Is your advertising worth the money?

Fred: While attending a recent trade show, I walked by several booths and noted many of them had really fancy photos, signs and displays. They were very impressive until I began examining several of them. Of the 100 booths at this trade show, nearly 25 of them had one thing that stood out. They had no indication of what service or product they provided. One such booth had a large banner with the company name: ABC Enterprises. I looked at the display for a long time and could not for the life of me figure out what they do. Finally, I noticed a small sign off to the side that said: Historic Restoration.
Lyna: This is a mistake that Fred and I are noticing more and more. In a recent trip to Atlanta, we were driving behind a large tractor trailer and noted a unique logo of a stylized orange tiger and an 800 number. This was not the name of the shipping company and there were other logos on the truck. Fred and I had no clue as to what the tiger represented and did not feel the urge to call the number to find out. A lot of thought seems to have been put into this creation, but it did nothing but give us a pleasant image to look at as we drove down the highway.
Fred: Another example of wasted advertising came to my attention when a student recently asked me about a particular product. I had recently received a flyer in the mail about this product, so I showed it to the class. Oops! There was no contact information, no phone number, no website, no address?nothing. The full color flyer showing a photo of the product was beautiful. But what good does it do if there is no way for anyone to know how to buy one?
Lyna: Perhaps Fred and I are particularly sensitive to this happenstance because we were guilty of the same when we first created our website. A lot of time and effort was put into it and we were very proud of how it turned out?until we got feedback from others. "So . . . what is it you do?" we were asked over and over. We had left out the obvious?Radio Talk Show.
Fred: Here are some tips to get the most out of your advertising efforts:
? Test your flyer or ad. Give it to several different people and ask them what product you are selling. Would it entice them to find out more info, or even purchase your product?
? Hand someone your flyer and ask them to find your contact information. See how long it takes. If it takes them longer than 5 seconds, you need to make it bigger, or make the flyer less busy.
? Hand someone your flyer and have them look at it for five seconds. Then hide the flyer and ask them what the flyer said. If they had no idea, then your ad or flyer is poorly written or too cluttered.
? Does the ad or flyer have a good ? In other words, does it excite the reader to call or buy? This can be done with a special offer, a discount, or something for FREE.
Lyna: In the long run, Fred and I have learned that with advertising our business, use the K.I.S.S. theory . . .
Keeping It Simple Sells

Fred and Lyna host the popular talk radio show Growing your Business, which can be heard at www.growingyourbusiness.net




Fred and Lyna
www.growingyourbusiness.net
Talk radio for entrepreneurs