“Advertising is what you do when you can’t go see somebody. That’s all it is.”
Fairfax Cone (1963)
“Advertising is salesmanship mass produced. No one would bother to use advertising if he could talk to all his prospects face-to-face. But he can’t.”
Morris Hite (1988)
People who don’t understand the sales process don’t understand advertising. Unfortunately, people who don’t understand the sales process OR advertising often find themselves in a position where they must manage both.
Long ago and far away, when I sold advertising, the most common “misconception” held by small business owners was that advertising works like putting quarters into a gumball machine. You put a nickle in and out falls a piece of gum.
Unfortunately, advertising your small business is more like putting quarters into a slot machine. The chances of you running a single ad and hitting the “jackpot” are slim indeed.
In sales, persistence is the key and the same is true in advertising. That means you can’t run a “typical” single television, radio or newspaper ad and expect a crush of customers at your door.
When I say “typical” it reminds me of a sales manager I had who when challenged by business owners that “advertising doesn’t work” would issue the following challenge. He would say,
“Here’s the deal. I’ll pay to run a 1X1 ad in our newspaper for your business to PROVE to you that newspaper advertising works. The catch? You have to give a $20 bill to every person who walks in the door and asks for it.”
The business owner would invariably reply, “I can’t afford to do that! You’ve got tens of thousands of readers. I could go broke doing that!”
To which my sales manager would smile and reply, “But I thought you said newspaper advertising wasn’t effective?”
Want to create a mob scene – give $20 bills away for free. If you choose this approach, you’ll be disappointed in how productive a marketing strategy this is. All those “freebie seekers” aren’t your target customer and they will leave as soon as they collect their cash.
A BETTER marketing strategy is to create an advertising campaign that tightly targets your target audience and directly speaks to their GDP (Goals, Desires and Problems). This campaign will let your tightly targeted audience know you have something to offer which is MORE VALUABLE than cash!
If you need help creating such a message, pick up a copy of the book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results.
Hi Kathy,
I love those quotes — I never really thought of it that way before. Of course the problem with advertising is that it has to be all things to all people, whereas face-to-face marketing also allows you to qualify leads and find out what is wrong with the marketing message much faster.
That’s what makes target marketing so important, I think. The more you can hone a message to your “typical” customer, the more likely you will speak to him or her at your level.
Just like a sales person may do naturally…
~Graham
Graham,
Well, advertising SHOULDN’T be “all things to all people”. That’s the point!
If you try to construct your advertising to be all things to all people, then no one will “tune in”.
If however, you “target” your advertising to SPEAK directly to you target customer – AH! MAGIC!!!
I like that story! Mind if I use it the next time I encounter someone who says advertising doesn’t work? I think giving away something for free is a viable advertising strategy, as long as you target customers who have shopped with you before. Victoria’s Secret does it, and I’m a customer of theirs who says it works! Even though I don’t have to buy something to get the free item, I still feel like I should, and I usually do!
Adwords has gotten incredibly complex AND EXPENSIVE.
@Print Place:
Feel free to use that story! It’s a goodie, isn’t it?
great article, but i do agree with one of the other writer that google ad words are getting worse.