ADLAND'S
DIGEST
A
Free subscribed Discussion List
on
web marketing and promotion
Bogdan
Fiedur, Publisher
mailto:
Bogdan@softfornet.com
Vol.
1, #36, October 20, 1998
POST AND UNSUBSCRIBE INFO AT BOTTOM
_____________________________________________________________
Topics in this issue:
1. Sponsor Message
2. Impression Winner
3. Word from publisher
4. Why Most Ads Cannot Succeed!
Guest
Article by John Counsel
================Sponsor Message=========
Sponsor: Make a visit and patronize Icemall.
Advertise Your Business Everywhere!
Mailorder publications, magazines, Internet malls
and magazines, card decks and mailing lists.
Cost effective advertising solutions for all businesses.
Visit Icemall's Advertising Center Today!
==> http://softfornet.com/icemall
============Word from publisher=============
To make this digest useful for everybody we are experimenting
and trying to give our subscribers useful information and resources.
We didn't succeed in creating reach discussion on topics relating to
marketing and promotion. We still hope that this will eventually take off
and to stimulate it, I will include in each issue guest article on topics
pertaining to advertising and promotion.
I hope you'll find it useful and I welcome everybody to share your
experiences
with rest of the list relating to guest articles.
In today's issue you will find lots of good pointers how to write ads and
how
to make sure that they reach right audience.
1. I would like to here from you about good places for affordable
advertising.
2. Places where submission can be made automatically to multiple websites.
3. Any related issues to advertising which could help others with promoting
their net business.
============Impression Winner==============
THIS WEEK'S IMPRESSION WINNER!
This week's winner of 1000 impressions at Adland Classifieds is
Darryl with web site "Dragonfly Marketing" at
http://www.hotyellow98.com/daw007/ To be
eligible for the draw
you have to link to Adland using custom link. When you win, your ad
will be displayed on top of Adland pages till your 1000 impressions is
used.
=================Guest Article=============
Why Most Ads Cannot Succeed!
Guest Article by John CounselCounseljohn@profitclinic.com
The real problem for most small business owners is
that they rarely know what to do when it comes to running
their businesses. Especially when it comes to marketing
and advertising.
When faced with a situation we don't know how to handle,
we usually do one of two things, we do what everyone else
does, or we take a punt, hoping that we kick a goal.
Both strategies are proven failures!
Here's why.
Doing what everyone else does may seem to be the
safest way to go, but 90% of all small businesses FAIL,
so common sense alone should tell us that we stand a
better chance of success if we do the opposite of what
everyone else does!
As for taking a punt, it too often means that the ball sails
straight through our opponent's goal posts!
The bottom line is this: you either know what to do, or you
don't. There's no point trying to guess, or copying others
who don't know either.
Test yourself now
Here's a simple quiz that will show you whether or not
you know some of the fundamentals of successful advertising.
Remember, you either know the answers or you don't.
Guessing is like playing Reverse Russian Roulette :
where only one chamber of the pistol is empty!
There are four performance factors that determine the
success or failure of a print ad (and most on-line
advertising is basically print advertising),
Your Offer
Your Copy (the words you use)
Your Target Audience
Your Layout (how the ad looks)
Each provides a different degree of leverage.
By getting them right, you could gain improvements
in results of up to 50%, 250%, 2,000% and 2,500% from your
print ads. (These percentages have obviously been rounded off.)
The question is, can you list them in order of importance?
Which offers the lowest leverage? Which offers the highest?
The answers
In order of importance, the four performance factors are:
Layout : up to 50% higher results
Copy : up to 250% higher results
Offer : up to 2,000% higher results
Audience : up to 2,500% higher results.
Did you know the right answer? If you didn't,
you've probably been doing the wrong things for the wrong
reasons : and wondering why your ads don't work! The
real questions, though, are these,
a. Which two factors offer the lowest leverage?
(Answer: layout and copy.)
b. Which two offer the highest?
(Answer: offer and audience.)
c. Which two are you least competent to handle successfully?
(Answer: layout and copy.)
d. Which two are you the only people competent to handle?
(After all, it's your business, no-one else's.)
(Answer: offer and audience.)
e. For which two can you get low-cost or even free professional
help from the media you advertise with?
(Answer: layout and copy.)
f. Which two, then, should you focus on in your advertising?
(Answer: offer and audience.)
g. Which two do most people focus almost all their attention on?
(Answer: LAYOUT AND COPY!)
That's right, more than 90% of small business advertisers
focus on the FIRST two when their focus should be on the
LAST two.
That's just one aspect of advertising success. There are
dozens more. And most people probably know as little
about them as they knew about this one.
Why most ads can't succeed
In any properly managed small business advertising
program there are ten synergistically-integrated components.
If any of those components is missing, results fall dramatically.
It's the difference between adding or multiplying.
5 5
5 + 5 x
-- -----
10 25
The result is 500% higher when you multiply, because
the process is synergistic. It has real leverage.
In almost ALL small business advertising, NINE out of
the ten components are missing! You can't even gain
the limited benefits of just adding them. Is it any wonder
that results are so miserable from most ads ñ except
by sheer fluke? (That can't be duplicated!)
Now for the good news!
Take another look at those four performance factors.
Look at the similarities and then look at the differences.
Layout and copy are creative aspects of advertising.
Offer and audience targeting are strategic aspects.
This sums up the problem with most small business
advertising, it has little or no strategy driving it.
Advertising is a combination of science and art.
Strategy and creativity. Creativity can make the crucial
difference if all other things are equal. They rarely are.
So here's the truth about advertising success,.
Advertising is 10% creativity and 90% strategy.
In other words, it's 10% inspiration:and 90% perspiration!
So advertising is a 90% controllable process that YOU
can learn to control.
Success is in the details, in advertising as much as in
anything else in life. Invest your time and effort in getting
the strategy right first, then use the abundant help available
to get the creative aspects working for you.
Advertising's a lot like fishing
You can spend all your time and effort choosing your line
and lure, only to find that
the fish you're after aren't biting
you're fishing in the wrong place
you've got the wrong lure, line or bait for the kind of fish
you're after
Or you can be like so many advertisers who simply walk
up to the water's edge, throw in all their bait, then wonder
why the fish aren't leaping out at their feet!
Spend the time and effort to identify your true audience/market,
then formulate irresistible offers that will appeal to the existing
emotional responses of that audience.
Don't take everything you read or hear about 'Killer' copy and
and 'Dynamite' layouts, as gospel. What makes the differences
that the experts talk about in these areas is the fact that the
changes they made to copy or layout came AFTER they got
the strategy (the targeting and offers) right.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Article by John Counseljohn@profitclinic.com, founder and
CEO of The Profit Clinic http://www.profitclinic.com/index.html.
A former lecturer, marketing director and advertising creative
director, he now specializes in small business and the direct
selling industry. The Profit Clinic website is a multiple
award-winning resource centre crammed with fresh
perspectives, penetrating insights and innovative ideas for
helping small business people work less and earn more.
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