Are You Making These Common Small Business Advertising Mistakes?
As a copywriter, clients often ask for my advice on how to improve the results they get from their advertising. I’ll talk today about the common mistakes small businesses make when it comes to advertising and help you get a better return on your advertising investment.
Layout
Many small business ads look like a shopping list, this is the biggest mistake to avoid.
They’ll put the company name at the top instead of an attention getting headline and follow with dry copy which simply does not hold the reader’s interest. No compelling reason is given to follow up; and the ad concludes with a phone number and address.
These ads are ineffective; they don’t get prospective customers to care about your company. Your reader wants to know one thing: what’s in it for him or her.
Here’s a better layout for selling that works well in almost any situation:
You need a headline to lead in, it doesn’t have to be all that clever, just clearly state the biggest benefit of your product or service to the consumer.
Include a contact number or perhaps a coupon at the bottom right. This corner is called the “anchor point”.
Company name and address at bottom left (where the prospect will find it once they’re convinced.)
If you are using photos or illustrations, place headlines underneath them to keep your reader’s eyes moving down the page. Make your headlines and photos part of a narrative.
It’s a good idea to outline the benefits of your product or service with bullet points. Long copy is great, but it’s a lot harder to write.
How are your ads? Do they read like a shopping list, or a compelling story ending with a call to action? If the former, I know you’ll get great results from changing your formats.
Failing to Test and Track Ad Response
You should always test and track your ads. Even a slight change can generate many more sales for the same product or service. Testing and tracking can help you to cut out what isn’t working and keep what performs well.
How to Track Advertising Response
It’s very simple to track your ads. For instance, you can ask callers how they found out about your business. If you have a lot of different ads out there, you can track things with more complex methods such as the following:
Coded coupons in your ads Different coloured reply-paid postcards Different department numbers Asking your callers to mention an offer or ask for someone by name etc.
Online advertising makes things even easier. There are plenty of ad tracking tools which you can use.
One of my clients a while back tracked their advertising response rates and found that their expensive print ad campaign was bringing in almost no responses, while a nearly free flyering campaign was generating a lot of business. They were able to drop the print ads and save a lot of money while having a more effective advertising and marketing campaign.
What To Test
You should test these things in your ads:
Headlines Offers Body Copy Guarantee Price
Hint: You’ll get the greatest return by testing headlines first.
When you find something that works, stay with it until you find something better. It really isn’t hard to improve your marketing ROI if you use this approach, yet hardly anyone does it! If YOU decide to take action on this tip, you can save money, leverage your marketing budget, and put some distance between you and your competition.
Simply making your ads sell harder can boost your business massively, start by testing and tracking your ads, and consider hiring a good copywriter, a small investment in professionally written copy will makes your advertising dollars work much harder.
Not Making The Most of a Powerful Guarantee
Many small business fail to include a strong guarantee in their advertisements. This is a shame, since a powerful guarantee can mean response rates which are at least 50% higher.
Gurantees work because they remove the risk of purchase from your customer, making it easier for them to buy. When you guarantee your product or service, you’re showing confidence that it will produce the result you claim, customers respond to that.
Here’s how to use a guarantee in your ads in a way that gets responses:
1. Your guarantee should be a specific promise of performance or results.
Don’t use boilerplate phrases like “Satisfaction Guaranteed” or even “Money-Back Guaranteed”. While these are probably better than nothing, they don’t have a fraction of the effect of a specific promise like:
“If you don’t love our product, we’ll pay you to go to our competitors”
” 50% increase in traffic to your site in 60 days or your money back”
“Send $45 to [Your Company Name and Address]. If you’re not satisfied, we’ll send you back $50.”
2. Test Your Guarantee
As a copywriter and small business consultant, I spend a lot of time working with my clients to produce guarantees which get the reader’s attention. A lot of business owners worry that they will have a lot of customers taking advantage of their money back offers. If this is the case, then start small ? publish one ad with this guarantee, another without. Track your response rate and the number of returns you see. If it works for you, keep offering the guarantee.
I’ve always found that a strong guarantee generates more than enough additional sales to cover any returns or refund requests.
Also test different aspects of your guarantee (e.g. wording, time period, conditions etc.) The difference in sales generated by a 30 day and 60 day guarantee can be significant.
3. Make your guarantee highly visible
Your guarantee should be a headline; you don’t want your reader to miss it.
Think about what guarantee your business can offer customers to entice them to do business with you instead of your competition.
Filed under: Marketing