Invest In My Idea

Not advertising is like being alone in a dark room—you know you are there, but no one else does. The whole idea of almost all advertising is to turn on the light and let people know you are there. You have to get the phone to ring or get people to come in the store. Advertising will do that.

 

Advertising in General

 

Too often, small business advertising is wasted on a scatter shot approach that fails to focus on a company’s best prospects—the people who are ready, willing, and able to purchase its product or service. Instead of targeting their advertising to a specific audience, these entrepreneurs target a mass audience in an attempt to reach everybody. Often, they reach nobody.

The way to avoid this unenviable fate is really quite simple. Before anything else, you must define your target market. You have to determine:

•   Who are your customers?
•   Who are you trying to reach with your ad campaign?
• How old are they?
• What sex are they?
• What do they like to do, watch, and read?
• What do they want from you?
• What catches their eye?

Once you have answered these types of questions, picking the vehicle to deliver your message to that market becomes much easier. If, for example, you are going to open an Interior Design office, advertising on the sports page makes no sense, but advertising in the home and garden section would make a lot of sense. Knowing your audience up front will answer many of your questions and save you from costly mistakes.

 

Advertising Options

 

Advertising in the newspaper is a great, inexpensive way to reach a big audience. Newspaper ads can be used to promote a sale, grab attention, or offer specials on your product or service. The downside is that newspapers carry lots of ads, so yours can get lost.

Magazine ads cost more than those in the paper, but magazines stay in the house longer than a newspaper, so the price may be worth it. Magazines are especially good for promoting your image and building your brand. Trade magazines are useful for business to business advertising.

Radio can be an inexpensive, high impact way to reach a specific market. Repetition is essential with radio advertising as studies show that it often takes someone hearing your ad six times before it sinks in.

Television advertising is very effective, but is correspondingly expensive. Car companies know more about how to sell their product than almost anyone, and where do they advertise most? Television. Television advertising works, bottom line. Cable channels are more affordable, but are seen by far fewer people.

Yellow Pages advertising is not cheap, but it delivers people who are ready to buy, now. Internet advertising is not expensive, but not all that effective in many cases either. Outdoor advertising offers high visibility, and the cost per viewer is relatively low.

Let’s look at each of these advertising options in more detail.

 

Newspapers

 

Almost every home receives a newspaper and there is something in it for everybody: sports, comics, news, classifieds, food, home and garden, etc. For this reason, you are able to reach your target market fairly specifically by advertising in the right section, and that’s the whole idea.

There are many advantages to advertising in the newspaper. Newspaper reading can be deliberate and, as such, ads can be examined closely. Your newspaper ad can contain details that electronic ads miss—things like prices, phone numbers, addresses, and coupons. Another advantage is the large variety of ad sizes newspaper advertising offers. If you have a small advertising budget, you can place a small ad without taking a huge financial risk.

While advertising in the newspaper can be great, it is not without some disadvantages. Newspapers are read only once and are then thrown away. Because a newspaper page is fairly large, small ads can be overlooked, and your ad has to compete with other ads and news articles for attention. And there is no assurance that every person who gets the newspaper will see your ad. They may not read the section in which you advertised, they may skip your page, or they may just gloss over your ad.

Despite the downsides, the benefits of newspaper advertising are usually worth the risk and running an ad in a newspaper can make a lot of sense. How do you do so? Every newspaper has its own sales staff and you are normally given your own sales representative. Befriend this person; a newspaper sales rep can be very helpful. Your rep can help you devise a budget, suggest the best sections and days to run your ad, and even have your ad designed in house.

The hardest questions usually are what size ad to run, how often to run it, and how much to spend. I suggest starting slow and small, and “test” the ad. Once you see that a small ad works and determine when it works best, then you can roll it out, make it bigger, and legitimately expect bigger results.

Advertising is sold by column and inch, and you can easily determine the size and cost of your ad by looking in the newspaper. For example, an ad that measures 3 columns across and 5 inches down would be a 15inch ad. If the inch rate is $50, your ad would cost $750 ($50 × 15 inches).

Keep in mind:

Newspaper circulation decreases on Saturdays and increases on Sundays, the day the paper is most often read.

 

• Position is vital, so be sure to specify which section you want your ad to be in. Sometimes there is a charge for exact placement, but it is often worth it.
• If you are running a coupon, ask for an outside position to make the coupon easier to cut out.
• The longer you run the ad, the greater the discount you will get.

