In
Part 3 of our discussion about “Money” we are going to keep going and dig
further into marketing. There may be some of you out there in blog land that
want to skip this but I suggest that you don’t. This is vital to your survival
and growth so stay with us as we are going to really start heating this up.
As
we discussed in our previous posts, marketing is vital to your business but
what is even more vital is money. Without the money you are dead in the water,
a sitting duck, literally you will be heading under with no hope of getting
another breath so pay attention!
The
way to get the money is through planning, marketing, sales, customer service
and so on. Let’s start with the marketing since we have covered planning in
posts prior to this one and will come back to it again in the future but for
now we are going to stick with marketing. We want you to be able to finish
reading these posts and immediately get to work and make some money.
What
are your marketing options? In reality they are endless so we will cover some
of the main ones that most people know about and use on a regular basis. In
subsequent posts we will get into other marketing tactics that will be fun,
zany and off the wall but if used properly will be highly profitable. Let’s go
through these main options which are:
- Print Ads
- Direct Mail
- Referrals or Word-of-Mouth
Print Ads:
Print
Ads are what many, many small and large businesses run. They can be effective
but can also be very expensive. Now when I say very expensive that doesn’t
necessarily mean they cost a lot of cash out of your pocket although this is
generally true. What I mean is the business you are missing or not getting as a
result of the ad is concerned. What do I mean by this?
Let’s
say that you are a small business and you are in the business of selling
fabrics and items associated with the fabric industry. You take out an ad on a
certain day in your local newspaper and wait for the people to line up at your
door to come in and buy all of your goods and services. You wait and you wait
and only a few people show up. What’s wrong?
There
are lots of possible scenario’s, it could be the ad, it could be the newspaper
that you placed the ad in or….it could be that the ad won’t work no matter what
you do. Why?
Whenever
you run an ad anywhere you have to take into account many things, the biggest
thing that you have to keep in mind is the audience. Is this audience hungry
for what you are selling? This is the biggest question that you must ask
yourself. Keep in mind I said that you MUST ask yourself. There are so few
people asking this question that it is no wonder so many people give up and
close up shop and say the economy is bad. This may or may not be true but it is
likely something else.
You
then have to know about the media you are using. What do you know about this
newspaper? What do you know about their audience? Big questions that you MUST
get the answers to and don’t take no for an answer. Can they show you a return
on the ads from others that have run ads in their paper? If they can have you
spoken to any of these people to find out what they have to say?
If
the newspaper has a daily readership of 100,000 and you run an ad to reach your
audience, you were being sold on the idea that 100,000 people will see your ad.
But is this really true? Is it the right audience? Are they hungry? What
demographics and statistics can the newspaper offer you to make you feel more
comfortable?
Keep
this in mind, although the newspaper may have 100,000 as their circulation, not
all of those papers are delivered and even less are actually read. However, the
real issue is the question of how many people are seeing your ad and how many
of them are in the market for what you sell?
When
you run an ad in your local paper you have to hope that a certain amount of
people have actually seen and read your ad (your audience is now beginning to
shrink). You then have to hope that of those people that have actually seen your ad that a certain number of
them have actually read your ad (your
audience is shrinking again), with any
amount of interest (your audience is shrinking even further).
Keep
in mind that each time we hope for an outcome (seen, read, have an interest),
the size of your potential audience
keeps shrinking. Of those that have any interest in what you offer, your ad has
to be so compelling to actually get
them to get out of their seat and come to see you.
If
all of these factors are spot on, you
will drive traffic. If any of these
are not spot on then you will not get
the result of the ad you were hoping for. For all of this you had the pleasure
of actually paying for this for one
time and now have to do it again!
Here
is another part of this that you must keep in mind: When most people run an ad in
their local paper or magazine, etc., they are asking for advice from the person
at the paper regarding their ad. Do you really believe and I mean really
believe this person is an expert in writing ad copy? Are they an expert at
creating a “Call to Action?” What is a “Call to Action?” Great question which
we will cover in detail at a later time.
But
seriously, the person that is trying to get you to pay them for the ad, the
person with virtually no real-life business experience, the person that has no
idea what drives people to act is going to give you good, money-making advice
for your ad? Seriously?!
Again,
I am not saying not to run ads in your local papers, I am saying that you
better be great at writing ad copy and you better know all of the stats on the
newspaper you are running the ads in.
In
the world of marketing and advertising these ads are known as “tomb-stone” ads
because they are dead!
Is
there a way to make these ads work, of course. How? That’s for another post at
another time. We are going to dig into each of the possibilities that we have
for marketing your business in detail so stay tuned.
Take
this to heart and get started working on this and we will be back shortly with
our next post about “Money.”
Until
then, subscribe to our different sites and start to get a world-class education
that is far and away better than anything you will get in any school. Why?
Because this really works, no theory, no psycho-babble, just real, hard-learned
knowledge that will launch your business!
Important:
If you know one
person that would really benefit and could change their circumstances with this
information; be their hero and share this post with them right now!
If you would
like help with this or any other business, sales, marketing, social media
issues and more, contact us at:
Or leave us a
comment below!
Until our next
post – we wish you all success!
Dean Marchese
The
Dean of Success! ©
