Is Your Advertising Making The Cash Register Ring?
When you are advertising your business you need to make sure that you are placing it in the right place and with the right message. These two important items are usually missed simply because many businesses owners do not know exactly who their customers are.
You should know your customers Geographic, Demographic and Psychographic variables. If you don’t then I can guarantee you are losing money on your advertising. When this information is known you can make a educated decision when a sales representative from a magazine, radio station, newspaper, etc tries to sell you advertising. You will be able to weed out the poor choices by simply asking them who their readership or listeners are. Most of the professional media companies will know this information. If they are vague with the answer or if their data is old and out dated then they are not the right fit for you.
Here are some things you should know:
Geographic Variables (Helps determine where to advertise.)
- Region
- Size
- Population Density
- Climate
Demographic and Psychographic variables will help determine what media to place your advertising in and what copy and imagery you should use.
Demographic Variables
- Age
- Gender
- Family Size
- Income
- Occupation
- Ethnicity
- Religion
- Education
- Marital Status
Psychographic Variables
- Activities
- Interests
- Opinions
- Attitudes
- Values
Even if you only identify some of the variables listed above it will help you
make better decisions and save you money on your advertising.
After you have this information it is extremely important to tailor your advertising and message to attract the right customers. For example if you are looking to attract customers with families you do not place images of single persons in your ads. You also make sure that the copy is properly written to appeal to the segment you are trying to attract. Don’t be afraid to use a lot of copy. After all if a potential customer is reading your advertisement it is better to give everything they need to make a decision to call you then not enough information. Then when they do call they are a much warmer prospect.
Let me know how you are doing. As always your comments are appreciated.
The importance of good sales and customer service training.
After many conversations in the last month I am amazed that many business owners do not train their employees in sales and customer service and this is a huge oversight.
If you’re a business owner and have employees that answer the phone with the ability to make a sale either a cold sale, up sell, etc. these employees should be trained in basic sales techniques and customer service practices to ensure they are selling the right solution to the customer and keeping the new and existing customers happy. If a customer purchases the wrong product or service it creates ill will and the customer could loose trust and will force them to start looking for another company to serve them. On the flip side, when a customer purchases the right product or service that serves their needs it will cut back on refunds thus saving the company money. They will feel good about their purchase and experience thus referring others to your company. (Can you hear the cash register ringing? Cha Ching!)
When an employee is trained they will know how to handle situations on their own. Make sure you empower them with the ability to fix most problems. This power to fix issues will save time and create good will with the customer as they feel that the employee is going the extra mile to help. Example: If you went to a store and had a problem or question and went to a sales clerk, then the sales clerk had to go to a assistant manager, that in turn had to go to a manager, etc. etc. you get the idea. (Just typing that was painful.) Now I am not saying to invest in expensive and extensive training. I would start with a book or audio program that you read and listen to as well. Then you review the information with your employees and apply the education to your business. When you see how well it works you can consider advanced training.
So invest the money to properly train your employees that have interaction with the customers. It will help your business grow and allow you to become the leader in your industry.
Two things you can do right now to get more traffic to your website.
Many people ask me what are the most important things they can do to increase quality website traffic? Although there are many “most important” things there are two very simple things you can do right now. I boiled it down to two but still after reading this many of you will not implement the advice below. You all want to, but I’ll bet you’ll eventually say, “I just can’t find the time” (or some other excuse). Unfortunately for these people all the articles and books in the world on marketing and advertising will not help them. They will constantly be in “learning mode” and never get into “doing mode”. But for the aggressive “want to move my business forward at all cost” business owners here they are.
1) Stop waiting for the search engines to bring you quality visitors.
Many companies put their website online and expect miracles to happen. They expect the search engines to find you in a few days and then be in a great first page position in the organic search engine results with the hopes of it bringing them enough traffic to make a significant amount of sales. Although this does happen it does not happen that often. In fact, it is such a strong wish that companies will be taken by unscrupulous search engine optimization companies praying on them.
