Advertising

This article was contributed by Geoff Clynes. Geoff is a partner is Business Line, a Warragul-based marketing group offering help and advice on business development issues. This article is the sixth in a series of eight.

This article is another in the series on channels of communication. Underlying all of these comments is the assumption that this channel is right for you: that’s to say, it gets you in touch with the right people, at a suitable time, and for a reasonable cost. That decided, these notes are about making most effective use of a channel.

"If you build it, they will come". That was the proposition from someone in the sky in the feelgood movie "Field of Dreams" a few years ago.

Don’t believe it! Word of mouth is, truly, the best form of promotion there is, but you’ll go broke waiting for business if that’s your main form of promo. So how do you tell the world - your world, anyway – about the benefits of your offer?

Most of us have tried media advertising at some stage: it’s so easy, well known, relatively quick – and poorly understood. Let’s have a brief look at how best to use media advertising.

Like any promotional tool, advertising (paid mass communications, according to the experts) has its pros and cons. Without doubt, it reaches a wide audience, there are hundreds of alternatives - even in Gippsland - and it’s a starting point when you don’t know where to find customers. On the other hand, it’s slow to work (needs several tries), is relatively expensive (because of the wasted messages), and your message can get lost in the forest of other people’s ads.

And the best approach?

1. First, know your ideal customer. It’s essential to understand who would most likely buy your offer, and why! Otherwise, you’ve got a dream, not a business.

2. Then, decide what you want to achieve with your advertisement. Simplest purchases aside, sequences like AIDA (awareness, interest, desire, action) help us understand how people buy. Which of those steps matter when your customers buy? Which of them do you want your ad to achieve?

The whole four of them? Simplest purchases aside, you’re kidding! People don’t change their minds and habits as easily as that. Ask a Coke drinker.

3. Practically finished now: so how are you going to achieve the shift, whatever you chose, in your buyer’s attitude or actions? What idea will you present, how will you make it memorable, credible, actionable, urgent? Such a big subject: let’s make that a later article of its own.

4. But if you seriously want results, there are some more background issues.

a) Forget (deliberately, with meticulous effort) the advertising approach that you like. It doesn’t matter what turns you on: you’re sold on the idea already. Find out what THEY like, the customers you want, or those you succeeded in winning.

b) How are you going to measure what works? Direct Marketers taught us to demand accountability in promo, a splendid principle: set a goal; decide on the results you want to see, and then measure those results.

c) Ads don’t work if you use them once, and certainly not in proportion to how often they’re run. Communications rarely get noticed in the noise of our busy world the first time they reach us. You’ll probably have noticed that with your kids, or your partner. How many times will you need to run your ad?

d) Times change. Yesterday’s perfect ad loses its fizz. Especially after a good set of results, look for and test new ideas.

Try this:

Do an audit on some of your advertising. How many people does it reach?

How many positive results does it get?

(Awareness, interest, desire or action – how can you tell?)

Then put it to use:

Think about newspapers, magazines, trade journals, radio, TV, pamphlets, shopping centre Public Address systems, street signs, sandwich boards, the whole huge ad range.

Is there a better medium to talk to your ideal buyers?

How will we define "better"? Perhaps we could look for -

• Higher percentage of interested listeners/ viewers/ enquirers?
• Carrying credibility that benefits your offer

Like in the Weekly Times, where "they" go looking for new farming ideas

• Suiting the timing of your ideal customers.

Like just before the local Field Days, when "they’re" thinking about upgrades.

Over time, keep an eye open for opportunities to test another promo channel at low cost.

Next Topic - Keeping in touch with Customers

© Copyright Business Line 2003: This text is for use and publication by the Gippsland.com web portal, and may be reproduced and distributed without charge. It remains the property of Geoff Clynes & Associates (trading as Business Line), and may not be sold or distributed for profit without the owner’s express permission