Dear Leanne,
These are great tips - as a retail florist, author and Founder of a Virtual Women's Organization, I am always looking for effective advertising tips - and for most small businesses, advertising is often like throwing money in the wind and seeing how much comes back to you and how much flys away.
Unless it is a highly targeted publication, I have found advertising to be a big waste of time from a "get more business" perspective - however, it can enhance our brand - although most smaller businesses cannot afford to do a branding campaign it generally requires lots of money and the ROI is often less than 1%.
Here's an article I wrote on the subject:
How to Dramatically Improve Your Advertising Effectiveness
"In our advertising message we sell flowers, in our shop our arrangements 'second the customers' emotions" Heidi Richards
If you are using ads that only provide information and maintain a corporate image, your advertising will not be effective. It's kind of like running in place - putting on your sneakers with nowhere to go. Ads like this can be a huge waste of money for the small business. Small businesses must instead use advertising that has a "call to action." Advertising that turns a prospect into a customer. This is known as Direct Response Marketing.
Your primary goal in any advertising campaign should be to motivate the reader to respond, by using phrases and offers that suggest the reader run right over or contact you immediately.
What motivates you to purchase something from an advertisement? What about your customers, your employees, your friends? Find out what motivates them to purchase. Use it as your "call to action" in your advertising.
Create a Sense of Urgency
Does your current advertising have a sense of urgency with such words as Call Now? In your print ads, is your telephone number and website address larger? Do you use bold numbers in your ad? Does your ad say "offer expires today" or "good through ___?" If not, adding these two simple things will make your advertisement more effective. Not telling the reader or listener to Buy Now before the price increases, is a waste of your advertising dollars. Basic motivators in your "Call to Action" are security, success, greed, fear, recognition or solutions to problems such as ways to save time, money or effort.
The following are words and phrases that motivate people to respond, to take action:
· Discounts - "Buy 12, get one free," or "10% off a purchase of $20 or more"
· Free one-hour consultation
· Free trial offer
· Free Gifts with purchase - such as "Stop in for a free Rose with purchase"
· Free 90-day subscription (No Risk)
· Guarantees - such as "100% money back" or "free replacement" no questions asked
· Special Assistance - such as a reminder program, which sends notices of special dates, last time purchased, etc.
A strong Call to Action, should at the very least, get a bigger response rate. TEST different word combinations and offers until you find a "formula" for a successful advertising message.
©2006 - Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is also the Founder & CEO of the WECAI Network www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) – a network of virtual organizations that “Helps Women Do Business on and off the WEB.” Basic Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at Heidi@speakingwithspirit.com or heidi@wecai.org.