4 Principles to Increase Your Advertising Success
Advertising brings results fast when it’s done right. There are people who do not believe advertising works because it has produced dismal results for them in the past. A common argument is, they only grow their business through word-of-mouth and networking. The problem with networking is it’s not a scalable model of business growth. It relies on you and your time constraints. How many networking events can you go to in a week? How many meaningful relationships can you actually grow? The answer is, not many. In these events, most people are there to sell you something and not to buy something from you, right? While word-of-mouth is the best form of marketing, it is mostly out of your hands. Even if you do a great job for your customers, many of them will never refer you to a friend. If you can get to that critical mass of customers who do continually refer work to you, that would be great. However, for most small businesses, getting to that point is the problem. Advertising can help you get to that critical mass of customers quickly.
 The most effective advertising campaign is the one focused mostly on the benefits your target market will receive. The reason many businesses fail with advertising is they focus more on the features of the product or service they offer, rather than on how they can fulfil the needs and desires of their customers. There are others that launch mass advertising campaigns without first testing to see what works and what doesn’t. Whenever you can do so, test, measure and tweak your campaigns at a small scale. Once it’s working, scale it up to reach the masses. Wouldn’t it be great if you had an advertising campaign you knew worked that you could scale up or down depending on how many new customers you could handle at any given time?
Here are four basic techniques that you can apply to make your advertising efforts work. These tips will be able to help you establish effective advertising for your business that will bring in the profits you need.
Positioning Statements
As soon as people see or hear your advertisement, they will start to form opinions about your business. It is essential you position yourself so your target market ‘buy in’ to your message. If you know what your customers need, want, and expect, base your positioning statement on that. This statement should be included in all of your marketing and advertising. It should be simple and to the point. It should answer the common question that your customers ask, ‘What’s in it for me?’
Hot Buttons
Also known as the “Dominant Buying Motives”, hot buttons are the reasons people buy a service or product. Be aware people usually buy based on their emotions. It is essential your advertisements cater to the emotional reasons that make people buy your products or services. Feeling safe, enjoyment, staying informed, making money, healing pain, or making work easier are just a few of the thousands of desires your target market may be searching for.
Keep in mind, while you want to reach a large market base through your advertisements, you should seem like you are communicating to them on a one-on-one basis. They should feel as if you were speaking to them directly. Be sensitive to who your target market is, so you can make a marketing message that connects with your audience. A quick tip to help you do this is to use the words “your” and “you” instead of “we” and “us”.
Point of Distinction
It is extremely important that you create a point of distinction between your business and that of your competitors. You must give your customers a strong reason to buy your products or services instead of from your competition. If you can frame your business in such a way that makes you the only logical business to buy from, you have hit the jackpot. Look into what your competitors are doing and offer something different and of greater perceived value. This could be as simple as punctuality or a warranty for your products or services. Sure, not everyone will buy into your message but if a niche group of people do, you could do incredibly well.
How do your competitors market themselves?
Brand Recall
In a world filled with messages, it’s your goal to cement your message into the minds of your targeted customers. This can be done by branding the name of your business, your logo, slogan and positioning statement on all of your material. Make sure all your advertising and marketing pieces including your website, business cards and brochure share a consistent message. By doing so, your customers and prospective clients will start to build an awareness of who you are and what you do.
Repetition is the key. Your advertising efforts are more likely to succeed when your ad is repeated a number of times and placed in as many areas as your budget will allow. A big mistake business owners make is changing because they are ‘sick of’ how it currently is. The reality is nobody takes as much notice of your business as you do so you will become tired of it long before anyone else. Most advertisers find repetition increases response rates exponentially. What would it mean to your business, if the response rate to your advertising double, tripled or even quadrupled? By following the simple steps above, many business owners have experienced results far beyond that.
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