www.narvinta.com

It can:

It cannot

Advertising experts identify customers who are in the “shopping” mode and place them in two distinct categories. They will either be a RELATIONAL OR TRANSACTIONAL shopper.

The Transactional shopper:
a. thinks short term
b. cares only about today’s transaction
c. enjoys shopping and negotiating
d. fears only paying more than is necessary
e. is willing to spend time, lots of it, investigating
f. considers himself informed and expert
g. hinges every transaction on price

Because of these traits the transactional shopper is always the quickest to respond to ads. Their response is also very predictable, they want the price up front and then they will decide whether to continue their shopping experience. If you will pay attention you will see that almost all of your competition and you as well, advertise for this shopper with best price, lowest payment, biggest discount, biggest rebate, etc. Since we cannot get away from drawing the transactional shopper and missing that segment of the market let’s take a look at ad elements that appeal to this buyer.

1. Begin with your volume sellers.
Transactional ads do not create desire; they merely capitalize on a desire that is already there.
2. Reduce the price to your lowest acceptable figure.
The lower the price, the faster they will come.
3. Explain why you are offering the price.
The volume of quick-response traffic will be directly tied to your explanation. “We are overstocked.” “We must reduce inventories.” “Construction
Sale”, you get it.
4. Create a time limit.
This shopper wants to take advantage of the opportunity.
5. Low prices don’t impress unless there is a quality product being sold.
Don’t advertise junk, nobody wants it.
6. Be specific.
Ambiguous claims like “up to” or “selected models only” do not appeal to this shopper.
7. In print ads consider using red as a second color.
It creates a sense of urgency.

BE AWARE OF THE DIMINISHING RETURN OF THIS TYPE OF ADVERTISINGDO IT TOO OFTEN AND IT LOSES EFFECTIVENESS
You will end up with buyers who want to “wait for the next sale” “wait for the end of the month blow-out”, etc. A number of customer loyalty studies have shown that customers who buy for the reason of price alone will leave you for the very same reason.

The Relational shopper:

a. thinks long term
b. considers this transaction to be one of several
c. is not as committed to comparison shopping or negotiation
d. fears only making a poor choice about what or where to buy
e. looks for an expert that will build trust
f. considers the time spent shopping part of the purchase price
g. is more likely to become a repeat customer

Relational ad strategies should be designed to make your product or business the one they think of and feel best about. These shoppers are impressed by:

1. The owner or manager as spokesperson.
2. A natural, unaffected style. No “IRS Seizure Sale” for this shopper.
3. Lack of “puffery”. Not everyone is the biggest, sells the most or has the most.
4. Lack of time limits. They want to know you will be here “today, tomorrow or whenever”.
5. Statements that indicate honesty. The public isn’t stupid. Make claims that a person of integrity would make.
6. Words that indicate competency. Remember, the fear of this shopper is they will buy the wrong one. Or from the wrong person. Use terms such as “Certified”, “Professional”, “Courteous”, “Service Oriented”, etc.

THESE ADS WILL SEEM TO DO NOTHING AT FIRST, BUT WILL BE EFFECTIVE OVER THE LONG TERM.

STYLE VERSUS SUBSTANCE

There is a huge difference between saying something powerful and saying something powerfully. The message in your ads should never expire.

You have made the choice of what type of advertising to feature in your next campaign. The ads look great, but how will you ensure their success?

1. Advertise in the right place. Be aware of the publications and broadcast media that reach the audience you want to. Spreading your ads too thin is not effective use of your dollars.
2. Advertise at the right time. Frequency does not refer to the number of times the ad runs, it refers to the number of times the right audience sees it. If no one else advertises in the Wednesday paper do not think that is the day for you. That is like building your business a mile from the shopping mall. Shoppers are accustomed to looking at the same place, at the same time.
3. Remove the barriers. Is the phone operator ready to answer the call? Does the sales staff know what you are advertising and what the terms are? Is there anything preventing a customer who responds to an ad from taking delivery on the spot? Is your ad in line with your manufacturer’s advertising program?
4. Track the response. Some effort here will pay huge dividends. If you don’t know what is and isn’t working why bother to advertise at all?

2006 Copyright MasteringSelling
www.masteringselling.com

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Are you a business owner representing a product or service? What’s your point of differentiation? What separates you from your competitors? Is it quality? Is it the price? Is it the packaging? Is it placement or promotion? The bottom line is are you selling? If not, why not? The answer may lie in advertising.

They say nothing happens unless you advertise. No advertising = no sales. But many business people are leery of paid advertising because it just doesn’t seem to return the investment. There are many reasons for thisthrowing out spotty advertisements, whether online or offline doesn’t work well most often and who can afford to advertise en masse regularly? People are desensitized by hyper advertising on TV, radio, Internet, junk mail, magazines, etc. People are getting smarter and tuning advertising outpeople are getting tired of the Wall Street advertising mentality that has spurred so many books and college courses. As a result, big business advertising focuses on higher and higher volumes of repetitive mass advertising to beat their message into the fewer and fewer minds still receptive to this kind of junk noise. Don’t believe me? How do you REALLY feel about advertising you see or hear? Are you sick of it? So are 300 million other people. But what are the alternatives for communicating your offer?

