Making Each Of Your Marketing Penny Count

by Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan

Very often I meet businesspeople who just put out promotional messages and then they hope and pray that someone will show interest and contact them. Well, sadly this hardly ever happens. People are too busy, and have far too many and more important things to do than responding to your "this is who we are and this is what we do" type message.

This is what you can call "Look how cute we are and look what we do" type institutional advertising. It says nothing meaningful just brags about the company or just presents an image like the "Got milk" ads, which have been a huge financial failure.

And the fact is large companies with unlimited marketing and advertising budgets practise this lunacy, but the tragedy is that lots of small and medium-sized companies are mimicking them almost to the letter. Just go to the web and you'll better see what I mean. Unknown, insignificant companies promote themselves simply by rewording the sites of well-known companies like Nike, Intel or Adobe.

And this approach is not measurable either. That is why so many people say, "Advertising doesn't work in my industry." Well, of course not when it is done by someone who doesn't know how to do it.

Just because I burn my dinner I can't say cooked food is not for me? Then what is? Sand, grass and tree leaves that take no brain to prepare? That's retarded.

So, how do you recognise institutional advertising? It is all about the advertiser. It says nothing about the people it is for. It's the "We're the cute people doing cute things" type advertising. They present features not benefits.

Just think for a moment. All car companies are advertising the same things: Air bags, speed, torque (most people have no idea what it is) and other features.

A while ago there was a Saturn ad on the telly. Imagine. A young mother is playing with her child and talks about how important her child's safety and well-being are to her.

Throughout her talk there is a blur silhouette of a blue Saturn Vue in the distant background. And then she ends her spiel: "And since my child's safety is important to me I bought a Saturn". Do you get it? The name of the car was mentioned only once, yet, I dare to say this ad has sold more cars than all the other retarded ads sold other cars.

The ad didn't talk about features. Not even about benefits. It talked about what's important for that woman or women in general: Their children's safety. All the other idiots are selling their cars by promoting 10 inch rims and dual air bags.

Ad agencies and the media love selling you this kind of advertising because you know no more about the return on your investment than you know about the back of the moon. They say it's not measurable and you just have to repeat it. That's bullshit. If people don't respond to your message today, they will never respond to it.

The other approach is of corse results-accountable direct response marketing. The kind of marketing and advertising that asks the right people to take a specific action. It is 100% measurable and controllable.

If I see a message...

Attention, warning and free special report for men between 45 and 45 years of age: Are you worried about your chances of developing prostate cancer?

Well, I'm 43, and yes, in spite of my healthy lifestyle, I'm concerned about the possibility of prostate cancer. I will respond the first time I see this ad. Why? Because it presents a problem I can identify with. This ad talks to me. And guess what? If the ad offered a special report on re-growing hair or curing ingrown toenails, I wouldn't respond. I'm not interested in re-growing my hair and I don't have ingrown toenails. And you can run that ad until you are blue in the face and dead flat broke, I still wouldn't respond. Not because it's a bad ad or because advertising doesn't work. It's just not for me.

Of course you can measure the response rate on such an ad, thus you can tweak it for better performance. This is a results-accountable direct response ad. So, how do you pull it all off?

Let's look at a simple three-step formula widely used in results-accountable direct marketing.

Step One: Lead generation advertising - This is either an ad in a paper or the landing page of your website. Offer valuable information in exchange for their contact information. I mean valuable information not a flyer or corporate brochure. It can be a report, white paper, audio or video. And it must be free.

Step Two: Stay in touch - These people are interested in your message but not ready to buy yet. So, you stay in touch with them. Every time they think of your stuff, they think of you not your competitors. You use this phase to PRE-sell. This is more valuable information.

Step Three: Purchase - This is the time when the prospect is ready to make the first purchase from you. Remember, you have to follow their buying time frame instead of hammering them with your selling time frame. No one gives a shit about you or your need for money. People buy when they are ready to buy without being sold.

Here are four core lead generation principles…

1) The right prospects will raise their hands and express interest if your message is for them. They give your permission to stay in touch with them.

2) Offer them an ongoing stream of valuable information. The best way of doing this is using sequential autoresponders. Make sure your messages are 80-90% good content and only a small chunk is promotion. It's important that they feel in control of the value-exchange process. People with control are empowered.

3) Guide them and tell them what to do next. Marketing guru, Jay Abraham says, "People are silently begging to be led." Then do it.

4) Measure responses and results, and tweak your system as necessary.

And remember! Don't sell harder. Market smarter. Both you, your employees, your clients and prospects will find it more enjoyable, profitable and attractive.

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