I’ve been working with small businesses for long enough to know that most standard advertising is fairly ineffective for generating sales pipeline. Sadly I have learnt this the hard way, by wasting money on adverts that have generated a negative return on investment – the negative element being the loss of cash and moral! So why then do I occasionally get caught out by advertising sales reps?
A question I had to ask myself recently when I booked a quarter page ad in a publication in London that turned out to be a bit of a toad. The reason I would hazard a guess is twofold:
1. the skill of the sales rep in presenting a compelling opportunity, and
2. the client’s real need for new leads in these difficult economic conditions made me think twice
Of course when I learnt my advice on this one was a little wayward, I did the only decent thing and offered to cover the cost of the advert should the promised sales leads not appear. Watch this space to see if I have to get my cheque book out.
The other result is that I’ve decided to compile a checklist of questions I must ask and fully understand before I place an order. With the aim of helping everyone to get a better return on their advertising investment, I thought I’d share this here.
- Is the publication readership the same as my target audience / decision maker? (note it is important to really understand your target audience first!)
- Do I clearly understand the target audience description provided by the publication?
- Have I heard of the publication or is it launching?
- What is the format of the publication – A4, A5, glossy, newspaper, portrait, landscape, colour or black and white etc?
- Exactly what size will the advert be?
- Can I secure a guaranteed right hand page? (important as an advert placed on a right hand page generally outperforms those on the left hand page)
- Are any of my competitors advertising?
- What is the publication date?
- What is the publication’s reach – not just the circulation, but total reach?
- Will they offer any guarantees – cost per enquiry for example? (unlikely but worth asking)
- Can the publisher help to put together the creative?
- Have any of my competitors / peers advertised in the publication and if so what results did they achieve? (also, could I have their contact details so I can talk to them and find out about their experiences?)
- What is the total price?
These questions will help me to better understand whether the opportunity will present a return on investment i.e. a value of sales greater than the cost of the advertising. Ultimately, there are lots of other factors which will impact the success of the advert which are not the responsibility of the publication.
In particular, the quality of the text and images used in the advert and the strength of the call to action. For some guidelines on good advert copywriting, check out this post by freelance advertising copywriter John Kuraoka.
I’d very much like to hear the experiences of other small business advertisers as to how you measure and interpret whether an opportunity will present good value?
The offline space is getting more and more difficult for advertisers from a cost-benefit standpoint. As you pointed out, it would be rare to find a cost per inquiry payment model. Yet it’s not so rare to find these types of cost per action models online. And you’ve got PPC and SEO as “pull” media that serve ads when consumers are (ideally or hopefully) looking for these products or services. In terms of branding goals such as increasing awareness or modifying attitudes, the offline space is still often a necessity. However, when leads, sales or ROI are of paramount important, online marketing just can’t be beat.
Thanks for sharing. I’d very much like to hear the experiences of other small business advertisers as to how you measure and interpret whether an opportunity will present good value?
If we really want to avoid advertising disaster then we will try to give best to do client according his demand and grow up skill about sale.
Why is it important to analyze your supply chain capabilities as well as those of your competitors? The most basic reason is to assure that—at the very least—you are managing your supply chain as well as or better than the competition is managing theirs. Beyond that, benchmarking can help you identify ways to improve your supply chain and heighten barriers to competitive inroads. Some key metrics to investigate include order-to-delivery cycle times, vendor response time to rush orders, and accuracy of delivery information. The supply chain analyses can be done independently or they may be conducted as part of a formal continuous improvement program, as required to comply with ISO 9002.
The competitive evaluation process should include looking at the five main types of competitive threats identified by Michael Porter in his book Competitive Strategy. These threats include new entrants, existing rivals, buyers negotiating for a lower price, suppliers negotiating for a higher price, and substitute products with similar or disruptive solution sets.5 Senior sales/marketing executives should take the lead in assessing which competitive threats are the greatest.
It is a good blog, at least it gives information and warning. Sometimes we can break the rules, try something different. With the aim of helping everyone to get a better return on their advertising investment, one should understand the client’s needs and give it with satisfaction.
Great insight! I never think of half of those perameters before palcing an ad. Thanks alot/
ROI from the advertising is the biggest factor which many companies face issue.
This post is a must read article for those who waste money on pay per clicks ads and other paid services. They are actually a good source for ROI, but should be used wisely and without mastering it wasting bucks is not advisable. I am thankful especially for the checklist. Its a good practice to have a checklist to ensure things are done its own right. By the time you finishing checking the list you end up successful and with minimal mistakes. I am sure having a cutting edge watch list and report sheet like the above makes any campaign a hit and will fetch you the best ROI. Thanks a bunch for sharing this vital information for novice people especially in the internet marketing arena.
Regards,
Mack McMillan
This is very true, properly assessing your advertising opportunities and making sure you carry them out effectively with positive ROI is absolutely essential. I have seen very many people jump into PPC without a solid grasp of how to control their costs. And of course they all ended up with negative ROI. Additionally, the strength of the call to action is key.
This is very true, properly assessing your advertising opportunities and making sure you carry them out effectively with positive ROI is absolutely essential. I have seen very many people jump into PPC without a solid grasp of how to control their costs. And of course they all ended up with negative ROI. Additionally, the strength of the call to action is key.
Thanks for those tips. I’d very much like to hear the experiences of other small business advertisers and will definitely keep these facts in mind to feed my thoughts.
Thanks for sharing. I’m one of the victim who has fell pray for an online ad disaster.
Thanks,
Steve
Useful list, thanks for sharing Andy.
We have also been involved with infomercial and thought there might be some good questions to add on that topic: does the publication provide infomercial? What is the supplementary cost? Do they have numbers/results to share from previous infomercial advertisers? Will the infomercial and the ad located next to each other or at least only distant from a couple of pages?
In search engine marketing a lot of these worries are unnecessary since the principle itself guarantees you target only your real target group.
These questions will help me to better understand whether the opportunity will present a return on investment i.e. a value of sales greater than the cost of the advertising. Ultimately, there are lots of other factors which will impact the success of the advert which are not the responsibility of the publication.
It is a good post ,focus of good points! ROI from the advertising is the biggest factor,one should understand the client’s needs and give it with satisfactory results. Thanks for this information it provide good help to small business owners like me….
Thanks again for sharing your ideas………………
Thanks for the tips on how to avoid business disasters. I am looking forward to your future posts.
I need help if u have any knowledge of this examine the way popular advertising in any medium demonstrates the truth of Lao Tzu’s contention that “there is no disaster greater than not being content.” show how advertising makes it impossible for anyone who is its victim to be content.
Spot-on! I think many marketers have learnt these lessons. So many newbies don’t understand the importance of “research”. Thanks for the post.
Search engine marketing is very effective now. Nice info. Thanks
Great post!
I think the reason we are drawn into the print advertising is the old, Fear of Mssing Out. The fear of missing out on all those sales that would be generated by the advertisement.
I gave up on print advertising some years ago, as the ROI could not be truly tracked, however, the questions to pose are excellent and I have printed them out, just in case I do return to some print ads.
Regards
Damien
There been many problems going around with many people about advertising and i am sure that your post will be of great help in solving the disasters.
The biggest problem with paying for leads is that you can end up with some really poor leads and it takes a lot of time weeding through them. The best approach in the San Diego real estate business is to work on building referrals from satisfied clients.
Very good article and very nice tips. This would be very useful. If you don’t have a good advertisement, no one would ever give a damn about your product or what your capacities and capabilities are. Avoiding advertising disaster can measure your potential to be successful or not