Why Your Marketing Sucks . . . And What To Do About It!

Howdy, 

Now don’t take the title of this article personally—I’m not trying to hurt your feelings or make you mad. You’re marketing my be in fact rockin’—bringing in leads and sales faster than you can count them. If so, my hat’s off to ya!

The truth is I only want what’s best for your business—even if it involves telling you the truth!

And the truth is that most businesses could use a shot in the arm especially when it comes to their marketing efforts.

And in these troubling times only the strong (or better prepared) will survive. In short, you need to make every marketing dollar count.

So here’s a few simple ideas that could give your company that shot in the arm and make your marketing leaner and meaner in these times of economic turmoil.

Let’s get crackin’!

For starters let’s turn to your advertising and marketing activities. Ponder these questions for just a moment or two. How much are you spending on advertising? Where’s it going? Do you buy space in the local newspaper? Do you run TV commercials? Radio? Do you run ads in the yellow pages? Do you use direct mail? What about PR? Do you run PR campaigns?

Now ponder what medium is bringing in the most bacon? What marketing message is bringing in the most bang for the buck? Do you track these activities?

Oh, say you don’t? Well . . . if you don’t you should be tracking results and testing every component of your marketing message. Because if you are not testing these things my friend you are . . . .

Driving in the dark without your lights on!

And that could be very dangerous (and costly!)

Ok, so how and what exactly should you be testing?

I’m glad you asked. In one word . . . everything!

Really! Test every component or element of your ad. Why not start with the headline. Please . . . please . . . .pleeeease tell me that all your ads have a headline!

I’ve harped on this subject before—it’s vitally important. And I’ll harp again . . . but not now. We’re on testing.

Test one headline/opening paragraph appeal against another one. Tabulate your results.

Go through your entire sales message and test all aspects of it. Test your offers. Test your closes or call for action. Test your body copy.

The point is that you should be testing all aspects of your marketing. It surprises me how few companies actually do this. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record—if you don’t test various aspects of your marketing you are leaving dollars on the table!

We do not have the power (even if you own a crystal ball) to possibly know what the marketplace wants. We don’t know what the best approach, price, or appeal will be until you put it to a vote.

And the voters are your prospects and customers. It’s really that simple.

Killer Copy Tactics

Ok, let’s move onward. This section is dear to my heart and you’ll soon know why.

Let’s go back to your marketing message and put it under the scope. What do you see? Well, if you are like most companies you are running “traditional” or as it’s sometimes called “image” type advertising.

I have only two, yes count ‘em two words for you . . .

Stop It Now!

Oh sucks, I lied—that was three words. Nevertheless, stop it right now! Please! It’s killing your bottom line, taking up your time, resources, and hurting you!

Yea I know you were probably taught that building a brand, a household name was important. You want John Q. Public to think of you first when he wants that oh so special  gizmo or widget.

But the problem is building a brand using traditional type advertising takes an insane amount of time and money. And you do have tons of both, right? Yea, I thought so.

Here’s a better way. Use direct response advertising. It could be your secret weapon. Done correctly, it can put moola in your pocket so quick your head’ll spin!

What’s more it’s leaner, more efficient, it tells a complete story. It directs prospects and customers to action. It’s salesmanship in print.

And of course the real beauty is that once honed and tested it can be used over and over again.

Plus, as I just mentioned you can test the results of your advertising efforts. You know by it very design if it works or not. How cool, no?

Think of direct response advertising are you new “virtual” top producer. And like your top producing sales rep it gains attention, makes a complete case for your company and closes the sale consistently!

Unlike your sales rep, direct response advertising can call on hundreds, thousands even millions of qualified prospects at the same time making it a powerful way to bring sales, leads, inquiries.

So why not switch to direct response advertising today and see your coffers swell many times over!

Knowing Your Prospects

Do you know what your prospects and clients are up to? What’s keeping them up at night? What daily challenges are they facing? What pains are they experiencing?

Now this is a vitally important step that should be taken before you launch a new product or service. A little research up front will save your butt—not to mention your time and money.

Where are your best prospects hiding? A couple of hours worth of sleuthing will reveal the answers.

Start by going to Google. Google brings you a cool research too called Google AdWords.  It’s easy to use. Just go there type a word and/or phrase relevant to your marketplace and BAM . . .

Out comes the number of hits were registered. Plus Google will give you alternate words and phrases based on your search.

Another great tool is called the SRDS—this stands for Standard Rates and Data Service. This is a huge multi volume set that lists magazines and mailing lists of every imaginable subject.

Chances are if you see a magazine, publication, newsletter or mailing list that’s listed in the SRDS that’s a good sign there’s a market.

All you want to know at this stage is if there’s a market or not. That’s it! 

And what’s cool is that you can get theses tools FREE in most cases from your local public library. The SRDS is usually found in the reference department. Just ask the librarian for help.

You can also go online at www.srds.com and subscribe if you like. As a subscriber you’ll get updates quarterly.

And Google—well all you need is a web browser and Internet connection. Heck most now libraries have public access to the Internet. All’s you need is a library card.

Ok, I’m going to cover one last profit pumping strategy and I like to call it . . .

Abandonment

This sorta goes hand in hand with an earlier lesson. In that lesson I spoke about testing the elements of your marketing. You learned the importance of testing various ads, sales pitches, and elements of your marketing. And you learned by tabulating the results exactly what’s working, how well and in what medium.

After the results are in the best, highest producing message, package, ad, etc. becomes your control.

After all that work testing please don’t muck it up by abandoning it. Many companies do just that. They’ll quit running or worse change a campaign just for the sake of change.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

I promise you’ll get tired of your marketing or advertising long before your marketplace will.

The only time you should change your advertising is when a new approach or ad has out pulled your control. And you know this how . . . .? Yes, by testing! Hence another reason you should be testing your advertising!

Give your marketing campaign time to properly work. In other words allow enough time to garner all the results and complete your test.

I can’t emphasize enough how important testing is. All and I mean every top gun marketer always tests and retests the elements of their marketing campaigns.

This short article should give you fodder to chew on. Try out these ideas and put them to work on your next advertising campaign.

Warmly,

Emette E. Massey

P.S. Need help creating a promotion that pulls in cash fast? Why not give me a call? I’ll be glad to answer any questions, share a few ideas that will help grow your business! Call me at 828-757-2984. Or if you prefer send me an email at eemassey@yahoo.com There’s no cost or obligation at all!