Do you feel like you've promoted your product long enough to expect a higher response rate than your current media response figures show? The problem may be something other than you advertisement(s). Perhaps you should re-examine you media plan in the following manner:
In print, produce two different ads. Have them split run (if the publication can do it). Code the ads with coupons to keep records of response. Test the publications after you have determined the best ads to see which publication pulls the most. Again, code the ad with a department code number. For example, for you ad in the Post-Gazette, your code could be putting the day in the address. This works with coupons. Direct response ads can also be used to evaluate public interest. Include a number for free information; use a reply coupon.
Because of the expense of a real campaign, some small scale testing can be done in the beginning. Produce two commercials, run both on two different stations, or give two different numbers in the ads. Record each time a response is made. If your budget does not allow for two different ads, at least have your ad script and storyboard tested by your ad agency. Such a test can be done by a focus group or limited survey. Your agency or researcher can help you with what to look for in a test.
Because of the expense of a real campaign, some small scale testing can be done in the beginning. Produce two commercials, run both on two different stations, or give two different numbers in the ads. Record each time a response is made. If your budget does not allow for two different ads, at least have your ad script and storyboard tested by your ad agency. Such a test can be done by a focus group or limited survey. Your agency or researcher can help you with what to look for in a test.
Experts feel that a radio spot should be heard at least 3 times by an individual to be recalled. Remember, if they hear and read about you, you are building trust. Those who need your product may eventually buy.
One way to establish a budget is to pick a number out of the sky. Another method is to look at your business or marketing plan. Evaluate your company. Are you the lowest priced in your category? You may need to spend more than the middle priced competition since you are after volume. If you are the highest priced in your category, you will need to spend more on advertising and target to a select group.
Before you establish a budget, make sure you have the basics: A logo, business cards, stationery, invoices, purchase orders, etc. Some companies choose a percentage for their ad budget. Some choose 7.5 percent of gross sales. You may need to spend 12 percent if you are in a very competitive area. If you're grossing $50,000 per month business, you may be able to do effective advertising at $5,000 per month. If your budget is small, amortize the cost of items such as brochures. Other ways you can establish a budget: You can take a percentage of the unit of products you wish to sell. You can take your profits and place them back into the ad budget.
Watch your market. Have your agency watch for trends. You may profit from increases in your budget during the year to take advantage of opportunities.
When business seems slow, a special promotion may help. Statistics prove that companies that advertise during slow times reap big rewards when the economy picks up.
You are living dangerously if your company doesn't have accurate knowledge of the profit (or loss) structure of your sales territories. Not keeping close tabs on the cost of obtaining sales can literally "eat you up." It's vital to analyze what your sales dollar is buying. Have your in-house financial people (or your CPA) calculate three key items for each territory or each sales person:
McGraw-Hill estimates that the cost-per-call in America is now at an all-time high of $225! Today's field sales people (either employees or representatives) spend only about 39 percent of their time actually selling. Traveling, servicing, waiting, going to meetings, writing reports, plus a certain amount of "downtime" consumes the other 61 percent. Reconfirming this, a nationwide McGraw-Hill survey of sales managers indicated that they believed that only 30 to 35 percent of their sales personnel were cost-effective.
No matter what industry you are in—if your markups are too slim and competition so fierce that you cannot raise prices, you have only one alternative. Lower you marketing costs. Easier said than done, you say? Well … start by objectively reviewing your distribution system. Roll up you sleeves and carefully study how your goods and services have been marketed until now, and how they might be in the future.
For instance:
Gregarious sales people tend to dwell with those customers they like—even though they may not be lucrative accounts. Conversely, certain accounts will continue doing business with your company without the expense of face-to-face selling. The arithmetic—if you study it closely—tells the tale. But you must have the determination to dig it out, learn from it, and take the proper remedial action—as soon as possible.
For a giant corporation, such statistics are a serious matter. For a small to midsize business, they can be nothing less than a matter of life or death.
