Small Business Marketing

2006-11-09T21:44:00.000-08:00

Good Service?
Don't kid yourself.

From my time in Glasgow over the last two years I have noticed many different in levels of service, especially in retail. I know from talking to SME owners and managers that the assumption that their commitment to Customer Service is being followed to the letter is widespread. The reality is far from it.

One example is in skate and snowboard retailers around Glasgow. I won't name names, but I've been into pretty much all the ones I could track down. The service in all but two of these stores was absolutely deplorable. These two exceptions are Clan at 45 Hyndland Street, Partick; and a newer skate shop on Park Rd Kelvingrove; Four Down.

What made these stores different? 7 things in particular:

First thing was the eye contact. The most basic form of acknowledgement.

This was followed by a friendly greeting. Seems simple enough, but it is incredibly rare. It not only helps customers feel at ease but is also a deterrent to would-be shoplifters. Eye contact, dialogue and a feeling that staff are ‘aware’ are reported to be among the most effective weapons against shoplifting.

They asked if they could help me find anything; sizes, styles etc. This didn’t occur in any other stores visited. Indeed in one store I couldn’t attract the attention of any of the four retail assistants, but the store security guard seemed intent on following my every move.

Followed though with assisting me and/or gave advice on alternatives. In the skate shop at Kelvingrove it was about larger sizes, at Clan it was about British surfboard shapers.

Their body language and tone were relaxed and natural. It was obvious that they were comfortable and even enjoyed conversing with customers.

They were genuine. I could tell they actually used the products and clothing they were selling. This made me feel like they knew what they were talking about and therefore was more inclined to follow their advice.

They gave a friendly goodbye. While you only get one chance at a first impression, having your customers leave on a good note is also very important.

I know that Clan has been around for 15 years. The floorspace of the shop isn’t huge, there are no massive neon signs and it’s tucked away on a side street in Partick. I believe excellent customer service is how it has survived and prospered. They have even been profiled on BBC.co.uk.

Without knowing it, both stores closely adhere to Disney’s ‘Seven Service Guidelines’. These are the guidelines drummed into all Disney employees upon induction; helping to push the Disney juggernaut to record profit levels.

Disney’s Seven Service Guidelines:

Make eye contact and smile.
Greet and welcome every Guest.
Seek out Guest contact.
Provide immediate service.
Display appropriate body language.
Preserve "Magical" Guest experience.
Thank each and every Guest.

Point 6 is actually Disney’s way of saying ‘Maintain the brand identity’. This means that the customer-facing staff members are communicating the same message as the president of the company, the Disney productions and media channels.

<>It is important to remember that no matter how you invest in advertising and events, it is all money wasted if your customer’s service is poor.

2006-08-06T07:19:00.000-07:00

Managing Your Suppliers:
Fostering a Healthier and more profitable relationship.

Building a mutually beneficial relationship with suppliers can be tricky, but if done right, can provide great paybacks for both sides. I've broken it down into 5 key points.

1. Determine the extent of supplier usefulness and abilities for the entire company.
Examine your vendor base and find out where people in your organization are spending money. You may find that two departments are using the same supplier but don't know it and therefore are not benefiting from collective buying power.

2.Periodically review suppliers for pricing, quality and delivery times.

Even if you only have a few vendors or already have everything on contract, periodically reviewing your vendor base is necessary. You may find that you are spending more money on certain items but not getting a fast enough delivery time, or that the quality of the product you ordered has diminished since you set up the contract. Periodic reviews also help suppliers to ensure that they are meeting all your needs.

3. Pull reports from your purchasing system to determine if there are additional areas of spending for preferred suppliers.

This activity is important when setting up contracts, renewing contracts, or as organizations grow. The more items you can get on contract with preferred suppliers, the better your purchasing power and the more you have to negotiate with for better rates.

4. Negotiate contract pricing with suppliers.

Make sure you know how much you've spent with each supplier annually and how much you may be able to commit to in coming years.

5. Negotiate vendor rebates if possible.
Once you establish contracts with some of your key suppliers, see if you can negotiate rebates such as -- your organisation pays suppliers faster (within 30 days) and they give you a 2% rebate each quarter. Success in this area will save organisations as much money as negotiating contract pricing.

