Small business – Make advertising work for you

January 7, 2012 · Filed Under Consultancy, Posts 

John

John

Many of our clients are small businesses and struggle to make advertising work for them. We aren’t advertising or marketing experts but do spot some fairly basic errors which will reduce (or not improve) advertising responses. Here, for what it’s worth, are a few things which we see and could be easily rectified to increase the liklihood of a response:


1. Most potential customers will favour an advert with a landline number rather than just a mobile number. A landline implies a certain amount of stability whereas the perception of a mobile number is that you could be operating from a park bench somewhere. In fact it is relatively easy (and inexpensive) to rent a landline number and have it divert to a mobile. For a more professional image, you could use a telephone answering service which makes it appear that you have a bigger organisation than you actually have.


2. There is an added preference for adverts which show an address, reinforcing the image of stability. If at all possible include an address in your advert.


3. Don’t be misled by claims of large circulations. The only circulation which matters is the number of YOUR potential customers. If you can only realistically cover a geographical area of 5 miles from your base, there’s no point in advertising in a regional publication covering a 50 mile radius because most of the advertising will be wasted. Advertising in small local publications will often produce better results, and be cheaper, than advertising in larger regional or national publications.


4. Make sure that any publication you advertise in covers the type of customer you are aiming for and can realistically service. For example, if you run a garage and your expertise is in older, smaller cars, you are not going to get much business from publications targeted at owners of high performance cars – particularly if special equipment is needed to be able to work on those vehicles. Get to know your customer types and create your adverts to appeal to them.


5. Photographs make adverts more attractive to readers. If possible use a photograph.


6. Including testimonials in your advert will improve response rates.


7. If you decide to have a web site, don’t expect an immediate response. Just putting a few pages on the internet will do absolutely nothing. The vast majority of websites have very few visits and are a waste of money. If you want a website to produce business, you have to do a great deal more. If you don’t have the time (or expertise) to work on your website, you may be better not having one. Be wary about the proliferation of, so called, SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) experts. There are good ones – but a lot aren’t.


8. Be realistic in your expectations. You are not going to generate dozens of enquiries if you only spend a small amount. The best source of new business is recommendation. Doing a good job at a fair price and leaving some cards or leaflets to pass on will produce good results – but may take time.


9. Paper adverts can have a surprisingly long life. It’s amazing how long after an advert appears responses can pop up. I can remember having a telephone call from someone quoting an advert we’d run in a newspaper over two years previously.


10. Adverts don’t work in isolation. There is a cumulative effect and your credibility will be improved if there is a consistent message. I’ve seen examples where we receive an enquiry from our website and on talking to the person making the enquiry discovered that initially one of our existing clients had mentioned us, they had then seen our name in a local publication and gone onto our website – from where they had made contact.


Finally, it’s worth repeating the quote attributed to John Wanamaker, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted: the trouble is I don’t know which half.”


Good luck

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One Response to “Small business – Make advertising work for you”

  1. Harry on April 8th, 2012 8:41 am

    Fantastic article post.Thanks Again. Fantastic.

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