The One Minute DIY Marketing Consultancy

In the current climate we all need to be able to save money, so start by saving thousands on your own advertisement critiques. Marketing consultancies would have to charge you hundreds of pounds to assess your marketing, try this DIY test for yourself and improve your marketing at the same time.

Most businesses use adverts to gain new customers, communicate promotions or launch new products and services, both on and off line

Over the years we have seen hundreds of small businesses spend literally thousands on advertising that doesn't work. There can be many factors that affect results

• Location and placement of adverts
• Frequency of adverts
• Chosen target market
• Alignment between the advertising medium used and the product or service sold
• and of course the content of your advert , what you actually say to attract your chosen target market to buy your product and services.

Obviously we are not all marketing experts but here is a quick and reliable aide memoir to help you. Use this framework to quickly assess your adverts and stop you making some of the basic mistakes

Lets look at the the FOUR biggest mistakes and the A.I.D.A method

Four biggest mistakes
1. Using your company name as a headline
Your company name is the least interesting part of your advert. It is about you and not your prospect. It doesn't convey any messages a prospect will be interested in. Unless you have a recognisable brand such as Coco Cola or Nike your company name will not infer quality of goods, price, benefits or desirability. Your advert must work hard to communicate with your prospect and to grab their attention. Do not waste valuable space on a big company logo and name,however do make sure your contact details are easy to read and simple to use.

2. Not using the YOU or some connotation of it in the headline
Remember it's about your prospect so talk to them, make them feel when they read the advert you are talking to them. Having a very clear target market helps , recognising specific issues your target market is trying to resolve such as If you worry about security for your house or If you live alone and worry about security.
Immediately if that's one of my issues I recognise you are talking to me and Im more likely to keep on reading.

3. Not opening a loop
The headline must force your prospect to read the rest of the advert such as Do you live alone, are you worried about security?, Five things you need to know before you sign up for your next mortgage. It requires the reader to read the advert to find out the answer, it opens a loop by creating interest.

4. Not having a clear call to action
What do you want people to do once they have read your advert. So many adverts stop there and so do their readers, be specific tell your prospects what they should
do next and why, such as
'Call today and claim your free home security assessment. It takes just 5 minutes and you can instantly improve your home security with simple low cost solutions'.

A.I.D.A

• Attention: Does the advert (namely headline) grab your prospects attention. It must stand out amongst all your competition. Try looking through a magazine, directory or look out for billboards. Look on google for your type of products and services and see what headlines are being used for searches. Ask questions, make statements, add an unusual twist and make sure it is easy to read and stands out.

• Interest: Does the advert generate the prospects interest. It must be relevant to the prospect and answer a need they have. It must recognise the prospects issues and help the prospect recognise themselves in what is being said, this ensures that they will become interested in what you have to say.

• Desire: Does the advert create desire in your prospect ? Desire is emotional and often is not logical in terms of the need we originally had. Use emotional words within your advert. Very few of us respond to just logic, even if we are not aware of it. Take car advertising, yes there are technical details and lots of technical information but the advertising often focuses on lifestyle choices, colours, what it feels like to drive the car, how you will look to others, quality and aspirational aspects. Many of these are intangible but they makes us desire a specific car not just need any car.

• Action: Does the advert prompt the reader to take action. As my previous point be clear about what you want your prospect to do. Many adverts. waste the A.I.D part because they just let prospects go with no clear call to action 'Do This Today '

• For every point you can answer YES allocate one point

• This gives you a rating out of 8 as to whether the advert follows the basic rules of writing advert.

What Are Your Customers Saying About Your Service?

Customers are often scared of making the final decision to buy something.
 
Are they doing the right thing or should they do more research? 

Will they find a better deal somewhere else?

One of the ways you as the business owner can give them more confidence to actually buy from you is to show them what previous buyers think of your product or service. A testimonial from a happy customer will act as a huge reassurance to them.

'People buy from people'

It would seem then that all businesses could be using customer testimonials in all of their marketing material but in truth many do not.

From our experience of working with business owners the simple reason so many don’t use testimonials is because they do not have any to use.

Customers do not tend to just volunteer positive comments; they have to be asked for them. For many businesses this seems to be a sticking point.

So how can a business collect testimonials, how can you ask your customers what they think and feel about your service?

• The most straightforward way is to ask customers to complete a satisfaction survey giving them space to add comments that you can then reproduce in your marketing.


• Invite them to leave comments on your website, social media sites, blogs etc


• Telephone a selected sample of your customers and ask for their comments


• Give customers a feed back form when they buy from you or when the programme of service ends.

Asking for feedback sends out two very crucial messages from your business

• My business is good at what it does I'm not afraid to ask you 'did we get it right?'


• As a customer expecting good service, you will want to tell me if your expectations were met and I will give you every opportunity to do that

Both aspects speak volumes to your customers and provide peace of mind to a prospective buyer.

Some of our clients are reluctant to ask customers whether they were pleased with their service or not just in case the answer is negative.

'Customers would rather just walk away than complain'

Surely it is even more important to know if your customer was not happy, you can then take action to improve, so that future customers will be able to say good things about your business. If customers do have a bad experience they will tell others anyway and nowadays many customers are able to complain using social media. 

There is also a reluctance to bother customers asking them for comments. In our experience satisfied customers are only too happy to be given the opportunity to express their thanks.

Once you have collected your testimonials which can be in any format, on-line, written, video recorded use them in all your marketing material.

The most effective testimonials are specific, saying in detail what was good about the experience and how it made customers feel.

All testimonials are much more credible if you include the customers full name with the testimonial. Nowadays with on-line testimonials it provides a superb way of customers meeting customers. I am able to see actual people talking about how much they loved your product or service. It is a great way to provide peace of mind and that extra confidence needed to make a final buying decsion.