Monday, May 21, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Do They Know What You Know?
A common marketing mistake is to assume that your reader knows what you're writing about. Especially with new websites or online communities, such as LinkedIn.
An even bigger marketing mistake is to assume your reader understands the benefits of your subject. I thought about this after reading an e-mail from another company. They promote workshops that show people how to get started with and utilize LinkedIn effectively.
Through my experience and looking at other marketing materials, I've learned that you won't market yourself, products or services effectively if you assume your reader has a magical ability to read your mind and know what you mean.
As a rule of thumb, always assume that you're writing to a kid in middle school. If what you've written is clear enough for her to understand, you've probably done a good job of communicating your message.
The easier your message is to understand, the easier your job will be to sell more of your product or service.
An even bigger marketing mistake is to assume your reader understands the benefits of your subject. I thought about this after reading an e-mail from another company. They promote workshops that show people how to get started with and utilize LinkedIn effectively.
Through my experience and looking at other marketing materials, I've learned that you won't market yourself, products or services effectively if you assume your reader has a magical ability to read your mind and know what you mean.
As a rule of thumb, always assume that you're writing to a kid in middle school. If what you've written is clear enough for her to understand, you've probably done a good job of communicating your message.
The easier your message is to understand, the easier your job will be to sell more of your product or service.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Super Bowl Ads - How Not to Advertise Effectively
After watching these overrated, overhyped ads during Sunday's game, I kept shaking my head and asking this question out loud: These companies paid $2.6 million per ad for this?!
Most of the ads were trying to be funny, cute or clever, but really didn't tell why their product or service was great, or give the viewer a call to action. There was one exception: King Pharmaceuticals, who gave viewers a website to view to determine what their risk of heart-related illnesses are. Obviously, King Pharmaceuticals' goal is to make people aware of an actual (or possible) heart-related problem they may have, and buy one or more of their products to solve these problems.
It was still a little too cheesy for my taste, and didn't give the website address often enough. But given the competition it was up against, it was still better direct-response advertising than most of these idiotic ads.
Fortune 500 companies like Anheuser-Busch, Ford and others have hundreds of millions of dollars budgeted for advertising each year. Unless they want their budgets cut, these marketing departments have to spend every dime they're allocated. Most of the time, it doesn't matter if they're effective or not - ad agencies keep telling them they need to 'build their brand' by repeating these usually worthless ads over and over.
As a small or medium-sized business owner, you don't have that luxury of spending money on advertising that doesn't bring in qualified, targeted prospects who can buy your product or service today. That's why measurable direct-response advertising is the best way to market your business, and get the best return on your marketing dollar.
Most of the ads were trying to be funny, cute or clever, but really didn't tell why their product or service was great, or give the viewer a call to action. There was one exception: King Pharmaceuticals, who gave viewers a website to view to determine what their risk of heart-related illnesses are. Obviously, King Pharmaceuticals' goal is to make people aware of an actual (or possible) heart-related problem they may have, and buy one or more of their products to solve these problems.
It was still a little too cheesy for my taste, and didn't give the website address often enough. But given the competition it was up against, it was still better direct-response advertising than most of these idiotic ads.
Fortune 500 companies like Anheuser-Busch, Ford and others have hundreds of millions of dollars budgeted for advertising each year. Unless they want their budgets cut, these marketing departments have to spend every dime they're allocated. Most of the time, it doesn't matter if they're effective or not - ad agencies keep telling them they need to 'build their brand' by repeating these usually worthless ads over and over.
As a small or medium-sized business owner, you don't have that luxury of spending money on advertising that doesn't bring in qualified, targeted prospects who can buy your product or service today. That's why measurable direct-response advertising is the best way to market your business, and get the best return on your marketing dollar.
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