2006-07-02T23:56:00.000-07:00

Positioning Statements:
Why You Need One

Without direction or focus, a business or organization often acts like a multi-headed creature -speaking from many mouths, saying nothing and going nowhere.

From a management perspective, positioning is the heartbeat of an effective communications plan. A well-crafted positioning statement defines your company's direction. It answers seven essential questions:

who you are
what business you're in
for whom (what people do you serve)
what's needed by the market you serve
against whom do you compete
what's different about your business
what unique benefit is derived from your product or services?

It's surprising how few companies exist where management is in total agreement on these basics or where the answers can even be found.

Don't confuse a positioning statement with market position. As Harry Beckwith states in his book Selling the Invisible, "A position (or statement of position) is a cold-hearted, no-nonsense statement of how you are perceived in the minds of your prospects. A positioning statement, by contrast expresses how you wish to be perceived. It is the core message you want to deliver in every medium." Don't get the two mixed-up. Remember, companies can't position themselves as anything. It's about what the market perceives them as standing for. Wishing it won't make it so.

So, how can you get your communications program on the right path? By creating a clear, defensible, differentiated positioning statement and supporting key messages to guide you and others along the way. In most organizations this takes introspection, selling and consensus-building.

Making It Happen

The following is a process for developing your company's communications direction (positioning statement) and path (key messages). The purpose of this is creating clarity, consistency and continuity in the way the organization speaks to the market. This makes all forms of communications less complex and easier to manage. Getting there takes patience, discipline, negotiation and above all an "outside-in" perspective. Because of that, a marketing or public relations agency can be of value in managing the project.

The Right Information

To start, you must have information. Recall the seven questions that a positioning statement must answer? For some reason many companies don't share business and (or) marketing plans with their PR managers. Plead, demand, beg if you must, but get a copy of these valuable documents. The answers should be in there. If business plans don't exist you've got lots more work in store.

The Right People

Enlist the right managers, those who most interested and involved in key company activities. Alert them to the need to participate in the positioning effort. These are typically the CEO, CFO, and VPs of marketing, sales and customer service. It's essential that those in key communicating roles participate in this process. You must get top management's "buy in."

The Right Thinking

Before your initial planning discussion, invest in and circulate copies of Trout and Reis' Positioning - The Battle for Your Mind to everyone in the work group. The best original work on the subject, it's a quick, inexpensive read that will help frame thinking about a very qualitative subject.

Next, outline the expected outcome and the benefits that communications consensus will bring and circulate in an e-mail or memo prior to the first meeting. The most understandable benefit is that time and money will be saved in developing communications tactics. The most strategically valuable benefit is more effective communications resulting from consistent, cohesive and differentiated messages building market awareness, thus helping achieve the company's desired position.

Generate Ideas

In the first work session (it's not just a meeting!) concentrate on uncovering issues, competitive and internal differences of opinion. Get people talking and discussing the seven key positioning questions in turn. Customer or prospect survey questionnaires can provide the outside-in perspective and realistic answers about the company's present position. Also be sure to examine and be aware of what key competitors are claiming about themselves.

An outside meeting facilitator, perhaps a senior agency person, should guide the discussion, listen and gather information. A second listener, note-taker is valuable to capture all the important ideas that tend to come rushing out.

One of the most important aspects of the positioning statement exercise is that all affected managers see and hear each other's ideas. It is only though this face-to-face process that understanding and consensus occurs. Use of marking pens and giant Post-It easel pads make collecting and displaying ideas easier. Try ensuring that every manager's ideas and thoughts are noted. Then as pages fill up, tear them off and hang them on the conference room wall for everyone to see.

Challenge Their Thinking

Remind managers that the goal is uncovering direction by defining what is real as well as management's ideal vision. This includes company and competitors' strengths, weaknesses, competitive threats, opportunities (SWOT analysis). What is being sought are reasonable and compelling supports (key messages) for a position verses competitors, not a position in a vacuum.

The hardest thing for many people to grasp is the concept of narrowing rather than broadening a company's focus. Trout and Reis' "Law of Focus" is very clear on this subject. Differentiation is essential. If management can't determine differences in the company, they need to look harder. Differentiating on price is usually a dead-end.

The desired result is a positioning statement and supporting messages that reflect today's reality and help move the company toward it's sought after, achievable, differentiated position. Remember, claiming to be "the leader" does not make it so.