So in addition to search engines you can surf the web and find quality places to advertise. Keep in mind that this is not a quick fix and that it takes a strong effort to make sure your website is placed in the correct places. If not then the traffic you receive will be unqualified. It’s like advertising your hair salon in an auto shopping guide. It might get some traffic but the demographic you’re looking for might not be reading this media.
So every night (yes I said it, every night) browse the web for sites, other than search engines, that target your specific demographic, see if they accept advertising, make them prove the visits to their site and then ask for their rate card. Buy a short run and see what happens. BUT YOU MUST BE ABLE TO TRACK THE INBOUND CLICKS TO YOUR WEBSITE OR FORGET IT.
2) Place your website address in every advertising and marketing you do.
This one is overlooked by many companies. They either don’t put the site in the ad or they make it so small that it is almost impossible to read. Your company website is the least expensive form of advertising. You should be telling everyone about it everyday. Don’t stop a conversation without letting people know about it. And from now on ALWAYS include it in your advertising and marketing.
When I say everywhere I mean everywhere. Put it on your letterhead, business cards, envelopes, invoices, advertising specialties, t-shirts, baseball caps, pens, etc. Don’t forget to put it on your business check and make sure that every bill you pay you include a business card with the website address on it.
If you do those two simple things it should help you. But keep in mind that it is still frequency and reach that is important so don’t slack off. Keep doing it. Everyday do something to promote your website.
Good luck and let us know how you are doing. Your comments are always appreciated.
What’s up with my website traffic?
Are you wondering why your website is not getting many visitors? One of the reasons is lack of fresh content.
A website is a living document on the web. The more you update and add content to your site the better. It will also help your position in the search engine results pages.
A great and easy way to update your website is to install a blog. Then you can offer interesting information for your visitors and keep your website fresh. Update at least once per month.
Your comments are always appreciated.
Behavioral Target Marketing
Imagine being able to effectively and unconsciously influence others to do business with you! How would you like to make use of the psychological secrets of persuasion that only top advertising psychologists know (and employ on you every day)? What guarantees that you do the things you do and buy the things you purchase? How many gadgets, diets, or pieces of exercise equipment do you have in your house that you don’t use but you thought were essential at the time? Perhaps you have a Time Life collection, or a hard-to-use time share? Why did you do, buy or get such things? The secret power of psychological influence. (Just how does the Nike Swoosh impact buying patterns?)
Do you know there are five major Personality Drivers that cause you to act and react the way you do? In addition, advertising psychologists tap the six extremely powerful Universal Patterns of Influence that unconsciously effect everybody’s decision process. They know the 15 most influential words that when employed properly, guarantee to sell.
On the other side, what is the value for you to know the words, patterns and even colors that drive business away? Did you know that just using the word “should,” as in, “Who should get/use this product or service,” will lower your positive response potential by 40 to 60 percent? (When is the last time you did one of your “shoulds” unless you were backed into a corner?) Imagine how valuable this little piece of information is that we just gave to you.
Because you want your business and web site to make you more successful, for a limited time we have access to a Behavioral Scientist that will edit your materials and your web site for maximum psychological impact. Companies have paid him tens of thousands of dollars for his services. For example, Schering-Plough International contracted with him to model the world’s best Pharmaceutical Sales Representatives (Drug Reps – PSRs) to learn their successful sales strategies and to put those strategies into a training program for 10,000 international PSRs. By special arrangement, his expertise can now be available to help you succeed to the next level. With his scarce and invaluable skills applied to your project, you won’t have to worry about the impact of your marketing campaign. So whether you want to attain certain goals or avoid pitfalls and failures, I wonder whether you will contact us now, while this scarce and coveted resource is available.
Did you lose your left sneaker?
The other day I was driving home from a client meeting and I noticed a left sneaker on the road just sitting there. I wondered to myself, who owns this sneaker and are they aware that the sneaker is missing? If you were walking along and all of a sudden your left foot got cold wouldn’t you look down and think “hey where did my sneaker go?” or would you just keep walking? Even if this person lost it out of a gym bag then went home and saw they were missing their sneaker wouldn’t they re-trace their steps to try to find their sneaker? (Sounds like something from Seinfeld.)
