You Never Know

Appell Pie Oct. 2016

You Never Know 

Trying to figure out how advertising works has always been a challenge to the client and I think to the ad agencies as well. I recently heard someone say that they could only justify half of what they spent on advertising, the half that worked! In my opinion all advertising works but the success of the ad takes many forms.

If you are bringing a new product to the market, nobody knows about it, so the targeted consumers that see the ad on television, hear it on radio or see it in a magazine or newspaper and yes even online are now made aware of the product or service. Do they understand it after seeing it one time? Will they run right out and buy it based on one ad, unlikely. Be patient and be consistent.

If you are selling a service like accounting or insurance you have to be prepared to run with your ad in a marathon of time and not expect to be rewarded in a sprint. You need time for your potential customer to see the advertisement and wait for his current provider to do something to cause the customer to search for another service provider. When this event happens your ad will be in the forefront of their minds.

If you sell restaurant equipment for example your customers don’t need to buy a new ten burner range every week but when a range, fryer or ice machine stops working on a Saturday night, the search begins immediately and the equipment dealer that is most visible gets the sale.

One of our clients is an Auctioneer who advertises in our printed edition and also utilizes our Eblast program. Recently he advertised an auction sale at a business that should have been advertising but foolishly didn’t see the benefit. End result, they ended up advertising their Going Out of Business Sale. You can’t expect people to beat a path to your door if they don’t know where you are.

A Consultant who uses his systems to increase sales in bars and restaurants recently ran a series of Eblasts with us. We selected a day, Tuesday and time of 10:30 AM. At 11:10 AM the same day I received an email from our client thanking us for the sale he just closed from the ad. His message was convincing and our audience had a need for his services.

Are the advertising dollars working for you? I can answer that question in one word, yes. Don’t evaluate your advertising success with one ad. Look at it as an investment over a year. See how many sales you get and weigh it against how much you spent. One guideline to follow is if you are selling a low priced widget with a long life expectancy, don’t buy a full page ad and expect your sales to cover the advertising cost. Reduce the size of the ad and run the campaign over a longer period of time. Remember, you never know how advertising works until you make the sale.

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