Advertising Done the Right Way Makes All the Difference

Lately, watching the Super Bowl has become more about watching the ads than the game. Let me ask you something — do you remember the first big play of the game?

I’ll refresh your memory.

It was the first quarter, 6 and a half minutes left on the clock.

The Broncos took the ball from Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Deep in Panthers territory, Von Miller, the star defense of the Broncos, caused the fumble, allowing his teammates to fall on the loose football in the end zone, scoring the touchdown that would give them a 10 – 0 lead.

I had to look it up.

But what about Heinz releasing the hounds in their Meet the Ketchups ad? I still keep watching the cute wiener dog stampede in my mind.

Or the top ad according to the USA Today Ad Meter, Hyundai’s First Date? I always find myself singing to the catchy Queen song.

Advertising is all about marketing your business so you stay, at least, in the back of your audience’s mind. Just like those ads have stayed with us more than the game itself, your brand will be there when people need you.

You have the business, you have the product — it’s hot, it’s now, it’s wow! But how can your potential customers know that?

No one is going to know about your product unless you tell them about it

Until a customer deals with your business directly, advertising is a way to help your audience create a first impression of you and your brand. If done correctly, it will lead to increased sales, and you know what that means … higher revenue, bigger success, and you being happy. But I said, “if advertising is done correctly,” and this sometimes proves to be a big “if”.

A successful ad campaign takes planning, time, and persistence. Planning ahead makes sure that your ad works best and costs the least. Persistence pays off. The success of advertising continues to improve over time, as the U.S. Small Business Administration states: “You must repeatedly remind prospects and customers about the benefits of doing business with you. The long-term effort triggers recognition and helps special offers or direct marketing payoff.”

Advertising is a method of marketing your business with the goal of attracting and keeping the largest possible base of satisfied customers. Still, as good as advertising sounds, it is not a miracle cure. It will never be able to substitute for exceptional customer service, nor it will help sell useless or unpopular products or services.

What ads can do for you is offer your contact information and remind your audience about the benefits of choosing you over the competition.

When someone looks for the product or service that you offer and they have seen your ad, guess who will come first to their mind?

It will help you set up and maintain your brand as well as enhance your reputation. With advertising, you can attract new customers, thus increasing sales, as well as encourage the regulars to stay with your business by showcasing your product innovations and improvements and handing out special offers. Those are just some of the many benefits that advertising can offer you.

And that’s why 8 Signal is here for you, ready to be your new marketing department. 8 Signal can help you with your advertising needs so you can focus on keeping your customers happy with your stellar customer service and get them to come back for more of that unique product or service. We want you to feel the same way as Tommy Tinajero, Marketing Director at Responsive Learning:

“Since we started working with 8 Signal, there’s been a definite growth in the number of people who are paying attention to us and the people we are reaching has grown.”

To recap, when you’re deciding to implement an ad campaign, your main goal — and ours when designing your strategy — is to attract and keep customers, so here are some quick tips you should keep in mind.

Have Good Advertising Copy

This is the main text of your promotional material. The target of ad copy is catching and holding the interest of your audience, as well as persuading the public to buy your product or hire your service. An ideal ad copy is based on consumer research and composed by professional copywriters.

Effective advertising grabs your audience’s attention, and quickly and clearly explains what your business is all about. It should make your audience feel confident about your product or brand.

For example, take this vintage ad for the Volkswagen Beetle: simplicity and copywriting at its finest. We see the car, boldly captioned “Lemon.”

But this campaign was far from being a lemon. The ad copy starts by saying “The chrome strip on the glove compartment is blemished and must be replaced. Chances are you wouldn’t have noticed it; Inspector Kurt Kroner did.”

The rest of the ad goes on to tell that there were more than 3000 people inspecting Volkswagens at every stage of production, and shows how this obsession with detail made the VW the best option for a car. “We pluck the lemons; you get the plums.”

Whether the ad is just informative, or (ideally) persuasive, the copy should always have the promise of a benefit to the customer if she or he chooses you over the competition.

Aim for persuasive advertising: you want to get an action or reaction from your audience. Whether it is to visit your store or website, learn more about what you offer, or actually make a purchase, your copy should always include a call to action.

Why Should Someone Choose You Over the Competition?