Once the study is completed—and you have pinpointed your weak points—consider your alternative courses of action. Either (1) find ways to increase sales volume at the same expense, or (2) find ways to lower costs while maintaining your sales volume at current levels.
In recent times, database marketing has made a quantum leap. All pertinent information about customers and prospects can be stored. You can include a company's attributes, decision maker's names, prior contact activity, etc. You can directly link it with order entry, customer service and other systems that hold data important to closing a sale. When coupled with direct mail and telemarketing, databasing permits you to communicate quickly and without waste with every known segment of your market.
Because of the computer, direct response marketing has emerged as a quantifiable science. It's quick and cost-effective because you reach potential customers and sell them at less waste. As a matter of fact, the smaller your promotional budget, the more critical it becomes to spend your limited dollars wisely.
The Ad as a whole
The Visual
The Headline
The Copy
The above questions are some of the 50 questions Bynums uses to evaluate an ad. If you are looking for advertising that gets your message out in a clear manner, give Russell Bynum a call at 412/471-4332.
The late, great Victor Schwab of Schwab & Beatty—founder of the largest mail order ad agency of its day—had eight rules for an ad to hold a reader's interest. They included:
If the recent plunge in the stock market is causing more cautious consumer spending, what should companies do about advertising? Three words … Crank it up! Or at least maintain the pace of your current campaigns. Marketing executives in the automobile, financial service, and food product industries, to mention a few, view an unstable economy as a crucial time to concentrate on reassuring your target market.
during this period, consumers appreciate being reminded of the values they receive from your products and/or services. In David Ogilvy's book entitled Ogilvy on Advertising, he notes that studies of six recessions show companies that did not cut their advertising budget reaped a significantly greater increase in profits than companies that decided to make budget cuts. Make cuts in your advertising budget, and you could lose some, if not all, of your market share.
Weigh your options before making a costly mistake. Plan a new strategy (remember to think long range) and you could eventually gain a larger piece of the pie.
Consider the mediums you are presently using. Would your strategy be more profitable if you concentrated more of your ad dollars on television instead of print, or vice versa?
In times of economic uncertainty, seize the opportunity to sell the strengths and values that your customers rely on.
Breaking through the clutter of today's advertising is getting tougher. Creative graphics are often not enough. We can help you design successful ads. Review these four elements:
Everyone knows the saying, "You can't judge a book by its cover." But that's exactly what many consumers do. Because of this, the aesthetics of a package design play a crucial part in making a good first impression on potential consumers.
Here's how to initiate an effective new package design program: First, revisit your product objectives by redefining what you are selling, your target market, and your product benefits. Provide a thorough description of the persons you plan to reach; then compare this profile to your design ideas.
Take a good look at your competitors. Study their packaging. How well will your package design stand up against theirs on the shelves?
Now take another look at your package design. Will it communicate the benefits you have identified? Bounce your ideas off others by holding focus groups that represent your target market. Instruct participants to describe the features that set your design(s) apart from your competitors. Use their input to creat a package that says "specially designed to meet my market segment preferences."
Have an expert help you choose symbols, colors, ink, etc. Different colors, symbols and shapes project different images to the consumer. For help in this important area of marketing, call 412/471-IDEA!
A farmer doesn't cut back if he wants a good harvest. At the risk of sounding biased, the trend of businesses to cut back on marketing can backfire.
In an uncertain economy you need to build your brand and keep your name out. Look for creative ways to save and stretch your budget without lessening your reach and frequency. Encouraging creativity in the execution of ad and literature can boost readership and response. Remember to use as many types of media that you can afford.
E-commerce is exciting, but direct mail is the workhorse of the marketing mix. A study by TNS research discovered that Americans scan over 88% of all advertising mail they receive. 14 to 18% plan to respond by mail after reading it. With concerns about identity theft, many people still feel more comfortable paying their bills by mail.
Many smart advertisers are giving consumers several options for purchasing products or services. Often these options include: e-commerce, U.S. mail, direct sales.