Playing It Back

When the session is over, gather the noted ideas and use them to develop a summary and recommended positioning statement. The summary should focus on contrasts and similarities among ideas. Finding and incorporating competitive messages to illustrate available positions and claims is also helpful. Craft one or two positioning statements and a set of key messages (supporting statements) for consideration by the work group. Put all of this together and distribute it shortly before the second session. It is important that everyone see it before encountering each other again as a group. Hopefully, participants will come prepared with constructive ideas and intent on reaching agreement and closure.

The second session should focus on refinement and agreement on one positioning statement and a limited set of key messages. If management output has been unfiltered, then the proposed statements and messages should be close to the final product.

It's essential at this point for the session leader (agency, facilitator or marketing manager) to drive consensus and closure. Make careful note of agreements and modifications to the proposed statements and messages, again using the Post-It system. Ideally, the leader should publish the final language soon after the session ends to prevent an endless loop of iterations, changes, additions and more meetings.

Don't put the final recommendation out as an e-mail message or you'll enter a version control nightmare and perhaps never gain management team closure.

Now Alice, the path is clear

Finally, the company begins actively applying its new positioning statement to all communications (internal and external) - from marketing collateral to sales material, Web sites to press releases. This means that if communications do not support the sought-after positioning or do not include, reflect, address or amplify the positioning statement and key messages, they are off strategy and not acceptable. Fair warning, getting managers to dump large supplies of sales material isn't easy. There are options - change high-profile materials first. This process should be repeated as market conditions require, semi-annually is customary - not monthly or quarterly.

Get The Word Out

This is what's needed to initiate an effective position-driven communications program. Advertising or direct marketing personnel should also be valued in the process. Their involvement ensures that they will support and implement the positioning statement and key messages.

Now it's up to the marketing communications, public relations and advertising managers to guide and control the consistent use of the statement and key messages by all those who are communicating. That takes some more work. But the payoff is communications success.

2006-04-16T03:29:00.003-07:00

10 Tips For Long Term Client Retention

I like the '10-Point' theme from the last post, so here we go again...

Attracting and retaining long-term clients is a powerful strategy for growing your business. Long-term clients are likely to feel more satisfied, are more likely to refer others, and are more likely to purchase additional services from you. The savvy solo professional or small business owner gains big from focusing on these 10 sound strategies for long term client retention.

1) Focus your marketing on existing clients. Your current customers have already overcome certain hurdles to doing business with you and are more likely to buy from you again. Focus most of your time, efforts, and resources on better serving your current clients. Go deeper rather than wider.

2) Be consistent in your approach and interactions. Treat your clients with honesty, humor, and respect and maintain this over time. Present a consistent, solid, and professional style to your clients - one that they can grow to depend on.

3) Follow through on your commitments to them. If you promise to send information or to follow up, be sure to do this. You'd be surprised at how many professionals promise to send information, but then never do. You will gain loyalty and trust by doing what you say you will do.

4) Allow yourself to connect with them. Find out about their lives, their hopes, goals, and desired outcomes. Ask questions that encourage a deeper sense of shared understanding. The greater the level of connection, the greater the mutual satisfaction.

5) Have fun. It's easy to get caught up in goals, outcomes, deliverable and all of these are, of course, vitally important. Clients do want outcomes. Also, they want to work with people who enjoy what they do. The more fun you can have while providing strong outcomes, the longer your clients will stay.

6) Position yourself as a resource for life. I tell all my clients, at the beginning, that I want to be their coach/consultant for life. That means they can always come back to work with me no matter how much time has passed between our meetings. This strategy has worked extremely well as I often get calls from clients from four, five and six years ago - whenever they are in need of a goals tune-up. Clients appreciate knowing they can come back whenever they choose.

7) Ask for feedback and input. At some intervals within the working relationship, solicit feedback and input. Ask your clients how they feel about working with you and ask if they have suggestions for how the working relationship or outcomes can be improved. Asking for their ideas shows that you care about their opinions and value their contributions.

8) Share resources. Do you know of a good book that your client might benefit from reading? Tell him about it. Do you have the name of someone who could help your client move ahead on her
business plan? Tell her about it. Sharing resources is a terrific way to build loyalty and satisfaction.

