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Tired of pouring endless money into advertising? Do you wonder which ads are “REALLY” working for the business you manage? Would you like a bullet-proof system for capturing the results from your advertising and marketing? Below are three concepts that will enable you to track your advertising and marketing like a hawk! Really, it’s that simple!

Developing a tracking system: As a business owner/executive/manager, you need an efficient way to record and evaluate the results from your advertising and marketing programs. To get started, you will need a “prospect card” which includes a list of ALL the places you advertise and market your company. This prospect card must be current and complete, so your staff will be able to accurately track the results from each advertising/marketing source. Your business should also have a phone log, a summary of the daily and weekly advertising results and a report to summarize the month. Be certain each advertising source you are using has its own column for each report. Often, advertising sources are bunched together in the same category or column on the weekly or monthly recap, making it impossible to track the performance of your advertising/marketing.

Tip From The Coach: When asking your team to provide a summary of advertising and marketing results, have them sign and date the form. This is a reminder that they are accountable for the timely and accurate “source” information which is reflected on each report.

Identifying the source: To accurately evaluate the performance of your advertising program, begin by deleting “drive-by” as a source on your customer card and tracking systems. In most cases, your customers read or heard something about your company before they came to your office or called your company. Next, have your team design a marketing easel or a three-ring binder, which has a sample of the advertising and marketing being done. Then, ask your team to begin each appointment or meeting at this marketing easel or with their three-ring binder, so they can ask each customer if they have seen your current advertising or marketing pieces. NOW, this is the time for your team to record this timely information on the customer card, to accurately identify the advertising which brought this customer to your company. And by using this technique with every new customer served by your team, your weekly and monthly tracking reports will now reflect a more accurate picture of which advertising and marketing source is most effective.

Tip From The Coach: Of course, a tracking system can also be computerized and very powerful, but the steps/tips outlined in the paragraph above are still the same.

Creating a file for return prospects: Wow! Isn’t it great when a return-prospect becomes a sale? Such fun! Unfortunately, identifying the original advertising source which brought this prospect to your business the first time is a major problem for most companies. Often, your team will hear from a return-prospect, “I was just here a few months ago and decided to contact you again.” But each sale that is made by your company, which comes from a particular advertising or marketing source, makes it easy to justify which advertising/marketing you will continue to use. And since advertising and marketing is such a large monthly expenditure for most businesses, isn’t it important to know what’s working and what’s NOT?

Tip From The Coach: Create a master file of prospect cards for all prospects and have your team file the prospect cards from each day into a small box by last name, sorted A-Z. Now, when “Peter Smith” returns in three months after his first visit or phone call and says he wants to buy your product or use service, your team can simply go to this small box and behind “S” the original prospect card is right there! This is an instant way for your company to source its advertising and marketing. More importantly, your staff will have in their hand the background of this prospect and can create instant rapport. Instant rapport equals higher closing ratios, a double win! Of course, a follow-up system can also be computerized, but the steps/tips outlined in this paragraph are still the same. Once you have these systems in place, you can then calculate your: cost-per-phone-call, cost for bringing a prospect to your business and cost-per-sale! For a free analysis of your advertising tracking forms or the results you are receiving, fax your system/results to The Coach at 435-615-8670 and receive 20 minutes of complimentary coaching!

Author’s note: Ernest F. Oriente, The Coach, is the founder of PowerHour

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Can it be???

Is there advertising that people actually love?

You bet there is! And you are already very aware of it. The type of advertising I’m referring to is promotional items, also known as advertising specialties. It’s anything a company would put their logo and contact information on, and then give away. They are used by many businesses all over the world to help maintain, and increase the amount of business they do with their customers every day.

Why do people love it? Because we view the item more as a gift from the giver instead of an advertising tool. Have you ever been handed a logoed scratch pad, coffee mug, pen, coaster, calendar, etc. and then said THANK YOU? Of course you have. We all have.

When you accept it, an emotional (almost an obligation to do business with) type of attachment is created in you. A kind of warm & fuzzy feeling if you will. For a long time they’ll remember the gift you gave, and in order to show their appreciation to you, almost instinctively, they’ll try to do more business with you. That’s the secret behind this type of advertising!!!