Advertisers are very creative little sneaks who try all kinds of angles to fool you into not realizing you are being advertised atthey cloak advertisements into “infomercials” and now they cloak infomercials into looking like some PBS interview. Buzz words like “info-ads” which are designed to highlight the problems you didn’t know you had (like Ezine articles) and set forth-easy solutions to complicated problems if you only “buy now”. And you can read article after article, book after book and the bottom line remains the samethe only people making money advertising are the ones selling advertising.

And do you realize the product or service you offer really doesn’t matter when you advertise? You can take all products and services in the world and put them into two big piles: The GOOD products and the BAD products. Keep in mind that a good marketing team can sell bad products but a bad marketing team cannot sell good products. And what is the definition of a “bad product” anyway? The definition for a bad product is when people send it back because it sucks and they want their money back. If your product sells and you don’t get a return or a compliant then, for all practical purposes you have a good product. Why isn’t it selling then?

People have a tendency to blame the product if the advertising doesn’t sell it. But if you have a good product and run an ad and nothing happens how can you blame the product? The product is inert. It’s just sitting there waiting to be sold. It’s not the product fault. It’s the ADS fault. So you can simplify your life by eliminating the “product problem” mentality and wrap your mind around the fact you have an advertising problem instead. Which takes us back to the beginning of this article.

Point of differentiationwhat’s the point of differentiation of a paper clip? Keep in mind that paperclips are a competitive billion-dollar industry.

Okay, here’s the bottom line to this articleif you are not having any luck advertising your product online and can’t afford mass advertising then a really SIMPLE solution is to use Off-line classified ads in newspapers. These ads are cheap ranging from $10.00 to $50.00 depending on the location of the newspaper and readerships/subscriptions. But there is no better place to spend advertising dollars if you are on a small budget. You are going to make mistakes when you advertise as you hone up your headline and hook to get people to take action and you can do very specific tests in various markets to gauge classified advertising response. Do you have a website? Take a cue from Travelocity.com, PriceLine.com and other big players on the Internetthey all advertise conventionallyon TV! Why? Internet advertising sucks. We have a business kit called “Advertising Works” which is a very carefully constructed manual on writing effective classified ads to drive people to your website. It shows you how to write ads but more importantly it shows the entire U.S. market and how classifieds can be used to drive the market to your website cheaply by reducing the amount of type in the classified advertisement so they only cost a few dollars. For example a classified ad could read as follows: ADVERTISING WORKS! www.smart67.com and that’s it! CHEAP AD! No phone, no hype, just a headline and a website address. The goal is to test headlines. Test, test, test! Check it out

Copyright © 2006
James W. Hart, IV
All Rights reserved

SBS is an online information resource for people. Our focus is real estate and business and we have a number of important books, kits and Ebooks including free downloads and high quality link categories to help you get information fast. SBS has an aggressive link exchange program for anyone with a websitevisit us now by clicking this link http://www.smart67.com.

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A few years ago, I analysed the statistics of where one of my clients, M & M Pest Control in Sydney, generated all their leads from. As a result of this, Ray Milton, the director of the company said:

“Scott measured the results we were getting from our advertising, and as a result, this confirmed my decision to eliminate over $42,000.00 in unnecessary expenses - because it wasn’t paying it’s way”

$42,000 is a lot of money in anyone’s language!

What did I do? I simply analysed his advertising expenses and identified whether or not the ads were generating a strong yield for his investment.

And I’m willing to bet you could do the same for your business.

Right now, you’re probably thinking… in the words of Pauline Hanson…

“Please Explain”

Listen. I’ve met with hundreds of businesses that advertise in the Yellow Pages. And most of the time, I ask them “What return on investment do you receive as a result of your advertisement?”

To which 9 times out of 10, the answer is as good as a blank stare!

How much money are they burning? Investing $20,000 on an ad (or $1,000 or $5,000, or $100,000 - the same principle applies) and not even know what their returns are!

Would you hire a salesperson and not ‘give a toss’ about how much income he was generating.

No! No! No!

So why on earth would you do it with your advertising dollar?

Some people say it’s too hard. Their staff won’t find out for them. My advice. Fire those staff, because they are costing you BIG money!

Listen, all you need to do is:

1.Code all your ads with a reference code to identify the source of the inquiry

2.Train your staff to ask one simple question: “Where did you hear about us?”

3.Enter the details into your computer.

4.Analyse the statistics.

And you need to be as specific as possible. One of my clients, a spit-roast caterer in Sydney measured the results of a series of ads in the local yellow pages directory. You know what he discovered? Only one of the directories was generating a strong return on investment - the rest were losing money!

Priceless knowledge. And in the world of advertising

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

So unless you want to be like John Wannamaker, the ‘father of the modern department store’ who once said “I know that half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half it is” then grab the bull by the horns and start measuring the results of every ad you run right now!

Yours in profits,

Scott Bywater
Copywriting That SELLS

Visit my web site for your complimentary copy of my ebook (valued at $29.95) and free subscription to my valuable ezine “Copywriting Selling Secrets” where you’ll discover how to write ads and sales letters that make people line up and practically beg you to take their money.

Here’s the address: http://www.copywritingthatsells.com.au

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