9) Reward them for staying on. You might consider implementing some kind of loyalty or perks program, where your long-term clients are rewarded for staying on. You might offer them gifts, products, or services for a certain level of ongoing participation with your business. These work for things like coffee, office supplies, and groceries, so why not in your business, too?

10) Keep learning. The more you focus on gaining new knowledge, new skills, and new experiences, the more you have to offer your clients. The more you have to offer, the more they will benefit.
The more they benefit, the longer they stay. Keep focused on your own professional growth and learning - make this a priority. Both you - and your clients - will gain.

Implement these ten tips for client retention, and you too, will have a business that continues to grow now and thrive into the
future.

2006-04-15T09:50:00.001-07:00

Public Relations and Advertising; What's the Difference?

There are many differences between the two, but I will stick 10 main differences for now...

1. Paid Space or Free Coverage

Advertising: The company pays for ad space. You know exactly when that ad will air or be published.

Public Relations:Your job is to get free publicity for the company. From news conferences to press releases, you're focused on getting free media exposure for the company and its products/services.

2. Creative Control Vs. No Control

Advertising: Since you're paying for the space, you have creative control on what goes into that ad.

Public Relations: You have no control over how the media presents your information, if they decide to use your info at all. They're not obligated to cover your event or publish your press release just because you sent something to them.

3. Shelf Life

Advertising: Since you pay for the space, you can run your ads over and over for as long as your budget allows. An ad generally has a longer shelf life than one press release.

Public Relations: You only submit a press release about a new product once. You only submit a press release about a news conference once. The PR exposure you receive is only circulated once. An editor won't publish your same press release three or four times in their magazine.

4. Wise/Cynical Consumers

Advertising: Consumers know when they're reading an advertisement they're trying to be sold a product or service. "The consumer understands that we have paid to present our selling message to him or her, and unfortunately, the consumer often views our selling message very guardedly," Paul Flowers, president of Dallas-based Flowers & Partners, Inc., said. "After all, they know we are trying to sell them."

Public Relations: When someone reads a third-party article written about your product or views coverage of your event on TV, they're seeing something you didn't pay for with ad dollars and view it differently than they do paid advertising? "Where we can generate some sort of third-party 'endorsement' by independent media sources, we can create great credibility for our clients' products or services," Flowers said.

5. Creativity or a Nose for News

Advertising: In advertising, you get to exercise your creativity in creating new ad campaigns and materials.

Public Relations: In public relations, you have to have a nose for news and be able to generate buzz through that news. You exercise your creativity, to an extent, in the way you search for new news to release to the media.

6. In-House or Out on the Town

Advertising: If you're working at an ad agency, your main contacts are your co-workers and the agency's clients. If you buy and plan ad space on behalf of the client like Media Director Barry Lowenthal does, then you'll also interact with media sales people.

Public Relations: You interact with the media and develop a relationship with them. Your contact is not limited to in-house communications. You're in constant touch with your contacts at the print publications and broadcast media.

7. Target Audience or Hooked Editor

Advertising: You're looking for your target audience and advertising accordingly. You wouldn't advertise a women's TV network in a male-oriented sports magazine.

Public Relations: You must have an angle and hook editors to get them to use info for an article, to run a press release or to cover your event.

8. Limited or Unlimited Contact

Advertising: Some industry pros such as Account Executive Trey Sullivan have contact with the clients. Others like copywriters or graphic designers in the agency may not meet with the client at all.

Public Relations: In public relations, you are very visible to the media. PR pros aren't always called on for the good news.If there was an accident at your company, you may have to give a statement or on-camera interview to journalists. You may represent your company as a spokesperson at an event. Or you may work within community relations to show your company is actively involved in good work and is committed to the city and its citizens.

9. Special Events

Advertising: If your company sponsors an event, you wouldn't want to take out an ad giving yourself a pat on the back for being such a great company. This is where your PR department steps in.

Public Relations: If you're sponsoring an event, you can send out a press release and the media might pick it up. They may publish the information or cover the event.

10. Writing Style

Advertising: Buy this product! Act now! Call today! These are all things you can say in an advertisement. You want to use those buzz words to motivate people to buy your product.

Public Relations: You're strictly writing in a no-nonsense news format. Any blatant commercial messages in your communications are disregarded by the media.