Many business owners are missing their left sneaker as well when it comes to business. Things were working fine; they are making sales and all of a sudden business starts to slow down. There was a change but they just didn’t notice it. Something just slipped. One of the reasons they don’t notice is simply because they are too busy working their business and really can’t take the time to research what happened or look for their lost sneaker so they keep walking without it since they just can’t handle one more thing to do.
When you keep working your business to the point when you can’t make a move without losing control of your senses then it is time to bring in the professionals and outsource. There are many highly qualified persons that can help you so you can run your business more efficiently and become more profitable.
Some easily outsourced services are marketing and advertising, bookkeeping, phone answering and message taking, lead cultivation, commissioned salespersons, etc. Most of the time these services are low cost. Just make sure you ask for at least 5 references.
For example, a big problem is when a company tries to do all of their marketing themselves. Even if they, by some miracle, do the creative correctly there is the matter of where they send their direct mail, how they advertise on the radio, what newspapers, magazines and websites to place their ads, etc.
It’s usually not their fault, as many business owners don’t understand the role of a good marketing and advertising agency. They might understand the traditional role of a corporate “Marketing Department” but not the intense concentrated effort they receive from an outside agency. In addition to creating business identities, marketing campaigns, websites and collateral they could also find you leads, build relationships, public relations, trade show design, marketing surveys, competitive analysis and more to help the company make attract more customers and thus increase sales. Now having an in house Marketing Department is great but many companies large and small also use an advertising agency to help expose their brand. So why shouldn’t you? Especially if making the cash register ring more is your goal.
So the lesson of the lost sneaker is simple, don’t waste time looking for it, just buy a new pair.
Watch out for bad Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies.
Many times I come across companies that tell me they were contacted by a search engine optimization company and they are confused by what they said. They are excited about it because they fell for a sales pitch but don’t understand one thing that was said. So they want a second opinion and I am happy to enlighten them.
The reason why many people are confused by SEO is because they really don’t understand all the things that go into a good SEO marketing plan. Many unscrupulous SEO’s try to scare companies into buying expensive “tricks” that will “Guarantee your position on the search engines”. If anyone ever says they can guarantee your position on a search engine they are not telling the truth. No one can guarantee your position. Unless they are using a keyword phrase that no one would ever use. Ex.” Grandmother’s apple pie restaurant in Toms River, NJ 08753” (with the quotes) In addition, they also might lure you in by saying you don’t pay unless you get 100 visits to your website a month. I usually never hear that these visits are quality visits. Just visits. Or a great one is when they use an online tool to show you all the things that are wrong with your website and for a fee they can fix them for you. Bad SEO’s also might be using doorway or cloaked pages, page stuffing, duplicate content and many other tricks that will eventually get you banned from the search engines.
A red flag is when a SEO does not ask about your current traffic. When you have an existing website it is very important to review what is going on. Your website must have statistical analysis capabilities. In other words do you know how many visitors are coming to your website? From what countries? What pages do they land on? How long do they stay? Etc. Etc. Any SEO in their right mind will ask this question. Many don’t so be very careful. The list of bad SEO tricks is endless. The good news is there are many great SEO companies out there as well.
Here are some things you can do yourself.
If you are just tweaking your website’s Meta and title tags thinking that is all you have to do then you are wrong. (Google does not look at the keyword tag anymore). This must be done and done correctly but there are also many other things to do. Including having rich content that relates to what your website is all about. The phrase “content is king” applies strongly to ranking higher on the search engines. After all, content is what your customers are looking for. A site that is void of content is a site that will spend many thousands of dollars on PPC campaigns and never rank high on the organic results.
Do you update your website content often? Search engines like fresh content as the fresher the content the better. A great way to do this is by having a blog on your site and making sure you update your home page with new content as well.
Are you using social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn)? Do you answer industry related questions on online forums? If so, are you making sure that your profiles are complete and you link to your website? Are you submitting articles on your industry to third party sites with links back to you site? This way if someone likes what you have to say they can contact you.
