Ways to Make Your Advertising More Effective – Part 4 – Target

February 23, 2014 in Blog, Video

Advertising is expensive. You don’t want to
In this six part series, we’ll be talking about how to make your advertising more effective. Make sure to check out the other posts in the series to get the big picture!


effective advertising

Advertising is expensive. You don’t want to
In this six part series, we’ll be talking about how to make your advertising more effective. Make sure to check out the other posts in the series to get the big picture!

Very similar to last week’s article on relevance is targeting. To be honest, KNOW YOUR TARGET should be the first rule of advertising for anyone. Who are you trying to reach?

Defining your target is very important! Take some time to think of who your customer should be.

Here’s a chapter from my upcoming book – GORILLA MARKETING

We’ve been talking about gorillas. Let’s talk about rhinoceros for a moment. I’ve read that rhinos can run more than 35 miles per hour. I’ve also read that these magnificent beasts can also only see about 30 feet in front of them.

When you consider the sheer power and strength of a rhinoceros traveling at full speed, it’s no wonder that a group of rhinos is not called a “crash”.

As I speak with business owners, I’m often surprised at how many of them do not have a clue what they are shooting at! Sometimes they don’t know who their current customer base is. Sometimes, they know who they WANT to reach, but have no idea how to reach them!

They’re running like a rhinoceros – full steam ahead, running faster than their eyesight will allow!

When businesses run full steam ahead without a clear target, and without clear vision – there’s bound to be a disaster!

I grew up shooting firearms for recreation with my father. Occasionally, you’ve got to make adjustments to rifle sight to make sure the gun is in alignment. You start by aiming at the center of the bulls-eye, and then looking to see how close to that target you hit. If a gun sight is out of alignment, you can tell how to adjust that sight to be make the shooting more accurate.

When defining your target – the first thing you need to evaluate is :
WHAT ARE YOU HITTING?

Who are your current clients/customers? How did they find you?

If you don’t know this – the first thing you need to do is to start asking questions.

Have you ever been asked for your zip code during checkout at a store? Have you ever noticed a “How did you hear about us?” question while filling out a web-form?

Before you can determine who you want to reach – you need to figure out who you are reaching. And you’ve got to have some way to measure and track this information.

1. Train your Staff people to ask every customer how they heard about your business. Start tracking (on paper) what medium referred them. In fact, make this a priority by re-vamping job descriptions to include tracking responsibilities for every staff person. Reward staff members who do it well, and reprimand staff who neglect this.

2. Start a Customer Database. Some businesses get customer information automatically, others have to be creative to find ways to collect the data.

If your organization collects contact information and data on your clients – be sure to study and weigh that information to determine more insight into your clients.

If you are not set up to gather basic demographic information – offer a gift certificate or a prize, and require their information to win.

Again – studying who your clients are will give you a good idea of who your target should be. It’s LESS expensive to try to reach the type of people that you are attracting than it is to re-tool your entire business to reach a different demographic. (You may find that you need to change your methods, or reach a different demographic, but do so after carefully weighing the costs)

Once you get a good idea of who your current client base is, and you determine whether or not you need to expand that target, then it’s time to
WRITE DOWN YOUR TARGET.

I know I emphasize writing things down a lot. There’s a reason. It has been proven that people that have written goals are 90 percent more likely to accomplish them. I suggest Printing out a target – and writing your target clients across the bulls-eye. Then hang that on the wall next to the place that you do your marketing work.

Your target might be 19-35 year old men who are interested in sporting goods.

Your target may be – low-income families and elderly people living within walking distance of your grocery store.

Write that target out – and make it a visual.

Once you know who and what your target is –
ASK QUESTIONS OF PEOPLE THAT FALL WITHIN YOUR TARGET.
Find out what values they share. Research their spending habits. What styles of music, clothing, and design seem to consistently represent them? Put together surveys, or ask them personally if the advertising campaign you have in mind would get their attention or persuade them to buy.

We live in a culture built from tribes – many sub-cultures with varied tastes and appetites and needs. You may have country music loving rural people. You might have tattooed and pierced younger adults. You might be reaching athletic teenagers. Your market could be saturated with single career moms. Your target may encompass a few varied “tribes” with a diverse set of interests and characteristics.

It’s up to you (or your marketing person) to determine what “language” you need to use to connect with the tribe or tribes in your target audience.

Need to make YOUR advertising more effective? Need some help with design, copywriting or strategy?
I can help you out! Shoot me a message, and let me know how I can help!