So which do you choose? The answer is often a combination of the two. By using some PR and some advertising you can draw on the strengths of each. I am a firm believer in PR laying the ground work for advertising, for the purposes of credibility and awareness, then building on that foundation with advertising. Finding the right mix and timing of both is unique to each industry sector and each business, so make sure your Marketing Plan has a degree of flexibility so you can make minor alterations on the run.

2006-03-08T08:57:00.000-08:00

Propel your Business Forward with a Media Relations Program

At its core, a media relations campaign centers on creating relationships with the journalists, producers or editors who can tell your story to the right audiences. It can get a new product or service off to a successful start or even breathe life back into an established business that's floundering. PR coverage always has greater credibility with target audiences than advertising, so when used consistently, media relations can be an invaluable component of your company's marketing communications strategy.

Just follow these four steps to set up a media relations program for your growing business.

Step 1: Look at the Big Picture

By thinking of PR as a long-term endeavor, you can shape your campaign based on your long-range goals. With media relations, you can foster ongoing relationships that raise awareness of a product or cause, elevate your company's visibility, communicate key messages, and aid in positioning your business. Your public relations themes should be tied to your central marketing messages. In other words, focus your media relations campaign on getting coverage that hammers home the same benefits and key selling points communicated by your advertising and marketing support materials.

2. Find the Right Media

No matter your target audience, there's a form of media to reach it. Television offers everything from big budget news and talk shows to local access, plus all the specialty programming on pay TV. For example, if you've invented a new kind of concrete stain for driveways--there's an abundance of how-to shows with producers to approach about on-air demos.

There are radio shows, specialty newspapers and major dailies that provide excellent public relations opportunities. Best of all, the enormous proliferation of magazines targeting every niche market imaginable are a bonanza for small-business owners seeking coverage. Many media outlets also have highly trafficked websites with separate editorial staffs actively looking for content.

Where do your best prospects look for information on the type of product or service you market? Identify the best traditional and online media, and then put together your own list of targeted journalists, editors or producers. Your list doesn't have to be long. Just include the best media and journalists to help you achieve your PR goals.

3. Shape Your Story

Media outlets are primarily interested in stories that'll have special appeal to their unique viewers, readers or listeners, so it's critical to tailor your story to meet their specific needs. Become familiar with each of the media you target and note the types of stories or story angles they look for before contacting them. Media outlets are inundated with press releases and pitch letters--sometimes hundreds per day--and off-target or ho-hum pitches get, well, pitched.

The bottom line is the journalists and editors you pitch genuinely care about presenting the right information to their audiences. If you can get inside their heads and learn what they need most, you're golden.

4. Create Lasting Relationships

A press release--even a great one--is merely a knock at the door. It's the first step in a chain of events that, with consistent effort, will gain you the coverage you need. You can begin with a press release if you're announcing something that's new or newsworthy. Send a pitch letter instead if you're "pitching" a story idea. In some cases a "media alert" is called for to announce a specific event, such as your availability for interviews on a specific date as part of a radio media tour. Send whichever of these is appropriate for your particular message either by e-mail, postal mail or fax, depending on the preference of the media outlet. Then, follow up shortly by telephone. Don't be surprised if the journalists you contact don't recall having received your initial communication and ask you to resend it. Remember: they get inundated every single day.

Your follow-up calls are as much about listening as they are about explaining your story. Your goal should be to try to discover the long-term needs of the journalists and how you can work with and support them. Be prepared to send full press kits that include background information, any photos, copies of other coverage you've received, and information on your company to journalists who express interest in your story. But don't overload the kit--send only what's relevant.

Once you've opened the door to these new relationships, it's important to make periodic contact with fresh ideas and information. Develop your relationships over time and soon you'll find that media relations have become indispensable to building your business.

2006-02-21T22:41:00.002-08:00

Where Do I Advertise?

I'm often asked what media is the best for Small Business Owners wanting to generate interest, sales or enquries. Unfortunately theres no easy answer, so i've listed the Pro's and Con's for the 3 most commonly used mediums.

Radio Advertising

Pro’s

It goes everywhere. Ninety-five percent of all cars have radios
Radio campaigns are simple to produce and can be done in a variety of commercial lengths.
Radio is a highly personal medium.
It can help establish you as authority if you the only one in your field to use this medium.
The auditory nature of radio makes a message more easily remembered.

