Marketing experts, or worthless dunderheads?
I think one of the biggest mistakes out there in marketing is inconsistency. We live in a results-driven society, we expect big things to happen right away - with that first ad in a magazine, or the first one in an artsy newspaper, or that 500-piece mailing, the first newsletter, the first press release. We business owners plop down the cash, do the best we can with the design and message, wait for the ad to run, then sit back and wait for the phone to ring.
Maybe it rings once. Maybe you get five calls, and none of them are really serious customer calls. One person only cares about your prices. Someone else confused you with another business. Three calls came from salespeople from other publications hoping to convince you to place an ad with them. So, you say, that ad didn't work. Try something else. You call back one of those salespeople, ask for their mailing information, and run once with them.
Same thing happens. Or maybe the phone doesn't ring at all. And it could be the money spent so far was a significant portion of your advertising budget. But you have to do SOMETHING. So you do, you send out as many postcards as you can afford, with a big offer in hot pink on it (because by now, you are feeling a little desperate). You get a sale, and it barely covers the cost of the postcards.
Now what? You talk to a marketing consultant, who decisively states your best advertising medium is an ad in the Arts section of the paper. But you tried that, you tell her, and it didn't work. You decide she's worthless, and call someone else, who suggests something else you tried already. Are all marketing people a fat load of worthless dunderheads?
No, we're not.
Unfortunately, there is no real manual or handbook on how to run a business. Oh there's plenty of information out there, from how to handle taxes, how to hire (and fire) help, how to get a handle on those day-to-day emergencies that seem to just keep piling up, even how to set prices and be a better salesperson. There are marketing books, some of them are as dry as dust and impossible to get through. And few of them mention one main tenet of advertising:
Be. Consistent.
Trying an ad for one run isn't likely to work, though yes it has happened, and we love to tout those success stories and shout from the rooftops that we beat the odds, we made someone's phone ring off the hook on the first run. But for the vast majority of advertisers, that ad has to run at least 3 times. And of course there are other factors that can count against your ad, but we won't go into that right now - we'll just assume your ad is a pretty decently designed one, decent size, with a decent offer in it.
I'm sure you've heard that in political campaigns, there are a lot of voters who just vote for the name they have seen and heard the most? That they didn't really bother to pay attention to the other candidate, who may have been better, they just subliminally decided Mr. A was Mr. Right for Us.
Same thing applies to your business advertising. Run your ad a few times. Several months. Change it up a little, like the offer, or the headline, or the color, but keep the overall design consistent too, so people can recognize your ad when they see it. If the phone really doesn't start to ring? THEN try radio, or TV, or billboards, or the back of bathroom stalls... but try each one for a while, until you know what really works for you.
