Welcome back, I’m delighted that you could join me for a few minutes and see article number three in our series of ten, on the top ten advertising mistakes and how to fix them.

As we saw in Articles 1 and 2, we talked about testing and the critical importance of identifying each and every ad you prepare. These should be the basis for everything that comes out on the market.

A challenge that I have encountered several times is that my clients have considered themselves the target group. And while that may or may not be the case, in most cases you are selling a product or service to solve someone else’s problem, and your tastes as a product or service solution are probably very different from those of the recipient who you need your expertise, your product. your service.

I had a client who was infamously attached to a particular medium, and it is a very good medium, but it was the only one he used because he was the only one who felt it conveyed the message he would see.

My challenge to him was very simple, Ian, please remember you We are not the target audience for what we are trying to sell, and I applaud them for being so attached to this particular medium, but it shouldn’t be the only vehicle we use.

Now he ultimately gave in and we used a mix that included his favorite, but we used the mix of media to come up with a broader platform and still stay within budget.

I think it is a critical component for too many advertisers. Unfortunately and unknowingly, they are sometimes blindfolded so that they only want to use media that they see, recognize, understand, appreciate, and are familiar with, and that’s great.

It’s always a good comfort zone to wear something you know, like, and trust, and most importantly, if you’ve tried it and it works for you, keep using it. I have nothing against that, however, I want you to make sure not to discount or discount other opportunities.… because I never read that magazine, I don’t listen to that radio station, I never get home in time to watch TV.

Are you okay! You do not! But you are not selling to you, you were selling to the hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands who are interested in your product,

at your service and they really don’t care what you look at. What you want to do is put your message in front of them on the platforms and times that resonate for them.

If you get a chance to see it, it’s great, and you will see the commercial before it airs and we can schedule you when it will air if you want to take the time to record it and watch it later. .

We can give you a list of the websites that they will appear on if you want to go in person and look at it, that’s great. But don’t rule out other media options just because they’re unfamiliar. They are familiar to your audience. Your media professionals should be able to present you with empirical data showing that this is why you need to use the radio in addition to the magazine.

Why online platforms will be a powerful help for the magazine and campaign away from home. Whatever it is, it needs to be measurable, empirical to justify it in the first place, but the most important thing is to reach your preferred target group.

So, as I mentioned at the beginning, you are most likely not the target group for your products, so don’t just rely on your gut or your own media taste to know where to place your ad.

For God’s sake, I have placed hundreds, maybe thousands, of ads in media that I know from a buyer’s point of view and not necessarily from a users point of view. And that’s fine whether we like it or not, I’m not always a target group for this or that product.

But I do know the right ways to get your message across to the right audience.

So when you’re developing who your audience is, take the time to be as specific as possible. You don’t want to be so finite that you end up with a universe of twelve people and I’ve seen it happen.

But don’t pick the wrong place or the wrong target group or both and then wonder why this is such a mediocre answer. Man, nobody is going to buy my new space age shovel, my pole excavators, my whatever, they need to know that you are providing a solution and that the solution you provide has to be what they need, and it has to be in the media. they will respond and act.

One client in particular was a true sports fanatic and so was hers. Absolutely pick a sport and there I am. But they put the ad on the sports radio network because that’s what they hear. However, their primary audience was for younger women who had little or no interest in most of these sports programs. It’s disappointing because it was such a powerful campaign if it had been properly targeted at the right audience. So this is what I want you to do.

To correct mistake number three, do the proper research and find out who is actually buying your product or service. And maybe it’s a survey, a store interception survey, an online survey, a mailing, something that really tells you who is buying your product or who you think your candidates are.

You can be as specific as possible by gender and age, by income and lifestyle, and a host of other demographic details to help you focus on those. As much as you can. Don’t trust the universe of a sample. Well my mom liked that. Oh perfect. Love your mom. You should always love Mom, but Mom isn’t necessarily going to buy the new car ramps or the trampoline for the kids.

That is not to say that they are not influential, but it is important that they understand who will make those decisions. If it’s mom, that’s great.

If it’s daddy or daddy and mommy or if you’re the boss or if you’re the treasurer, or your financial officer in the company, you really need to know who you’re after to make the ads work more, more impactful, and most importantly. , have a cost. you less, yes, it costs you less.

You’ll get a better return on investment and more to spend on future marketing if you take the time to identify who you want to pursue. What message do you want to convey to them and what means to best reach them. Trust me, after three decades, I can tell you that it’s worth doing your research to get to know your audience.

Okay, so what you are looking for are some characteristics that constantly define your audience, then you can create the message using the right radio station or website, outdoor media, newspapers that reach them efficiently and effective.

Likewise, as I mentioned at the beginning, take the time to test the ad. Or several small-scale ads to see what works. You’ll have a lot of coding in place and a lot of planning to do, but it will pay dividends when you hit the sweet spot of the ad, or the right media ad or mix of media that attracts customers.

By the way, many of your local media sales reps should be able to give you detailed profiles of all their resources to give you a clear idea of ​​who you are looking for.

Let them work their legs a bit. Tell them who you want to reach and in many cases what you are looking for is a very specific age and income level and you want to see how well your media, any radio station, magazine, newspaper, it turns out to be, you want to see how well put your media in front of audience members and eyes on a regular basis and you can track how well they are performing.

Respectfully, I don’t mean alone ‘Pleasures’ that’s true, KPI seems to be a pretty hot button and that’s cool. But that’s not really a true measure of how well the product is working. You want a measurable return on investment. You want to be able to say that we spent $ 1,000 on this ad and it generated $ 2,000 in new business. Perfect.

If all you get is 500 likes or 35 shares etc, that’s fine. That’s not what your marketing should be about. It should pay you back at least a dollar for every dollar you invest. So when you’re testing your ads, take the time to do it on a small scale. Here is the best analogy I leave you with, you don’t need to eat a whole bowl of soup to see if it’s salty, usually a tablespoon or two will tell you

Then you decide whether or not you want to eat the rest or move on to something else. With that I say goodbye to number three. Hope to see you in Article # 4: Learn to be consistent.