Con’s

Getting sufficient airtime during the prime (drive time) hours on popular stations can be expensive.
Ads are limited to what can be conversed by sound. There is no visual message.
Phone numbers and web addresses heard while driving may be forgotten.
Listeners jump from station to station.
Radio may reach to broad an audience for niche businesses.

Newspaper Advertising

Pro’s

Reaches a large audience in a single exposure.
Specific sections (Beauty, Sport, Motoring, Dining) target specific customers.
Small ads can be placed at low cost.
Has credibility and wide acceptance.

Con’s

No single newspaper will reach the entire market. Additionally, very few readers read the entire paper every day.
Many ads reduce the impact of your ad.
Deadlines restrict your flexibility.
Unlike magazines, newspapers are thrown out each day.

Magazine Advertising

Pro’s

Most magazine readers read them to find resources. Ads can be seen as news.
Most magazines cover a greater geographical area than newspapers.
Far more time is spent reading magazines than any other consumer-based print medium.
Magazines are kept, read repeatedly, and passed from person to person.

Con’s

Cost of space is usually much higher than in other print media.
Production lead time means ads must be prepared long before publication.
Ad clutter means low recall; the average magazine has close to 50% advertising.
Magazine producers usually don’t offer the creative or production assistance that most newspapers do.

So you really need to know exactly who your talking to, what your saying and what you want before you go down any of these roads. No matter what medium you use, here are some points to remember:

Choose Frequency Over Size; A smaller ad more often will leave a longer-lasting impression that a big ad, once.
Use One Message; A high response rate ad usually conveys a single message.
Be Credible; It has become human nature not to trust advertising, so your claims need to be real and credible.
Test Everything; Test only one item at a time and in one medium. If its not showing results, review the project.

2006-02-21T14:57:00.000-08:00

In-Store Promotions

The term ‘In-Store Promotion' usually conjures up images of poorly photocopied fliers on coloured paper or an expensive exercise in misguided charity. All in-store promotions that fail do so because of one, or all, of the following reasons:

1. Lack of Clearly Defined Goals

If you don't know precisely what you want, you can't take steps to achieve it. If you just want to create interest, you could use it to gather information about your customers for your mailing list or perhaps measure customer satisfaction.

2. Poor Planning

Once you have defined your goal it is imperative to devise a plan and stick to it. Make sure it is easy for your customer to enter. This means having enough entry forms, pens, terms and conditions and an accompanying poster (A4 size minimum) that gives the important details and makes your customers really want to enter. The prize you offer should correlate to your customer's demographic. A new, premium product or service from your own range is ideal, but you can also do a lot with bartering goods and services with other business.

3. Poor Execution

As mentioned earlier, poorly photocopied flyers (even when printed on pastel-coloured paper) won't do. How your in-store promotion is presented directly reflects upon the quality of the prize and your own business. Quality need not be expensive. Earlier this year I provided a client with entry forms that were printed like a postcard, full colour promotion on one side, black and white questionnaire on the other. We went with postcards because they're less likely to be lost as is the case with paper. These postcards came to 4c each. Even if they had photocopied four forms per A4 page, spending valuable time at the copy-shop then trimming them all, they would still have been out of pocket.

If you set your goals, plan and execute your promotion successfully you will realise that your small investment has more than paid for itself. You will have an expanded knowledge of your customer base and in-turn a business that better caters to their needs.

Gene Munro

2006-02-21T14:52:00.000-08:00

Get a Better Response from Print Ads

As a small business owner you face keen competition for the eyes and minds of your target audience. As much as you are convinced that your product is the most important thing in the world, remember that readers likely feel otherwise. That's your challenge, and it's by no means a small one! Here are some tips that will increase your likelihood of succeeding.

Establish the Objective

You need to understand what your objective is before putting words and images on a page.

Are you trying to sell the total company image or to sell a specific product or service?
Is this a new product that you are rolling out and introducing, or an established one that's known to most of your audience?
Is it an impulse item or a capital purchase?
Are you trying to get the reader to take a specific action (“call within the next 30 minutes and you'll get a steak knife set too!”)
Or simply to reinforce your brand or image in the mind of the reader (“Just do it.”)?

Unless you have a specific objective based on your particular situation, you will end up with a hodge-podge. Your objective will serve as your focal point – something that you can reference at all stages of creative development.

