Where To Get Started With Marketing
Source: https://canadasmallbusiness.ca/
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Definition of Advertising:
Adverting is one of the important tools which serves the public interest. It’s a form of open communication between those who sell and those who buy. It is a form of advocacy – open to any company or cause that wants to argue its case. The jury is the pubic and every purchase is a vote.
Fundamental Of Advertising:
Advertising is one part of the total marketing mix. In marketing, we have to establish relationship between a brand and our customer. Advertising helps to establish this relationship.
Nowadays, advertising is regarded as any paid form of non-personal communication of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor. Adverting can be sign symbol illustration or message or both. It can be conveyed through any mass media including internet, social media, tv, radio, press, magazines and so on.
Functions of Advertising:
Informs the buyers about the existence of the product or service,
Provokes to try and reminds benefits and features if any,
Offers incentive to buy,
Helps to stand out,
Builds some basics of brand’s image,
Cost effective way to reach consumers or audience,
It persuades people to act,
The Six (6) Stages in Advertising Communication:
Awareness: is the product,
Comprehension: marketing communication,
Acceptance: is with preference to needs,
Purchase: is about decision making,
Ownership: is through buying,
Reinforcement: is to reduce client or consumer’s anxiety,
Facts about Advertising:
Adverting never determines the followings:
How a product will be designed,
How it will be distributed,
And at what price,
Product – Distribution and Pricing must be made before advertising is allowed to play its role.
Consumer needs can be met by managing the four marketing mix variables:
Product:
Brand,
Packaging,
Innovation,
Lifecycle,
Price:
Pricing strategy,
Price and quality,
Price alterations,
Price – discounts,
Place:
Channels of distribution,
Physical distributions,
Distributions (virtual/digital products),
Wholesales, retailers,
Promotion:
Adverting,
Public relation,
Personal selling,
Sales promotion,
Aspects of Approach in Advertising:
The first rule of adverting is to be honest and tell the truth. Do not hype and over promote something or a product that does not have such qualities. Not only it could become a liability issue, but also it damages the reputation of the brand or business. Let’s see a advertising approach in a different set of context or frame of reference.
Tone & Personality:
You have to make a decision about your ad relating to its tone and personality. What disposition/character/behavior/or attitude is going to be the most effective?
Next, what is appropriate for your type of business? That’s an important point, in order to get your message across without any fuzziness. Majority of businesses and entrepreneurs, both small and large, start great in building their marketing, advertising and the overall brand, but as time goes on, many different marketing and advertising mixes and collaterals creates confusion among clients or consumers. We will touch on this subject at other sections of this website.
Now back to the subject of approach – tone is the undercurrent of your ad or the mood. Personality is the make-up of the ad’s character. It’s important to think about this because some advertisers ignore it and when they pull the pieces together (picture, copy, etc) the ad doesn’t project anything.
For instance think of the grabber line being, “Big budget delivers big results.” Hmm? Just as money can’t solve all social ills, big budgets don’t automatically create inventive advertising.
Many times we’ve seen an enormous budget plus a rotten idea = a huge failure. Yet, there are times when we see a small budget plus a first-rate idea = marvelous success. Be prepared to make do and still make it fantastic.
Break the Limits:
If you have a small ad, demonstrate that you’re better than the space you’re in. Remember the prospect doesn’t care about the size of the ad, he only cares about what you’re doing for him.
Turn Adversity Into Advantage: If your client insists on showing personal injury ad, turn out the best personal injury ad ever. You’ll get points for originality, and your approach does not have to be tough in order to get results. It all goes back to connection, feelings and trust.
Use What’s Already Available: Before you spend a lot on photos and illustrations, review what you have and what you don’t have and don’t need. Even look at what you have lying around. It’s free.
Can the Approach Work? Not to discourage free form thinking, but you should reject approaches that demand too much labor, time, and budget. Instead, prepare ads that require your talent.
Frugality Makes You Timely: The smaller the production budget, the sooner your ad can get in the market. This is the “Rule of Thumb.” The reason is because you’re not relying on other resources. So, unchain your ads from expenses and move fast.
This is worthwhile because if economic conditions suddenly change (and they will), you can quickly respond with a new ad message that addresses the new economy. You might decide to say, “Now more than ever, it pays to use our product.” You’ll again leave your competitors in the dust because they’re tied to expensive ads and long production timetables.
If you can follow these hints you should be able to work out a true creative ad for either yourself or a client.
Know the advertising score and its impacts:
When you’re doing your ad, remember that you must use psychology and biology. You must make your prospect want your product more than anything they can think of so they want it now.
Who is AIDA?
First always remember that enticing, siren of advertising AIDA.
AIDA stands for:
A=Attention: – Grab your targets attention,
I=Interest: – Create curiosity,
D=Detail: – Provide details,
A=Action: – Call for action,
If you have AIDA before you every time you start to do an ad, you’ll hardly never fail. The most important point is the “call to action”. You’d be surprised at the number of sales that are lost because the client is never asked to “order now, try it for 30 days, fill out the coupon” – or whatever you use to make your client take action.
Here are some advertising pearls that will keep you on the beam:
Force yourself to operate under deadlines. When you start buying advertising space you’ll have to meet deadlines so get used to them.
A customer who buys from you two times is twice as likely to buy as a customer that only buys from you once.
If you’ve got a good product, a good, liberal, strong guarantee should go with it and will increase your sales. The amount of returns/refunds you get will be insignificant compared to the increase in sales.
The more your sales letter looks like a “personal” letter, the better it will work.
Remember the 40-40-20 rule for using direct mail. It breaks your success in three ways: 40% of you success is using the right list, another 40% is having the right offer, and 20% is everything else (copy, format, graphics, paper, etc.).
In advertising it is better to offer a Free Bonus than to offer a discount.
Direct mail advertising statistics show that mail delivered on Saturdays and Mondays get the poorest response. Best days are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday-and in that order.
Use testimonials in your ad and put them before the call to action and after the details about your widget.
“Buy 1 get 1 FREE” always out-pulls “2 for the price of 1”.
Nothing is more powerful than “goodwill” except ill will. If a client is dissatisfied, make good and make it fast.
Always make your customer feel like they’re the most important customer you have, and they’ll keep buying from you and not your competitor.
You can increase your response rate from a mailing if you add a “post-it” note on your sales letter. You can say something like, “Only for the month of June”, or “Reply before 6/30 to get the discount.”
In Direct Marketing (which ads by mail are called) there are only two rules: Rule #1: Test everything. Rule #2: See Rule #1
Ad copy type-set in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS is harder to read than all lowercase of Mixed Case.
Repeat your offer and guarantee on your order form.
Whenever possible, give your customers an extra added and unexpected bonus or gift along with the order to show your appreciation.
There are only three ways to grow your business: (1) increase the number of customers; (2) increase your average dollars per sale; (3) increase the frequency you do business with your customer. Always remember, “turn-over may feed your ego, but it won’t feed your family.”
The more you treat your clients as friends, the more likely they’ll talk about you and do more business with you.
Don’t ever let a Holiday come and go without offering your current customers a special deal in an ad. Use the event as the “hook” for the ad, and if you research the subject you’ll find there’s a holiday of some sort almost every month. Not just the big ones like Valentine’s Day or Easter, but use one’s like Groundhog’s Day, National Dairy Month, Boy Scout’s Week, or whatever you can work into your product line.
Now that you are introduced to AIDA, and given you all these marketing pearls you should be able to compose an ad that will not only increase your presence in the marketplace, but also bring you more clients, business, and profits.
