Advertise or Marketing, Which is Right for You? Part 2

     Probably both in some combination. But as we discussed in part one, while marketing is absolutely essential to having a successful business, advertising is not. Advertising can increase business and bring new business in the door at a higher rate than without it. That of course takes into consideration that the advertising is done correctly.

     Use advertising like a laser. Target it! Make sure it reaches its goal. Use it somewhat sparingly and wisely. But make a continued effort at marketing. Do something everyday with every customer/client to promote their business and loyalty and you’ll find that you will have far fewer short falls. Things will start to even out as more and more people begin to get a feeling that you are the right one to do business with. Think about your biggest assets in your business and whether each of those assets would be better promoted by the short term advertising or the longer term marketing.

     I am aware that many businesses advertise constantly. We even handled some of these fine folks in our agency days. But take a moment and notice who is doing all that advertising. It’s generally the people that have positioned themselves as the big discounter or the big turnover stores. They do high volume and small margins. They have to stay in front of the people everyday or they lose their market share. If you sell televisions based on low price, then you need to be in front of the customer on the very day his television quits. Because that’s when he is going to buy a new television. If you have a big turn over business, then a consistent advertising approach is right for you. If not, you need some kind of combination of advertising and marketing.

WHY SHOULD I DO EITHER?

Let me give you the short list.

  1. 20% of the American public moves every year. Good customers are leaving you, and new arrivals don’t know who you are yet.

  2. Do you think you are well known in your community? Think about this. According to the US Census Bureau 587,000 people turned 21 today. Another 587,000 will tomorrow and everyday. These young adults have just reached the age of maturity. They are on their own for the first time in their lives, doing their own buying and making their own decisions. They don’t know who you are or why they should buy from you.

  3. There’s a guy down the street doing all he can to steal the customers you do have. Competition.

  4. Your good customers tried the other guy down the street on a lark, and they liked him. They could become permanent customers of his if you don’t remind them of why you are deserving of their continued business.

  5. Someone in your organization, maybe even you, did something to offend a customer. The customer didn’t say a word to you, but they are not coming back either. You need to give them reason to forgive and forget. It happens everyday.

     Marketing is not what you think it is. It is not selling. It is making people aware of a product or service in such a way that shows them the benefits of the product’s use. Selling is listing the features of the item or service. Marketing is showing the benefits to the end user. That is true of almost any product, service or business. Your business is marketing.

     Still confused? OK, here’s an example of the difference. You tell me which method you think would move the product faster.

Selling a car (Features)

Sound familiar? Most car dealer television ads look and sound like this, don’t they.

Making you want the car (Marketing)

Most car manufacturers do this. Can you figure out why? Duh!

     When you market rather than sell, you simply tell people what is going to happen when they use your product or service. You don’t spend time selling them on the features.

     Telling people what the benefits are is important. People buy when they believe that they are going to get what they want from any given situation or product. So if that is important, what is not important?

Here’s a list of things that do not matter to your business:

     I could go on, and on and on. You already know the reasons and the excuses. There is a very simple reason that a zillion products and services exist in the marketplace today. It is because people have different tastes and preferences.

     Do something to attract attention to your effort. If it is an ad, then put something in that ad to stop the reader dead in their eye scanning track. If you don’t you’ll never get the response you want from the ad. The headline should not be:

"Fast Effective Weight Loss Now Available in Brookville."

     And I don’t want to hear that advertising is misleading. Of course it is, all advertising is inherently misleading. That does not mean that all advertisers are deliberately deceptive, or else how can you claim to do anything better than anyone else and not be somewhat deceptive? But if you don’t make such a claim, who the heck wants to come to you to begin with. Certainly not you... or I. We want only the best for ourselves. Just ask us!

     Of course we say that, ‘we want the best’- but we seldom live up to it, now do we? Did you hire the very best baby-sitter you could find to watch your kids? Do you own the very best house you can own? Do you drive the very best car? Do you wear the very best clothes? Is your yard the very best yard in your city? No, we say we want the best, but we seldom insist on it. Same with the rest of the buying public. So, stop saying that you are the best. You are not! But you can be a very good product or service and an excellent value.

     Next, you have to appeal to the readers or listener or viewers interest. That can and should be part of the headline or opening statement, but more so, it should be followed by something that will keep their attention for yet another few seconds. One of my favorites was an ad that read:

     You can bet this got the attention of every male out there. The ad went on to explain a little later that his wife owned a professional lawn service, and then explained how good this mower is to someone that has to mow 20 yards a day. The opener did it’s job. It got people to read the ad. See it doesn’t take brilliance, it takes a little moxsy and a touch of reality. All men would secretly love to get out of mowing the grass and we all know it!

     Face a simple truth! What you normally do - never got your non-customers to begin with. It really couldn’t be more simple. If they are not your customer now and you continue to do what you’ve been doing all along, they won’t be your customer later either. Continue to do what you have been doing and you’ll continue to get the result you’ve been getting! Could not be more clear!

     In a normal business it takes a combination of both effective advertising and solid marketing to keep yourself in the forefront of the customers mind. Target your advertising and be consistent in your marketing. Be continually aware of opportunities to do both and you’ll find that business will start approaching the hallmark you think it should.

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