Formulas to Fail At Advertising
Now who would be interested with tips of doom? Not many. It will be perfectly normal if you will grab that mouse and click to another article.
But you are still there. Good.
Because when you think of the amount of money lost to advertisements that were supposed to be earning cash but didn’t, you have to think again and think hard before investing that money (and usually, the amount is not something that could easily be shrugged off) into something that offers hard to measure guarantee.
If you know the pitfalls to watch out however, you dramatically raise your percentages for success.
Here are some pits to guard against:
• A generic approach is all right. It targets a wider base of audience, more customers, more sales.How many times have you seen a single ball player that tackled against the whole football team and not get clobbered? Don’t count on it.
• Not offering enough benefit that could move your prospect to pick up the phone.
• Opening lines that are not powerful enough to stop your targeted customers on their tracks and give your add the attention that lasts to its conclusion. It does not have the “pull” enough to pin them down and make them look silly if they do not try it out.
• Rumbling on about everything else, (the great company backing you up, your expertise, the technological expertise, market leadership, the credentials, everything that your customer has to know about you) except what is in it for the customers.
• Image and Branding. That is what all the biggies in the industry are doing; now you have to do that too. There is no direct response vehicle because the biggies are not doing that. You don’t really know your customers. Surveys where either not done, specifics were not identified and your customers have no reason to take more interest. They don’t even remember how good the company is.
• Your advertisement lacks luster. It is just like any one of those regular ads that invites clicking to another article. The lines and art of it is not enough reason for them to act now!
• The information you convey is self-serving. It is not interesting enough because it is not interested in the customer.
• Nothing about exact figures. You don not talk of testimonials, percentages, results, nothing. In fact the ad does not have a decent copy. No information that will be enough to move your customers into parting them with their money.
• The advertisement does not really imply asking for the order. It has nothing that would help them transact a step-by-step process if they should decide to act.
• It looks and sounds like worn out lines, outdated, flat and tired. It is just an ad to make a statement across but not enough to pull them over to you. It is not a step more inviting than the rest.
• It does not resolve a specific problem or serve a specific need. There could be a perceived risk involved and the ad does not address that too.
• Your sales, administration, distribution and marketing are not one concerted effort. It has separate functions involved in its own issues.
Now that pitfalls had been identified, you will know why advertising can sometimes be a waste in much needed resources. Why ads are not getting enough responses, try hard as the advertiser do a job. This kind of advertisements fall flat on their noses. Sad thing is, sometimes advertisers do not know what hit them.
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