The Big Small Business Advertising Mistake
The Big Small Business Advertising Mistake
I asked what they were doing in their marketing to attract clients and she replied that they did a lot of advertising.
I then asked her if she had read chapter 13 in the Marketing Bible titled, "13 Elements of a Winning Small Business Advertisement." She admitted that she hadn't paid much attention to that chapter.
Well, I don't normally do much one-to-one consulting anymore, but I told her to send me her ad and I would take a look at it.
The "Business Card" Ad
When I received the ad I chuckled because it was so typical of nearly every small business advertisement that comes across my desk.
The ad looked like an oversized business card.
Most small business advertisements are simply a glorified version of their own business card. It had their company name, a little about what they did, the owners name, and their address and phone number.
What a colossal waste of ad dollars!
The Number One Advertising Design Mistake
The very first thing you should do when designing your ad is.....
...Determine Your Primary Objective.
This is the biggest mistake I come across when I do ad critiques. You see, once you determine what your objective is, then you simply design everything in your ad to meet that objective.
It doesn't matter if you're designing an ad for a newspaper, magazine, the radio, or the internet. The first thing you should do is decide what you want your reader to do.
What Is Your Objective?
Is the objective of your ad to...
1. Get a phone call?
2. Drive prospects to your physical location?
3. Drive visitors to your website?
4. Get prospects to fax back a form?
5. Create a memorable image in your prospects mind?
Each of these objectives would require a unique and different ad design.
The Before and After Picture
I promised you something very valuable at the beginning of this article. Normally, I charge around $1,700 for an ad design. Today you'll get the benefit of seeing my redesigned ad for free.
If you click the link below you'll see the "before" and "after" picture of the ad that was sent to me and the redesigned ad that I did for my customer.
When you look at these before and after ads ask yourself if you can see the importance of knowing the primary objective of your ad.
Ad-Before-After
I hope this example helps you in designing your next successful small business advertisement.
The Big Small Business Advertising Mistake - To learn more about this author, visit David Frey's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
A few weeks ago I had a customer, who had purchased the Small Business Marketing Bible, email me to tell me that they were having trouble attracting new customers to their insurance agency.
I asked what they were doing in their marketing to attract clients and she replied that they did a lot of advertising.
I then asked her if she had read chapter 13 in the Marketing Bible titled, "13 Elements of a Winning Small Business Advertisement." She admitted that she hadn't paid much attention to that chapter.
Well, I don't normally do much one-to-one consulting anymore, but I told her to send me her ad and I would take a look at it.
The "Business Card" Ad
When I received the ad I chuckled because it was so typical of nearly every small business advertisement that comes across my desk.
The ad looked like an oversized business card.
Most small business advertisements are simply a glorified version of their own business card. It had their company name, a little about what they did, the owners name, and their address and phone number.
What a colossal waste of ad dollars!
The Number One Advertising Design Mistake
The very first thing you should do when designing your ad is.....
...Determine Your Primary Objective.
This is the biggest mistake I come across when I do ad critiques. You see, once you determine what your objective is, then you simply design everything in your ad to meet that objective.
It doesn't matter if you're designing an ad for a newspaper, magazine, the radio, or the internet. The first thing you should do is decide what you want your reader to do.
What Is Your Objective?
Is the objective of your ad to...
1. Get a phone call?
2. Drive prospects to your physical location?
3. Drive visitors to your website?
4. Get prospects to fax back a form?
5. Create a memorable image in your prospects mind?
Each of these objectives would require a unique and different ad design.
The Before and After Picture
I promised you something very valuable at the beginning of this article. Normally, I charge around $1,700 for an ad design. Today you'll get the benefit of seeing my redesigned ad for free.
If you click the link below you'll see the "before" and "after" picture of the ad that was sent to me and the redesigned ad that I did for my customer.
When you look at these before and after ads ask yourself if you can see the importance of knowing the primary objective of your ad.
Ad-Before-After
I hope this example helps you in designing your next successful small business advertisement.
The Big Small Business Advertising Mistake - To learn more about this author, visit David Frey's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
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 |
|||
Casey GollanCasey Gollan, Business Coaching & Mentoring Programs. Add $1 Million to $10 Million in the next 1 to 3 years. Since 1996 Casey has to added hundreds of millions of dollars to businesses. Watch a free video see client results Business Coaching website. - Visit Casey Gollan's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to David's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | |||||||
|
 | ||
 |
||
 |
||
|
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
|
 EQ Coaching Report Learn From Success How To Win New Business Termination Suit Write Marketing Plan |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Franchising Blogs
Top 50 Franchising Blogs | |
 |
Top 50 Debt Blogs
Learn To Get Out Of Debt | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