Present One Central Proposition

Once you've established the objective, stick to it and resist the temptation to introduce other points and concepts.
Avoid cluttering up your message (or the page) with additional information that isn't germane to the objective. Your reader is continuously being bombarded with advertising messages; by diluting yours, your ad runs a bigger risk of being one of the forgotten.
Consider the lost opportunity created when your headline does its job of getting a reader's attention, but the text is only casually devoted to the topic called out in the headline.
The reader that you had pulled in with your headline has now been hit with a bunch of unrelated messages -- a history of the company, a picture of the manufacturing plant, a discussion of other products in the line -- a print ad version of bait and switch.

The reader will inevitably turn the page.

Support the Basic Proposition with All Elements of the Ad

Since the ad must support a central proposition, then all elements within the ad must support that proposition.
For example, how many times have you come across ads where the goal of the ad is to help introduce a new widget, but the illustration is of a kid playing baseball, a puppy, or a woman on the beach — visuals which have absolutely nothing to do with the new widget.

While the illustration might have been a means of getting the attention of the reader – an obviously necessary function – this particular approach usually is viewed as nothing more than a cheap gimmick.
Go back to the premise that you only have a couple of seconds to reel in your reader. You'll be more successful if all of the images and words you present are consistently touting and presenting the same basic idea.

Sell the Merits of the Product or Service

Why on earth should I waste my time reading your ad?
What's in it for me?
What will this product do for me and/or how will it improve my life?

These are the questions that readers are subconsciously asking themselves as they see your ad. So, let's say that you've put out a compelling headline (“Cut Your Production Time by 20%”) and have a visual that supports the headline (a new piece of machinery, for example).
Now you need to answer the reader's questions. Support the headline and visuals with text that reinforce the message — figures, statistics, and comparisons.
Document your claims where possible to build credibility with your readers, and speak in terms that readers will understand.

Emphasize Benefits, not Facts

In most cases, facts are of little interest to readers – moreover, they are of less use to them. Statements such as “Family owned,” and “Serving customers for 50 years,” are simply facts that are focused more on the seller than the buyer. The statements are often self-serving and a turn-off to potential customers. After all, how often does a customer benefit because your company is “family owned”?
Instead of simply offering facts, use your ad to offer a dynamic explanation of what your product can do for the reader.

Design the Overall Ad for Easy Reading

Be sure to use simple and specific language.

Try to solve your reader's problem or offer helpful ideas. Call your readers to action – and give them the essential information needed to act. By aligning your call to action with the ad's objective (Call now to discuss your application/ Check-out out Web site for a free trial), you can help facilitate your ad's success.

There are at least a couple of factors that often contribute to “unreadable” ads. The first is the desire to get the most for your money. This results in a creative that, visually speaking, looks more like an article than a well-crafted ad. The phrase “less is more” should usually be heeded.

There are numerous techniques that may “look” great, but which typically detract from a readers' ability to read and understand the intended message. For example, dark backgrounds, small headlines, difficult-to-read fonts, numerous unrelated photos/images.

Repeat a Successful Ad -- Drop an Unsuccessful Ad

Stay with a winner.

A well-designed ad will not wear out as fast as many advertisers think it will. We have research showing that readers' interest ratings for an ad can remain consistently high for up to 7 insertions.
But seven is no magic number; continue to run the ad until the reader tires of the message, not until you do. Although it's tempting to confuse your boredom with the ad, with the boredom of your readers, resist.

Repetition reinforces the message that achieves your objectives, and frequency reinforces basic selling propositions. Although, repetition is not a contributor to the ad's overall effectiveness, it can contribute to long-term campaign success.
Alternately, an ineffective ad will not improve with repetition; if it's not working for you, get rid of it — regardless of it's artistic beauty or how much time and effort was put into it.

Don't Blame Ad Placement for Poor Performance

Our data consistently shows that a “good” ad is determined by what is on the page.
While this seems to be overstating the obvious, there are still myths that placement the most important element of on ad's performance.
By focusing entirely on ad position, we lose sight of the importance of ad design. It is what is on the page that will prompt a reader to read an ad once it has been seen.

In Conclusion

Obviously, all of the rules listed can be broken, and each has exceptions.
There is little doubt that the best way to create an effective ad is to present one key idea in a manner which is easy to read and understand, that speaks to the needs and interests of your target audience and is supported by the headline, illustration, and text.

Gene Munro