Address: 31 Cordova Street, Milton,
QLD, 4064
Ph: (07) 3368 2525 Fax: (07) 3368 2535
Brad
Sugars |
How
to produce Advertising
that isn't a
waste of money
…
Ask
any accountant…advertising is an expense…
Right? Wrong or at least it doesn't have to be. Done correctly
advertising can make you thousands of dollars in extra revenue,
done incorrectly it can cost you more! |
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So you may ask,
how do you ensure that the advertisements you place are going to
make you money? The secret is testing and measuring!
I know it sounds boring… but once you understand this simple principle
you'll be able to make money from your advertising all the time,
with each and every ad you ever run.
A lot of people write an ad and believe that it will work for them.
They place it in the paper and sit back waiting for the calls. All
along they've believed that it will work; after all, a lot of their
current clients read the paper. But when it fails to improve their
number of leads they stop running the ads blaming the paper for
the poor response.
But how did they think the ad was going to work? You can never know
until you put it to the test. If it doesn't work you simply change
the ad and run it again. You keep testing over and over again until
you find the ad that does work.
So lets look at the things you need to test …
Firstly, you need to test your headline. Your headline is the most
important part of your advertisement. You also need to test the
offer you're making. Some offers that you think will get people
in will quite often not work, but some that you didn't think would
work will quite often bring a huge response. You can't be sure until
you test them.
Test different publications. If you find that one newspaper gets
a lot of calls and yet another containing the same ad doesn't, fair
chance that it's the publication and not the ad. The position is
something else you need to test. Try your ads in the business pages
or the classifieds or the early general news sections. It wouldn't
be the first time that we changed the position of the ad and suddenly
the client started getting a great response.
Test your ads with photographs, without photographs, with a border
and without a border, there are so many things that can alter the
results you achieve, but you can't possibly hope to know what these
are without testing them first.
So how do you test …
With Fliers …
The true beauty of using fliers is that you can have a number of
different headlines with different appeals as well as a few different
offers. Now combine the various headlines and offers and produce
8 to 10 variations and combinations of your ad. Once you've got
these together you simply need to letterbox drop them in different
areas. The area that brings the best response will show you which
headline and offer works best.
A few points to note however:
1. You need to send all your test fliers out at the same
time
2. You need to keep in mind the areas where you are placing
your fliers - make sure they are similar socio-economically
3. Printing on coloured paper is an inexpensive way to brighten
up your flier without going to the extra expense of printing full
colour
4. Keep the layout simple, by trying to do your layout in
blocks (place the headline, copy, pictures and coupon in a blocked
or a balanced position on the page which covers as much space as
possible)
5. Make the flier look as much like the proposed campaign
as possible
With Codes …
Because it is so important for you to test every piece of material
you present to the public it is also possible to test the placement
of your ads in newspapers, magazines or even the response to the
direct mail letters you send out. By placing a code within the coupon
at the bottom of each ad or letter, you will be able to run a few
different ads in a few different publications and still know which
ad is getting which result.
Let me explain… when customers return the coupon, you will be able
to collate the results and determine which headline and offer combination
has worked best. The added advantage of using a coupon system is
that it enables you to get people's phone numbers addresses and
any other details for you to include in your database.
A few points to note however:
1. Make sure you keep detailed notes on what the codes mean
2. It is possible to test via post code to determine where
your clients are coming from geographically
3. Use a phone number in the ad which is only used for ad
responses, therefore any response must be from the ad you placed
With Headlines Only
This idea is simple… You write a full size advertisement, maybe
up to half a normal newspaper size. You then write ten to a dozen
different headlines. You'll probably also come up with a number
of offers that you think will attract a response. Before you place
your full size ad in the paper, you need to know that the headline
will attract attention and draw the reader in. So rather than go
through the expensive process of running a half page ad ten different
times, you simply run an ad that contains the headline, a brief
paragraph, contact details and maybe an offer if you need to test
that too.
It's important when you start testing that you begin to test with
a small ad. By running a series of smaller ads and measuring the
response your full size ad will have a much greater chance of success.
A few points to note however:
1. You can't expect the phone to ring off the hook when you
place a small ad. What you're looking for is a handful of calls
to give you an indication of which headline should be used in your
final ad.
2. This method works best for testing newspaper ads as well
as titles for books and headlines for Yellow Pages ads
3. Make your headline and phone number very prominent
At the end of the day it doesn't matter which method you use as
long as you are able to determine which advertising is working and
which isn't. But whatever you do if its working, don't meddle -
just do the same thing on a larger scale.
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