Bynums Advertising Service recommends that you keep track of how your customers make purchases. What methods do they use to order products and pay bills? What methods make them most comfortable? Make sure you know the answers to these questions before you make your advertising decisions.
Many businesses could greatly increase their sales if they could get more visuals in their advertising.
For some products or services, seeing is believing. Here are seven ways to get more visual:
Remember, for many people, seeing is believing!
Sometimes clients don't want to invest the money or time for good visuals. The results of a study by the Wharton School of Business tested presentations without graphic visuals. The results are:
For help in result-getting visual presentations, call Bynums at 412/471-4332.
One out of ten people are color blind! Therefore, the best colors to use when giving presentations are: blue, green, or black. They are softer on the eyes of color-blind people.
The agency business is a people business. If your agency does not enjoy working with you, you will not get the maximum results for the dollars spent. To have a good client/agency relationship you must do the following:
1. Define what a successful relationship is to you, and tell your agency.Do you want more sales? Will you pay to measure results? Do you want to build brand awareness? Are you willing to pay for pre-, mid-, and post-campaign research? Do you want attention from the top people at the firm? Do you want everything backed up with research? Or do you like working from your own gut feelings? Do you want creativity validated by awards? Or are sales the only measurement that matter to you?
Do you want to know what works? Then test, test, test. Get to know what people think about your industry, company, and your products. Have your agency do quantitative and qualitative research. Keep track of responses: do you know what media gives you the most responses?
No one creates a successful company without a sufficient budget. Remember, even national brands that claim not to advertise have, in reality, spent millions on promotions, PR, sampling programs, logos, and image campaigns. For small companies, a $50,000 budget is a place to start. However, you need to check out the spending in your industry and talk to your agency about what you need to spend. Remember, for some agencies, a million dollar budget is a small budget. This is a serious matter, and a good agency's goal is to help you become one of the top ten in your field. To do this you must have the finances to communicate your message.
Get the truth from your ad agency. Accept the fact that you must invest to get results and that reasonable time is needed to see results.
If you have the desire, the will, and the resources, you can grow.
Test your messages—don't change messages too quickly. Do variations on a theme for variety and to keep interest. If your overall direction is working, keep doing it. Try new things and new media. Get reach and frequency—stay on course.
Many people just do a brochure, or an ad, or a logo, and get no results. Have a consistant, planned advertising and promotion program.
Our firm on occasion has seen good ideas, products, or programs never take off because of underfunding. Registration and patent protection is very important. However, the bigger problem is lack of capital. If you do not promote your company well, a competitor can modify your product or service and do so legally. And, with a good advertising budget, they have the potential to become very successful while eliminating you from the marketplace.
Until you get a budget or sell your idea to someone else, keep your ideas to yourself. If you choose to share your ideas with someone, make sure to have him or her sign a confidentiality agreement.
To be the type of client an ad agency would want to work with, it's best to follow the above rules. Every business does not need an agency or communications firm. For some, growth is not important. For those who need growth, you must remember that to get results you must seek an honest relationship with your advertising and communications firm. For more information on agency/client relationships, call Russell Bynum at 412/471-4332.
Event planning can be a fearful activity. Here are some tips to turn your fear into fun.
Bynums Advertising Service is available to help you plan your event. The firm can be involved in a small way (theme development, invitation design, and graphics) Or in a large way (venue choice, complete graphics package, speaker contracting, event consulting, program book design, committee development, advertising, assistance in the soliciting of sponsors, and more). Bynums has consulted for the Pittsburgh Pirates, POISE Foundation, The Ebony and Ivory Ball, The Allegheny County Housing Authority, The Pittsburgh Foundation, Fannie Mae, The Pittsburgh District AME Sunday School, and others. We have worked with artists and speakers such as Les Brown, Ce Ce Winans, Thurman Evans, George Frasier, Hanks Aaron and others. For information on our services call 412/471-4332. References available upon request.
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