, which I will be reviewing tomorrow, as part of her virtual book tour with Pump Up your Book
To Advertise, or
Not to Advertise:
That is a Question Faced by Every Business
By Cynthia
Kocialski
At some point in
any business’ life, owners everywhere consider advertising as a means of
promoting their products or services. The
lure of more customers and more sales is too enticing to pass up, and there are
always success stories touted in the press of businesses skyrocketing due to
advertising. Most business try it, at
least once.
Who
Is Advertising On The Channel Today?
When considering an
advertising channel - roadside billboards, public bus posters, door hangers,
supermarket cart ads, big screen ads at the local movie theater, direct mail
packages and every other possibility – take a survey of who is using that
advertising channel today. It can tell you a lot.
I live in San Francisco
Likewise, there
was a time a few years ago when the local movie theater was selling those
pre-movie ads to local businesses and start-ups. The price was reasonable. Then
the movie theater chain was sold to one of the large national chains, and the
small advertisers disappeared from the pre-movie line-up. Now there are only
have ads from major corporations on the big screen – translation, advertising
at the movie theater is now very expensive.
Statistics
When Used To Sell Anything Can Be Misleading
Advertisers love
to tell you about the statistics about their audience – how many there are, how
many are women and men, the neighborhoods they live in, their income levels, the
industry segments they work in, and so on.
Remember what Mark Twain had to say about statistics, “There are lies,
d*** lies, and statistics”. An ad agency
told me once - readers that pay for subscriptions are more valuable than those
that don’t, readers that pay for subscriptions actually read the content they
pay for, free readership does not. Newspapers, magazines, or trade journals often
tout the demographics of their audience, but if the publication is given away
for free then those ads won’t be as effective as those fee-based publications. Everyone
in my town is mailed the local newspaper once a week for free, and the
publisher claims the entire town in their circulation numbers. But that doesn’t
mean anyone actually ever looks at the newspaper.
Membership in
organizations is another loosey-goosey number. Who is a member? Is it someone
who pays annual dues? Is it someone who
subscribes to a free email list? Is the
membership base those that are currently active or the total number of members
over the past 10 years, regardless of whether they participate currently or
not?
Trust
the Advertising Channel but Verify the Results
Advertising is
expensive, how do you know whether there’s a chance it’ll work for your
business? All advertisers will provide
references, but you know if there are passing on their names, these will be
happy clients. What these clients will
demonstrate is the best possible outcome, the maximum result, not the average
or typical. The great thing about
advertising is the other references are obvious. If someone is trying to sell you ads in the
local newspaper or a direct mailing pack, see who advertised in it last year or
a few months ago, and ask them what type of results they got. Don’t just check
the references you are given, check others who have advertised with them.
Experimentation
Is Necessary and Costly
Like it or not,
effective advertising is the results of a series of experiments. Small
businesses want to see results now, but that’s not realistic. Whenever you go
to any advertising channel, it takes awhile to figure out what works for that
audience. An ad agency told me that it easier to advertise on radio than TV.
Why? Because most people only listen to 3 radio stations and switch between
them, radio listeners are station loyal. TV viewers are show loyal and there
are hundreds of channels and thousands of shows offered by broadcast service
providers. And it’s not just the audience;
a commercial that works on the History Channel may be a dud on the Food Network
channel.
Every type of
advertising media is different – Internet, TV, radio, editorial, flyers, direct
mail, mobile, and so on. Tracking the experiments is important. How many
responses do you get from the ads, how many are qualified leads, how many
purchase your product, what they average ticket price, and so on? Beginner’s
luck may prevail and the right ad works for the target audience immediately. In
my experience, it usually doesn’t happen and building market traction can be
frustrating if the business is prepared for the long process.
About
the Author
Cynthia Kocialski founded three tech companies and has been involved with dozens of other startups. She has written a book about her experiences in start-ups companies, “Startup from the Ground Up, Practical Insights for Transforming an Idea into a Business”. She also writes the popular Start-up Entrepreneurs’ Blog (www.cynthiakocialski.com) and has written many articles on emerging technologies. Cynthia can be reached at cynthia@cynthiakocialski.com
Cynthia Kocialski founded three tech companies and has been involved with dozens of other startups. She has written a book about her experiences in start-ups companies, “Startup from the Ground Up, Practical Insights for Transforming an Idea into a Business”. She also writes the popular Start-up Entrepreneurs’ Blog (www.cynthiakocialski.com) and has written many articles on emerging technologies. Cynthia can be reached at cynthia@cynthiakocialski.com