And that’s why it’s The ONLY type of advertising people love.
AND it’ll work powerfully for you too!!

The next time you’re pondering ways to increase your business, consider using promotional items.

Scott Rauber, Biz Promo, LLC - In the business of helping businesses get more business. Master of finding prospects using little or no money.

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Here is a question my clients pose regularly:

I’ve been in business for several months and things are moving in the right direction; however, I want more business. I’ve thought about advertising but it seems so expensive. Do you have any advice on where to advertise and how much to spend?

Many design professionals equate advertising with marketing. This is not, in fact, the case. While advertising may be a component of an effective marketing strategy, the terms “advertising” and “marketing” are NOT synonymous.

Advertising is, in most cases, expensive and - without repeated ad appearances - fails to provide the new business you hoped for. As a result, I highly recommend focusing your efforts on other marketing strategies that are more effective, such as speaking and writing.

But, to the extent your budget is large enough to support an advertising campaign (as opposed to haphazard occasional placement of “an ad here and another ad there” - otherwise known as “shotgun advertising” which is NOT at all effective), I have a few things you should keep in mind:

Advertising budget. The Small Business Administration suggests that 5% of your gross sales should be budgeted for advertising. As an example, if you project $50,000 in gross revenues, the SBA recommends that your annual advertising budget be $2,500 (or just over $200/month). While you can use this as a “rule of thumb,” don’t fret if your available funds do not support this kind of expenditure. Instead of investing hundreds of DOLLARS per month in traditional advertising, spend your TIME & EFFORTS seeking to “get in front of” your target market as much as possible (by, for example, speaking, writing or networking).

Before placing an ad, do your homework. Contact the publication to ascertain demographics related to their subscribers and readers. Indeed, you need to confirm that your target market reads the publication you seek to advertise in.

There is no correlation between the amount of money spent and the resulting new business. This conclusion was reached in a recent study at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. So if the money spent does not necessarily indicate the success of an ad, what does?

The message is the most important aspect of an ad. Often, the message is in the headline, which is the first - and, often, the only - part of the ad readers will see. The headline needs to be simple, compelling and, ideally, appeal to the reader’s emotions. If the headline delivers in this way, the reader will likely be drawn in to read the rest of the ad.

Think “out of the box” when creating your ad. If you want your ad to be read, you should strive to make it unique - ensure that it “stands out” from the rest. Let’s take your local Yellow Pages as an example. If you would peruse your Yellow Pages, I’m confident you would see that most are of the same format - what is called an “institutional” ad. That is where the logo and/or company name are “front and center”, along with their contact information. Rather than “leaping off the page with an attention-grabbing headline, many ads “look like all the rest”, which often results in a less-than-expected return on investment. So, instead of creating a “cookie cutter” ad, take the time to focus on your target market - choosing a problem they struggle with (e.g., putting a space together to look cohesive and attractive) - and try to come up with a headline that promises a solution to that problem.

Here’s an example: Instead of saying: “Specializing in One Day Room Makeovers”, try this: “Come home to a beautiful like-new space . . . completed in just one day”. Do you now see the difference?

Repetition is key. As mentioned earlier, you cannot expect to get results from one ad placed one time in on publication. Likewise, placing an ad in one publication one month, then placing that same ad in another publication the following month, etc. will not get you the response you seek. To the contrary, the key to success in advertising is multiple appearances in the same publication so that readers begin to recognize you, get to know you, trust you, etc. The average reader will NOT contact you after seeing your ad once. In fact, most people will contact a business only after seeing the ad 8 or more times. As a result, before investing in advertising, realize that your investment will pay for itself only if you engage in a true advertising “campaign”.

Judy May is the President of Show House Marketing, a business development and marketing firm catering exclusively to design industry professionals. She can be reached at 610.324.5240 or judy@ShowHouseMarketing.com. For FREE Resources, including the Weekly $uccess Secrets Newsletter and the New! 14-day Jump Start your Design Business E-Course, visit them online at: http://www.ShowHouseMarketing.com.

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