The great thing about magazines is that they target your market fairly specifically. If your business caters to car enthusiasts, for example, advertising in Car & Driver might make a lot of sense. Magazines are also good because, unlike newspapers, they are usually kept around for weeks, thus dramatically increasing the chance for many people to see your ad.

The downside is that magazine advertising is usually fairly expensive, and ads often have to be in color to be noticed, increasing the cost even more. Even so, the right ad in the right magazine has launched many businesses.

Radio can be a very cost effective way to advertise your business. As with magazines, it is fairly easy to target your market by advertising on the appropriate show. As there are dozens of stations in most areas catering to dozens of different tastes, your job is to find the station and the show that best attracts your desired demographic.

Once you do that, call the station and make an appointment with a sales representative. He or she will be glad to help you write an ad, and will even produce it for you for little or no cost. The trick with radio advertising is to be clever and grab the listener’s attention. Humor, music, and sound effects can all be used to great effect on the radio. Notice which ads grab your attention and model your own ad after that. There is no need to reinvent the wheel.

The important thing to remember with radio ads is that repetition is the key. Repetition is the key. Repetition is the key. Say it enough, and your audience will remember your ad. What is the key? See?

 

Television

 

Television is the granddaddy of high impact advertising. Companies don’t spend $1 million a minute for ads on the Super Bowl for no reason. They know that television advertising works. It combines visuals with sound and a fairly captive audience.

Of course, the expense can be daunting. Advertising on a network station is expensive and only makes sense if your business has regional appeal. Cable advertising may be good because you can pick the stations that appeal to your audience. As in radio, call up the stations and speak with a sales rep to get an idea about costs and benefits.

 

Yellow Pages

 

Do you want the good news or the bad news first? Let’s start with the good news. Advertising in the Yellow Pages is a proven way to get customers and make money. Almost every home has a copy of the Yellow Pages and when it is opened the users are in the mood to buy. Many businesses sincerely believe that they would be unable to keep their doors open without being able to advertise in the Yellow Pages. The downside of using the Yellow Pages is that buying an ad is expensive—quite expensive.

■ Yellow Pages Advertising

1.   Get a discount. Less well known Yellow Pages in your area offer a substantial discount over the well established leader. New advertisers should also get a substantial discount. (See Chapter 15.)
2.   Consider your category. There might be several different appropriate sections wherein you can run your ad. Thus, a paralegal service might advertise under “Paralegals,” or “Bankruptcies,” or “Divorce Services.” Figure out a few different categories for your business and see which one has the most ads. The odds are, the largest section is the one that is read the most. Also, consider the option of getting several small ads in more than one category.
3.   Tweak your ad. Leaf through your phone book. Which ads catch your eye? Try to model your ad after one of those. Also, studies have shown that photographs draw people’s attention to an ad, as do outrageous headlines and “white space.”
4.   Learn more. A good book that you might want to read is Yellow Page Advertising: How to Get the Greatest Return on Your Investment by Jeffrey Price.

Should you? Well, it depends. Retail services like electricians and locksmiths would be dumb not to advertise in the phone book, because that is where the majority of people go when they are in the market for these types of services. But even more targeted businesses can benefit from a campaign in the Yellow Pages too. For example, a beekeeper supply store might be the only listing in its category. Where would you look if you were new to the bee business and needed supplies?

 

Internet

 

Internet billboard ads and pop ups were once the rage, but not today. While industry execs swear by them, to most people, they are an annoyance to be clicked off as soon as possible. You had better be quite sure someone is going to read your Internet ad before dropping your money here.

 

Outdoor

 

Outdoor ads, billboards, bus stop ads, and transit ads can be a good way to attract attention and get the phone to ring because they can be seen by hundreds of thousands of people each month. According to Market Vision Research, the Florida Lottery found that the most effective way to advertise its product was through the use of billboards. Similarly, according to the U.S. Travel Data Center, nine out of ten automobile travelers in the United States rely on billboards to find gas, food, lodging, and tourist attractions.

 

Creating a Winning Ad

 

No matter which option you choose, you still need to create an ad that pulls. Interestingly, all ads, no matter the media, are fairly similar in structure. They all must grab attention and make an offer. One simple way to create a successful ad, whatever the media, is through the tried and true AIDA method. This stands for attention, interest, desire, and action. The AIDA formula serves as a good blueprint for creating a winning ad of any type—newspaper, magazine, radio, or television.

