How to Rope In Customers with Your Small Business Advertising
How to Rope In Customers with Your Small Business Advertising
For instance, when it comes to spending money on any kind of small business advertising, like newspaper, magazine, flyers, brochures, Yellow Pages, etc., many business owners fall into the same trap. They look at competitors’ advertising and create something similar in the same publication. Maybe their research has shown them that the publication is one that reaches their customer, so it makes sense. The problem is in the wording of the message and in the mistaken assumption that simply placing an ad means new customers.
Once I was hired to consult with a restaurant owned by two guys (let’s call them Joey and Nick) who had been in the business for years. They had a nice reputation in a competitive market, but business was flat. Yet they were advertising weekly, just as they always had, in the New York Times. Imagine what that cost! Each week they’d mention their great food, service, hours and occasionally a special event or holiday menu. The ad was in the middle of a bunch of other similar ads. You know I like to work with business owners on overcoming limiting patterns and developing a high level of self awareness so you know when change needs to happen. Well these guys were definitively on default setting.
When I recommended drastically changing their advertising copy, they resisted at first. But I told them to consider that they had nothing to loose, since they weren’t getting decent results anyway. We developed a small packet of cards with recipes for several of their best known dishes and offered the recipe cards to anyone responding to the ad. The ad was titled "XXX Restaurant Gives Away FREE Secret Recipes". They couldn’t believe the response! Then we got the contact information from each person who requested the recipes and asked if we could put them on our mailing list so they’d know about all of the upcoming special offers and events. Just about everyone agreed and within 6 weeks their mailing list had grown by a whopping 500%.
Next, we put together a monthly newsletter chock full of gossip, recipes, customer stories and irresistible specials dishes. The weekend after the first newsletter came out they were completely full for the first time in months. Some customers said they had forgotten how much they liked the place and that the newsletter had reminded them. I asked them to track the percentage increase in reservations compared to the previous month and the same time the previous year, since their business was affected by the season and weather. Even though that sounded like hard work to them, they followed my suggestion. That gave us a baseline that helped us calculate expected response from future advertising adventures. We also gave each customer a 2 minute survey to fill out when they paid their bill, which automatically entered them in a contest. This gave us more useful information.
It's important to note that once you choose where to place your message, how you word it will make all the difference. Research has shown that changing just a single sentence in a direct mail piece or ad can dramatically improve the response rate. If you’re on default, telling people repeatedly that you have the best customer service, the lowest price, the best product or service, or the coolest selection, what’s compelling about that? Everyone else is saying the same thing. So use your creativity and your advertising to motivate potential customers to take some simple action that will put them on your radar screen. Then start sharing what you know and showing them, in an intriguing way, how much they want or need what you have to offer. Finally, use every opportunity to learn more about them and to measure the results of your small business advertising.
Beware though, your competitors may not like it when you start nibbling away at their market share! That’s what happens when you wake up and think outside the advertising box.
How to Rope In Customers with Your Small Business Advertising - To learn more about this author, visit Janis Pettit's Website.
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It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn from the mistakes of my small business clients. I’ve made some amazing ones myself and I’ve learned from them too. Making mistakes is part of the creative process of running a small business and we’re all entitled to make some!
For instance, when it comes to spending money on any kind of small business advertising, like newspaper, magazine, flyers, brochures, Yellow Pages, etc., many business owners fall into the same trap. They look at competitors’ advertising and create something similar in the same publication. Maybe their research has shown them that the publication is one that reaches their customer, so it makes sense. The problem is in the wording of the message and in the mistaken assumption that simply placing an ad means new customers.
Once I was hired to consult with a restaurant owned by two guys (let’s call them Joey and Nick) who had been in the business for years. They had a nice reputation in a competitive market, but business was flat. Yet they were advertising weekly, just as they always had, in the New York Times. Imagine what that cost! Each week they’d mention their great food, service, hours and occasionally a special event or holiday menu. The ad was in the middle of a bunch of other similar ads. You know I like to work with business owners on overcoming limiting patterns and developing a high level of self awareness so you know when change needs to happen. Well these guys were definitively on default setting.
When I recommended drastically changing their advertising copy, they resisted at first. But I told them to consider that they had nothing to loose, since they weren’t getting decent results anyway. We developed a small packet of cards with recipes for several of their best known dishes and offered the recipe cards to anyone responding to the ad. The ad was titled "XXX Restaurant Gives Away FREE Secret Recipes". They couldn’t believe the response! Then we got the contact information from each person who requested the recipes and asked if we could put them on our mailing list so they’d know about all of the upcoming special offers and events. Just about everyone agreed and within 6 weeks their mailing list had grown by a whopping 500%.
Next, we put together a monthly newsletter chock full of gossip, recipes, customer stories and irresistible specials dishes. The weekend after the first newsletter came out they were completely full for the first time in months. Some customers said they had forgotten how much they liked the place and that the newsletter had reminded them. I asked them to track the percentage increase in reservations compared to the previous month and the same time the previous year, since their business was affected by the season and weather. Even though that sounded like hard work to them, they followed my suggestion. That gave us a baseline that helped us calculate expected response from future advertising adventures. We also gave each customer a 2 minute survey to fill out when they paid their bill, which automatically entered them in a contest. This gave us more useful information.
It's important to note that once you choose where to place your message, how you word it will make all the difference. Research has shown that changing just a single sentence in a direct mail piece or ad can dramatically improve the response rate. If you’re on default, telling people repeatedly that you have the best customer service, the lowest price, the best product or service, or the coolest selection, what’s compelling about that? Everyone else is saying the same thing. So use your creativity and your advertising to motivate potential customers to take some simple action that will put them on your radar screen. Then start sharing what you know and showing them, in an intriguing way, how much they want or need what you have to offer. Finally, use every opportunity to learn more about them and to measure the results of your small business advertising.
Beware though, your competitors may not like it when you start nibbling away at their market share! That’s what happens when you wake up and think outside the advertising box.
How to Rope In Customers with Your Small Business Advertising - To learn more about this author, visit Janis Pettit's Website.
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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John AlexanderJohn has taught keyword research and SEO skills to small groups of business owners and Webmasters from over 80 different countries world wide since 2002. John is also the Director of Search Engine Academy ; Co-director of Training at Search Engine Workshops offering live, SEO Workshops with his partner SEO educator Robin Nobles, author of the very first comprehensive online search engine marketing courses at SEO Training Online and the SEO Workshop Resource Center. I look forward to hearing from you! - Visit John Alexander's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
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