Marketing Strategy
Advertising Success Made Simple ^TM
 

We all know from observation, if not personal experience, most advertising efforts fail. 

"99% of advertising doesn't sell a thing."  says David Ogilvy, founder of one of the most successful advertising agencies in the world.  A legend in his industry.

If most advertising fails, what can we learn from successful marketing ventures?  The answers are not so difficult as you may think.

1. Know what you want to say about your business, and who you want to say it to in your local market.  In marketing language,  this is "Know Your Strategic Objective."

2. Make sure all of your ads are focused on reaching your strategic objective with a clear and simple message to your market.  Be Consistent.

3. Have a goal consistent with your strategic objective, with each campaign.  If you don't, how will you know if the ads were successful?  Measure Results.

4. Plan each ad or campaign to repeat your message to your audience.  One shot ads normally fail.  Mailing postcards with a consistent message to 2,500 people, four times is much more effective than sending one message to 10,000 people, one time.  The cost is virtually the same.  Use Repetition.

Advertising vs. Advertising Strategy

There is a big difference between improving and ad and improving your strategy.

A better ad might get you a few more leads and applications in the short term. A better advertising strategy can help position you to get more business from your market on an ongoing basis.

With that in mind, here are tips to help put your advertising strategy  into action:

1. Have a written Strategic Objective BEFORE you Advertise

   Here are just a few questions to ask yourself before placing an ad to help define what you want your advertising strategy to do for you:

   • If I could be known for just one thing in my local market, what would it be?

   • Which parts of the local market is not currently well serviced by other companies or LO's?  Of those write down the 3 with the most potential.

   • Which part of the local market is emerging to be a driving force for sales in the future?

   • What's changing in my market right now - job base growth, immigration, aging population, etc.   How do I capitalize on the change more effectively than my competition?
      

2. Have a Specific Objective for Each Ad you Place within your Strategy

   With a clear objective as part of your advertising strategy, you can now think about investing in ads that support your objective.

   Here's a tip - you can create advertising that generates an immediate response while also serving to build your brand in a particular market.

   Continuing with the above example, if you ran a series of ads in the local newspaper offering a free "Mortgage Calculator and Consumer Advice on Mortgage Loans" available from your website, you would actually be running a direct response ad (aimed at getting people to download the software) which also delivered an image (yours) building message.

   You can measure the success of the ad by looking at the number of leads generated from the downloads from your site while the ad was running.  If the ads don't generate enough leads to justify the cost, after the 3rd or 4th repetition, change them. Ads are only valuable if they get you closer to achieving your strategic objective.
    

3. Be Consistent in Message.

   All of your advertising (online, print, directory, flyers, etc) should be similar in both style and message within your advertising strategy.

   Yes, a consistent look and style for your ads is important to help you get recognized in a competitive market.

   What is consistency in message?   When it comes to the messages in your ads. You can't buy a Yellow Pages ad that promotes you as the leader in client service, and then advertise your "low low loan fees" in the local newspaper, and then distribute flyers that try to promote you as the family mortgage expert and expect all those messages to be heard as a clear voice.

   When your messages conflict, you lose!  With a written strategic objective for your advertising, you will be able to focus your advertising dollars on communicating a single, clear message to potential clients about why they should call you.
    

4. Repetition over Reach.

Plan ahead.  Think about your cost to reach your strategic objective.  Concentrate your advertising dollars so that when you advertise, you can market your message more than one time.

A couple of guidelines to think about:

If you reduce your reach, you can increase your repetition for the same cost.

If you reduce your ad size, you will be able to repeat more often for the same money.  Experiment with both and then use the method which produces the most closing for the least money.