
The most common way to drive people to your business site is advertising. You cannot succeed without advertising, this is a fact.
The Benefits of Specific Advertising
The great Claude Hopkins (Author of Scientific Advertising) once said, "Platitudes and generalities roll off the human understanding like water from a duck. They leave no impression whatever.
How to Make a Fortune from Unique Resistance-free Advertising
One of the most powerful offers you can use in your advertising is the word Free.But, you may well ask? how can I make a profit giving my products and services away without charging for them?Which is the exact reason why you need to understand the 'LVC Formula' which stands for the Lifetime Value of a Client!Here's how it works.
Top 9 Reasons To Advertise
Advertising is not for every company. But some require it because their market is big and constantly changing and evolving.
Advertising Basics for Beginners
So many of us who have decided to do business online have no background in marketing or advertising. It can be so frustrating without any kind of guide.
Make the Right Advertising Decisions
Advertising is a powerful and somewhat frustrating marketing tool. It enables us to launch new products and services, increase sales, and increase awareness.