This could be a scary question. We might have heard similar questions through our lives:

“Why should we choose you for the scholarship?”

“Why should we hire you over the other candidates?”

Understanding why you’re the best choice is essential when crafting your ad message. Successful advertising demands timely and relevant information obtained through in-depth market research. Learning about your customers, competitors, and your overall industry will help you reduce risks and spot current or upcoming issues and prevent them, as well as aid you in identifying sales opportunities.

What do Your Customers Look for?

Some of the details your potential customers notice the most in an ad are:

Image

As the saying goes, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” The image of your business is the impression that comes to mind when people hear your company’s name, and it resonates with your customers’ tastes and desires. Entrepreneur.com says something we can all agree with: “The key to having an image you can grow with is to match it to your target market.”

Brand’s character

Just as we all have different personality styles, businesses have their own personalities too. This is how your brand communicates with the world, and it can take a life of its own. Your brand’s character stands for the core values that your business represents. The most successful brands know how to shape their brand character to appeal to their audience.

Convenience

We as customers are always looking for the most convenient way of shopping. That means making your business accessible, even if it is not exactly convenient to you. This goes for everything from the location of your business, parking, and hours of service, all the way to the ambience in your business, whether it is an office, brick-and-mortar store, or even your website.

Customer Service, Meet Advertising

Consumers are smarter than ever, and they want and expect to be appreciated. An effective advertising campaign is able to set expectations, which is essential for a great experience.

Your potential customers search for you online and compare you with others in your industry. Still, consumers prefer recommendations by their friends and peers, as well as what they find on social media and online reviews. This is known as referral marketing, a method of promoting your business through referrals, usually meaning word-of-mouth. It often happens spontaneously but we’re able to influence it through exceptional customer service and the appropriate strategies.

Uniqueness

At the risk of stating the obvious, expressing individuality will make you stand out from the competition. There are few ways of attracting customers other than by offering them something they can’t get anywhere else. Be it your unique product or outstanding service, make sure you showcase what makes you different from the rest.

Price

One of the first thing a customer looks at is the price tag. When it comes down to getting maximum revenue, the right price is critical. Usually, higher prices mean a lower sales volume, and vice-versa. Small businesses can have higher price tags because of the personalized customer service, but make sure it is within a reasonable range. You should always provide other benefits that go beyond just the cost.

Choose the Right Channel

If you’ve been following us on social media, well, thank you! If not, you’re missing out. We talked about, and shared articles on how to get your lead generation engine ramped up — it all starts with picking the right channel. The helpful guys at Duct Tape Marketing showed us a quick rundown of various channels to choose from — there are at least 16!

The list is big, but we’ve condensed it just for you. Here are the 3 marketing channels that work for everyone:

Google AdWords

What CAN’T you do with Google AdWords? It helps you attract more customers, reach the right people at the right place and time, and lets you choose whether to advertise locally, close to your business, or globally. The best thing about AdWords is you only pay for results. That is what PPC (Pay-Per-Click) means: you only pay when someone clicks on your ad and lands at your website.

Email

Email marketing is one of the cornerstones of 8 Signal’s success. It is the #1 choice for marketers around the world. A couple of reasons why it is the top choice include its incredible 3900% return on investment and the predictions that by the end of 2016 there will be approximately 5.5 billion email accounts worldwide. Research shows that even new channels have not been able to affect the efficiency of the email; it is the channel with the lowest costs-per-lead.

Social Media

Second to email in the lowest costs-per-lead, comes social media. It is part of the referral world and social media has given word-of-mouth advertising tremendous power. Social networks have shifted the power to the people: your customers. They choose and share what they like, and more importantly what they don’t like.

Forbes.com says it better than anyone: “Disappoint a customer, and hundreds of people may know about it in minutes. Blow them away with great service, and they will sing your praises to their extensive networks.”

Outsmart, Not Outspend

When it comes to allocating your hard-earned money into an advertising budget, 8 Signal firmly believes you can outsmart, not outspend the competition. You obviously want to get the most bang for your buck.

Everything from packaging design, sales promotions, positioning and message strategies, to media planning and buying, is a way to make your ad money take you further than your competitors. Give us a call at (915) 585-1919 or visit our website for all your marketing needs.

Images courtesy of: JeepersMedia, Inniebear, minorissues, Search Engine People Blog.