Joy to the World?
With Christmas coming up, are you tempted to place press ads wishing all your customers a good one?
Before you do that, take a moment to think.
To create market share for yourself you need LOTS of repetition, particularly for press ads. So, do you REALLY think one little ad wishing people Merry Christmas (although it might look nice) is going to drive much traffic your way?
Newspapers are NOT dead, but they ARE hurting, particularly for ad revenue.
Why? Because generally …
With Christmas coming up, are you tempted to place press ads wishing all your customers a good one?
Before you do that, take a moment to think. To create market share for yourself you need LOTS of repetition, particularly for press ads. So, do you REALLY think one little ad wishing people Merry Christmas (although it might look nice) is going to drive much traffic your way?
Newspapers are NOT dead, but they ARE hurting, particularly for ad revenue.
Why? Because generally newspapers ads that don’t offer specific calls to action, benefits, value, offers and deadlines lack reader significance.
And when an ad lacks significance it’s often because what it’s offering isn’t not compelling enough. So the ad fails to produce a result, the advertiser blames the publication, and the publication suffers because the presumption is that advertising
doesn’t work.
Advertising DOES work. But to create a return on the investment the ad in question has got to be compelling enough for the reader of that ad to WANT to take action.
So, why are you advertising?
If your ad is simply to wish people the best for the season you’ll be wasting your money, wasting paper ink, and trees, and adding to the visual clutter of the season.
So your ad, well-intentioned though it may be, will fall flat and offer zero in terms of a return. True, the ad may “get your name out there”, but much like visiting friends who are not at home, what’s the use of banging on the door and ringing the bell if no one is there to hear you, let you in, and welcome you with open arms?
Before you place your ad you need to ask yourself the following question:
“Of the readers of this publication, how many of them need or want our services right now?”
If you say “All of them” you need your backside kicking.
Ever heard the phrase “Sell the sizzle, not the sausage!”?
If your ad goes out to everyone, then everyone will be offered the sausage. The problem is that not everyone WANTS sausage. Not everyone NEEDS sausage. So why offer sausage to everyone?
Why not offer sausage ONLY to those people who WANT sausage?
When you sell the sizzle, you offer the smell, the taste, and the impression of sausage and all the delicious things that go with it: beer, mustard, sauerkraut, café life, sunny days, hot toddies.
You get the idea.
You’re offering sausage AND all the added benefits associated with the sausage.
If you’re offering Web services you offer design skills, appeal, social recognition, the chance to make an impression, the chance to make money through e-commerce, the chance to have an online presence where values, benefits, and company ethics can act in unison to tell people: “We worked with BillyBob’s Web service and this is how good we look.”
That’s what you need to consider doing: selling prospects and leads the benefits of working with your web company, not the web company itself.
The best way to paint this vivid picture is in an editorial piece, not in an ad.
Editorial is NEWS, it’s CONTENT.
Editorial has appeal because it is story driven, not sales driven. The trick is to create such a compelling story that readers are driven to read until the end of the piece, whereupon they find your great offer of a discount, or of a free trial, or of a free consult if the reader takes specific action: visits a certain landing page, or watches an online video that tells even more of your tale, and that directs them to your blog, or to your sales manager’s e-mail.
The point of all this is to create relationships and to show yourself off as being the go to people for your specific service.
When you offer something of interest you establish rapport.
When you establish rapport, people begin to feel they know you and when they think they know you, they like you more.
When people like you more they are far more inclined to trust you.
And when someone trusts you they are FAR more likely to spend money with you.
