Prospecting Tools: Advertising
Advertising is a powerful tool. So is a chainsaw. Used effectively they can both get a lot of work done in a small amount of time, but used carelessly they can be costly. Advertising, in order to be effective, must be well-planned, well-executed, consistent, frequent and targeted at the right audience. For a salesperson who may not need large numbers of prospects to prosper, it may be overkill. If you run a business that requires a steady stream of new customers to survive then you must advertise. Otherwise, look carefully at other options.
Rather than randomly running ads here and there in various places, you should consider choosing one or two media you know your customers look at and run a small but well-written and designed ad. This ad should run all the time, every week or month, forever, if it gets results after the first eight or nine placements. Frequency and consistency are the two attributes your advertising needs to succeed because, as savvy consumers, we gradually build our trust and recognition. We seldom respond to an ad we see once.
For a small business I recommend small display or classified ads that appear regularly and invite the prospect to call for information. These prospecting ads are not designed to build brand awareness or a company image. They are tools for finding motivated prospects for your sales efforts. Try buying a couple of months of weekly ads in the trades or papers aimed at your target audience. Run a similar message in every one and make sure you always ask any callers how they heard of you. If the ad doesn’t pull after 8-10 repetitions, try another message or media. Give them time first.
Even if you’re a local business you should run Google Adwords. These ads show up in search results and you only pay when someone clicks on the ad. These are, hands down, the most effective advertising any sales-related business can do.
No Comments yet »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
GimpStyle Theme design by Horacio Bella | RSS Entries and comments
All content copyright 2008, Supernatural Agency, Inc. | Sales Intelligentsia is a Supernatural Agency site.