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Ways to Make Your Advertising More Effective – Part 3 – Relevance

February 17, 2014 in Blog, Video

Advertising is expensive. You don’t want to
In this six part series, we’ll be talking about how to make your advertising more effective. Make sure to check out the other posts in the series to get the big picture!

effective advertising

Advertising is expensive. You don’t want to
In this six part series, we’ll be talking about how to make your advertising more effective. Make sure to check out the other posts in the series to get the big picture!

Relevance can mean a lot of things – but the most important thing I’m talking about is – does your ad fit within the context?

If you live in a mostly white rural community, and your advertising features an ethnic model – does it make sense? (it MAY – depending on what you are advertising)

Does your ad speak to a need?

Is your ad in the type of media that will get it noticed?

Your advertising dollars are not necessarily best spent by the people that come knocking on your door or calling you on the phone! Make sure that you are getting your ad in the right venue, and that it’s going to get right REACH for your dollars.

If you are running radio or tv ads, are they at a time when people are listening/watching? Are they interesting enough to get people to listen/watch? Why is their station the right choice for you?

Make sure to ask these questions, and compare options before coughing up cash for exposure.

Need to make YOUR advertising more effective? Need some help with design, copywriting or strategy?
I can help you out! Shoot me a message, and let me know how I can help!

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Ways to Make Your Advertising More Effective – Part 2 – Good Design

February 10, 2014 in Blog, Video

Advertising is expensive. You don’t want to
In this six part series, we’ll be talking about how to make your advertising more effective. Make sure to check out the other posts in the series to get the big picture!

effective advertisingLet me just say, that as a graphic designer by trade, I know I’m going to sound like I’m a bit self-serving, but I know this is true. Whenever possible, pay a designer, and trust him/her to do the job. Tell them what you want, as clearly as possible, and then trust them to come up with it. Make sure to ask for design samples first, and if you really want to get more out of them, send them examples of ads that you like.
That being said, I’ll write the rest of this article assuming that you’re going to do your own design.

I can’t teach you everything you need to know to become a professional. But I can tell you a few tips.

1. Keep it readable.
Don’t make your fonts too small, don’t make your backgrounds too dark, or to light. Make sure that you can read your ad very easily. If they can’t read it, it doesn’t do you any good.
Negative type (white text on a black background) is acceptable in some circumstances, but try to avoid it, especially with small body text, as it can be hard to read.
LESS CONTENT that is readable is better than MORE CONTENT that is too small or crammed to read.

2. Typography
Again, keep it readable. Some fonts, especially cursives and scripts can be hard on the eyes or hard to make out. Make sure that you pick a typeface that is easy to read.

At the same time, if you can pick typefaces that are not overused, you’ll be better off.
AVOID
1. Arial
2. Times New Roman
3. Papyrus
4. Comic Sans

If you want to get some fresh fonts, try these sites:
http://www.dafont.com
http://webdesignledger.com/freebies/20-new-high-quality-fonts-for-your-designs

Another quick typography rule. Be careful when mixing fonts. Sometimes, people can look at a design, and know it doesn’t look professional, but they don’t know why. One of the things that cheapens design is inappropriately mixing font types.

A SERIF font is a font that has the little lines at the end. (Times New Roman)
A SANS SERIF font is one that does not have the lines at the end. (Arial)

If your HEADLINE is a SANS SERIF font – all of the body text beneath it must be SANS SERIF. You can use different fonts, but make sure they are in the same family.

If your HEADLINE is in a SERIF font – you ARE allowed to use sans-serif beneath it.

It’s a silly little rule, and it’s hard to explain, but you’ll know it when you see it. There are times when it’s acceptable to break the rule…. But you should assume that you shouldn’t.

3. Photos / Pictures / Graphics

-Do NOT use clip art from MS Office. This does not make good design.
-Do not just google image search and grab an image. This could saddle you with a cease and desist letter and a huge bill to pay from the person who sourced the image. With Google’s “search by image” feature – it’s a lot easier to get caught. Learn how to use the “advanced” search feature in google, how to search by liscence, or look for free stock photo websites like Morguefile
-If you need to resize your image, PLEASE drag it from the corners, while holding the shift key. This makes sure that the aspect ratio of the image stays locked. If not – you make skinny things get fatter, or short things get taller, and it looks cheap. Please, for the sake of designers like me who cringe everytime we see it, resize your images properly!
Need to make YOUR advertising more effective? Need some help with copywriting?
I can help you out! Shoot me a message, and let me know how I can help!

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