 

Attention

 

The first thing you have to do is grab their attention. Once you do that, you can get a potential customer interested in what you are selling. If you don’t get their attention, they will not receive your message among the distractions of the headline news, sports stories, and other more distinctive ads. You must first hit your prospect between the eyes with a powerful headline. A good headline will grab a customer by the throat, show them the benefit of hearing more, and do so in two or three seconds. When writing your ad, keep in mind the benefits that are most likely to get attention include saving money, saving time, making money, and better health.

Beyond the headline, another way to capture their attention is to use a great visual or photograph. One’s eye is naturally drawn to pictures, so incorporating one into your headline can really make a difference.

 

Interest and Desire

 

After you have the prospect’s attention, you have to make your pitch in the body of the ad. You do that by making the customer a compelling offer and describing as many benefits as possible in simple and interesting terms. Because the product or service must fill a market need to be successful, you must explain how it does that. Your ad must be well written so it clearly explains the benefits to customers and keeps their attention.

 

Action

 

Finally, you must ask for the order. Give reasons for the customer to buy now, and make it easy for him or her to do so. This will involve a coupon for mail orders, a toll free order line, an email address, an online order form, a fax order line, or any other means to make it easy and simple to order. Be sure to take the fear out of the purchase as much as possible by giving guarantees, offering testimonials, and showing how the customer is going to miss out if he doesn’t order NOW!

If you follow the AIDA formula, you should find that your ad works, no matter what the medium.

When Good Ads Go Bad

 

Even if you produce a great ad—one with a catchy headline and motivational copy that spurred their interest and called people to action—it can still sometimes fail. Why? Here are four reasons good ads sometimes fail. Avoid these pitfalls to increase the chances that your ad will succeed.

1.   The ad is in the wrong media. As indicated earlier, before placing any ad, you must determine if the publication (or TV or radio station) reaches your target audience. No matter how great your ad is, it won’t pull if you placed it in the wrong media.
2.   Obstacles exist. People won’t buy from you, no matter how great the ad, if it is hard to do so. If your parking lot is too small, if your phone is always busy, if they get stuck in your voice mail, if it is altogether too hard for potential customers to make a purchase, they will give up and buy from someone else.
3.   The offer is not compelling. The offer in your ad has to be something that stirs people to action. When an otherwise good ad fails to pull, it may be that you have to sweeten the pot and strengthen the offer to make the ad work.
4.   You aren’t advertising often enough. Repetition is the key. Repetition is the key. People usually have to hear or see an ad several times before they actually notice it and respond. You should expect to run your ad with some frequency before it begins to create significant results.

 

Advertising and the Law

 

The last thing to understand about advertising is that there are rules by which you have to play. Advertising is regulated by both federal and state laws, and the general rule is that an ad is unlawful if it tends to mislead, deceive, or contain a false statement.

Here’s an example: In Los Angeles, a usedcar salesman appeared in a television commercial with a chimpanzee and told viewers they could have one of the cars on his lot for “1,000 bananas!” When an enterprising young man drove up with a trailer of bananas, the dealer refused to sell him the car. The man sued and won.

Consumer lawsuits are one result of deceptive advertising. Federal prosecution is another. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main federal agency that regulates commercial advertising (although state and local governments also go after businesses that violate advertising rules).

Over the years, the FTC has taken action against many businesses accused of engaging in deceptive advertising. If FTC investigators believe an ad violates the law, it usually uses informal means to bring the violator into voluntary compliance. If that doesn’t work, things can get awfully expensive for you. The FTC can issue a cease and desist order, bring a civil lawsuit, or require you to run corrective ads admitting that you lied and your earlier ad was deceptive.

You have to be careful what you say in your ads. Here are four rules to keep you safe:

1.   Be accurate. Make sure your ad is factually correct. “Puffing” is OK (e.g., “We are the best dealer in Northern California!”), but deception is not.
2.   Be honest. It is fine to compare your goods and services with those of other companies, but when you do, make sure every statement in your ad is accurate. Lying about a competitor can lead to a nasty libel suit.
3.   Beware the word Free! Yes, free is the most powerful word in advertising. I am not telling you not to use it, but I am telling you that when you do use it, what you are advertising as free had better really be free.
4.   Have sufficient quantities on hand. Most states have laws that require advertisers to stock an advertised product in quantities large enough to meet a reasonable demand (unless the ad says “supplies are limited”).

Advertising is one of the best things you can do for your business. You can reap the most benefits when your ads are honest.

Resources You Can Use

Advertising Age Magazine

<www.adage.com>