How To Create Marketing & Adverts That Actually Sell?—?Lessons From A TV Ad
I am going to say it…..Brand Awareness Ads Are BS! And I am going to also tell you…Don’t Copy What The Big Brands Are Doing!
Today I am going to share with you an example of great direct response marketing that ALL businesses should pay attention too!
As a small business owner investing your marketing budget can be quite scary. By the way you have a marketing budget right? Don’t be the person that says they can’t afford to do marketing.
Let me start by saying I am slightly weird… I know that. On flights I flick through the magazines looking at the ads, when the TV is on I am paying attention to the ads. I am always on the look out for great ads.
In fact if my mother in law says she has bought something she saw on tv or Facebook I am normally straight on there to see their marketing.
Big brands spend millions on tv advertising, so why would I tell you NOT to do what they are doing? You would think they would be excellent at them right?
I have no issue with people spending millions on TV ads, IF they can show how many new sales that brought them in. However, most of the big companies pour money into tv ads with NO way of being able to track if it actually made them more sales.
That’s not good for any business. It might be a funny ad, or an emotional ad but unless it gets people to buy your product, what’s the point? And unless you know… we made ￡xxx from that ad, how do you know whether you should run it again or not?
And yet everyday companies are pouring money into tv ads, print ads, radio ads, and all kinds of other marketing channels with NO WAY of being able to measure the return on their investment.
Then when quizzed on how their marketing is doing, the guy who is responsible for it, says something a long the lines of… “its good for brand awareness”… to which their bosses must nod their head and go, yup that seems like a good response and they keep their job.
What a load of rubbish!
Now I am not saying that brand awareness is a bad thing, not at all, we want people to know your brand. But we don’t just want them to know you exist. We want them to BUY from you!
Then every now and again I see a beautiful ad. Well actually beautiful to me. Lots of people, especially designers would look at these ads and cringe. The pages have lots of copy on them, the logo is the smallest thing on the page (thats ok), and various other design “issues”.
The other day while watching the ads on tv… appears an ad from ProActiv, and I am LIKE YES!!!!! This is AWESOME!!
Real direct response marketing in a tv ad!
There is so much to learn from this but here are a couple of key points that will help you with your marketing….
Here is an example, now this isn’t the one I saw on tv, but it will do for today’s example…
So what do they do in this ad that makes it so good? And what can you, the small business owner or marketer learn from it?
Build The Problem
First of all…. Look how they start the ad… 20,000 pores! They are educating you about a problem you didn’t even knew you had. Immediately you’re listening.
Provide A Solution
Then they provide the solution to a now major problem in your life, that you didn’t know you had 20 seconds ago. The solution — Proactiv, obviously.
Social Proof
Proactiv have used celebrity endorsements for years, they had Justin Beiber, Katy Perry and loads more. This is immediate social proof. Immediately it makes your mind think, well if they use, and they have had good results, I can too.
Now you may thinking, Chris, that’s great but I can’t afford to get a celebrity endorsement. But (a), you may be wrong about that, and (b) it doesn’t have to be celebrities.
Social proof is all about your ideal customers seeing your ad and going… thats like me. If they got results, maybe I can too!
You can do through your current customers and clients, through their stories.
There a thousands of influencers out there right now, people that have thousands, millions of followers on social media and they are excited to be approached by companies to promote their brand. They may not be a movie star, but they have SERIOUS REACH and ENGAGEMENT!
If there is an influencer talking to your ideal customers everyday, then get your product in their hands. How? Did you try messaging them?
Strong Call To Action
People need to be told what to do. You have just got them excited in your ad, tell them what to do next, tell them where to go. A STRONG call to action is key! Look at the Proactiv ad again, the website is on the screen the whole time!
The goal of the ad is to get people to visit their website….
By the way, in the ad I saw I am sure, there was a special tv offer, its probably not on youtube as they don’t want people seeing the ad from youtube and using the TV code.
On The Website…
When you get to the website the flow is amazing…
It’s the same celeb that’s in their current marketing, so you immediately recognise it as the right place.
And the journey you go on when on their website, the funnel, the buying process is BEAUTIFUL! I’ll save that for another day but I highly recommend you go and study it!
In summary, don’t put out ads that you can’t track the results of.
And also… for anyone who is going to are still going to respond saying yeh but the big brands do “Brand awareness”….
You don’t think that ad from Proactiv gets brand awareness? Of course it does!
That’s great brand awareness and a sh*t ton of sales at the same time. And then when they see those sales pouring in from that source, do you know what they can do?
That guy in marketing can now say to his boss…. “This is really working, let’s double up on this avenue”… he dramatically increases the company’s revenues and everyone goes home happy.
Brand awareness AND sales!
As a small business, all your marketing should be driving sales!
Take a look at your ads, your landing pages, make sure they incorporate the things Proactiv include in their campaigns, and I know you will see an increase in your sales too.