Are you a vendor for a manufacturer? How about a member of the local chamber of commerce? Do both sites have full company profiles with links to your website?
What about online phone directories including Google, Yahoo and Bing local? Is your business listed? If so is the information correct? Do you have multiple offices or stores that have their own listing? Are you using all the free services that search engines provide for your business listing?
As you can imagine there are many other legitimate things you can do to increase traffic to your website and we have been helping clients with SEO before the term was invented. And I will say it again. Just tweaking your website code is important but not enough. Be smart and if it seems too good to be true run.
Your comments are always appreciated.
The More You Touch the More You Convert
I know the title sounds strange but in marketing this is what we want to accomplish. The first time a prospect sees your ad or hears a your radio spot or views your website, etc. theses are all first touches in the sales and marketing process. Then as you continuously market to them they are touched more and more until finally they make the decision to do business with you.
The important thing to remember is when creating these touches you use your brand identity. If not then every time they see your message it will be like they are seeing it for the first time and this is bad. In marketing we want people to build feelings of knowing and trusting you when they see your marketing message. They also want to know you can give them what they want.
By using your brand identity it allows you to stand out and more importantly be remembered. Most times when we respond to an ad in print or on the web it’s because we have seen it many times before acting. Then over time it goes from our subconscious to our conscious. This is another reason why frequency is so important as well.
A one, two touch.
Make sure wherever you are advertising it directs people to your website. This is a one two touch. Your ad gets them curious and then your website gives them more information about your products and services. Since most of us use the web for research before doing business with a company your website should answers the questions that might arise from the ad and your other marketing.
Give people value when they get to your website. Give them articles from you and third party sources about your products and services. People want to know other peoples thoughts on your industry, product or service. (This is called market data.) Better to give it to them on your website first.
So remember the more touches the more they will remember you and the more will become your customers.
Your comments are always appreciated.
Are you trying to find a client who has never, never, never been born?
Finding clients to sell your services to is not a difficult task. However, many business owners make it difficult on themselves by prospecting to people or companies that have no need of your products or services. How many times have you been called by telemarketers or received a postcard or letter to your company from a competitor asking you to buy from them? We get these calls and direct mail pieces at least once per week. It amazes me that these companies don’t do the slightest research to see if we “qualify” as one of their prospects. They just do a general blast to all companies in a certain geographic area without looking to demographics and excluding competitors. Not taking this easy step is a huge waste of money.
There are also the companies that send to prospects that they think “might” become a customer. This is also bad marketing. With all the lists available you can find prospects that have purchased exact, very similar and complementary products and services. Since this information is available why are companies trying to find the client that has never been born? In addition, don’t fall into the trap of what we call the “everyone is my customer” syndrome. Many seem to think that if you send enough email or direct mail to enough people then some has to stick. While that works sometimes, it is another huge waste of money and shouldn’t be counted on.
Let me give you an example: Lets say you sell scissors. Do you think it would be better to spend your money advertising in a local newspaper or take your money and advertise in a trade publication targeted to Hair Salons and Cosmetologists? What if you’re a gym? Should you advertise in a newspaper wherever they can place you ad or should you insist on the sports section or women’s section, etc?
Targeted email lists are also available for rent enabling you to target market. Everything you do to market your company from Google AdWords to Email, from trade publications to press releases, etc. Everything should be exposed to your targeted demographic and psychographic.
Another misstep is not taking your target market when creating your company website. Never create a website that looks good just to you. You’re not the customer. Always create your website with your customer in mind. How will they benefit by doing business with you? What do they want to see? What are their demographic and psychographic? Are they mostly Male or Female, professional or blue collar? Are they high income? Are they the children of elderly parents looking for research about the products or services you sell before they make a buying decision? When developing your collateral you should also keep this in mind.
I know to many experienced business owners this is basic marketing. But to the new business owner it’s usually an eye opener. With slim budgets and small margins this information could make you more profitable and save you much time.
Targeted marketing is the best and most affordable approach to promoting your company.
Can you guess which song the title of this article is related to?
Your comments are always welcome.
