About advertising

[Walrus Gumboot]

The following statement was taken from an AOL article.

"The business owner is uniquely unqualified to see his company or product objectively. Too much product knowledge leads him to answer questions no one is asking. He's on the inside looking out, trying to describe himself to a person on the outside looking in. It's hard to read the label when you're inside the bottle."

Have you ever asked someone that's not involved with advertising or this business to help write your ads?
Usually my wife is the only person I ask. She's very critical,and I hardly ever take her advice. But she provides me with a sounding board to work with. I blow off her suggestions as not being informed.
Maybe I shouldn't.

 

[XTREME1]

post the whole article next time so people can get a better understanding

http://smallbusiness.aol.com/grow/marke ... 3909990023

 

[Ken Snow]

aol is in a long list of orgs that have said that starting with into to bus 101 at any college. It is imperative to get outside assistance even if that is just another person not affiliated with you bus to critique.

Ken

 

[Magic Al]

We do a fair amount of advertising (about $10K a month), but it pays off about 4 to 1.

When we started, and still do, we find that dollar for dollar, direct mail post cards work the best. Whether they be reminder cards (we have almost 5,000 customers, so that is 10,000 post cards a year), or prospecting cards (I have lots of SPECIFIC lists that I have purchased over the years), that is the best way.

WRITE 'EM YOURSELF, to begin with. That's a least what worked for us. I don't care what those aol folks say, nobody knows your business the way you do. Definitely have an "outsider" review it, but believe me if you write it and believe it, somehow it comes across to the reader.

But don't forget that 98 or 99 out 100 are trashed without looking at them, so don't take offense at a 1 1/2 % response.

The key is sending out 100 a day, 5 or 6 days a week. That way you get 1 or 2 calls a day, enough to keep you busy, but not inundated.

Again, my biz is not cc, but stone restoration, so I need less calls, as our jobs typically stretch 2-5 days or more, and are technical. But there are commensurately less prospects than you carpet guys have.

The thing about a postcard is that it is not "lost" in a money mailer, magazine, etc. It stands alone and can be saved until the right time that a person needs it. Have a "timed" message (__% of until Labor Day or whatever) so that there is an urgency to it. Coit does it the first of the year with a "Slowest time of the year, 50% off sale. For my carpets, unless Tom Meyer does it, they better pay ME to do my carpets!