Many small business owners complain that their ads are not working. They say things like, I have spent millions on billboard and newspaper advertising without results. Some will complain that their fliers are not working.
Some will complain about google and Facebook saying the adverts they placed are not working. There are many reasons why many adverts are not working but I want to to talk about only one. And that reason is probably the most important.
Before you spend a kobo on any advert at all, you need to ask yourself what your reason for advertising is. It is only after you have determined what your reason is that you will be able to know whether the advert worked or not.
What does it really me when someone says, an advert worked? There are different meanings to it to different people. For some, it’s because customers came to buy their products. For some it’s because more people talked about them. For some, it’s because they trended on Twitter.
For some people, it’s simply because they want to impress potential investors. Seeing their ads on major platforms will make them happy. Some people just want to feel relevant. Different different reasons. You have to ask yourself, what does it mean when an advert has worked.
A massive company like, let’s say a bank, can come up with an advert that just pushes their new logo out. The full page advert costing millions can read just.. NEW LOOK. They are not expecting people to come and open accounts with them immediately they see their new logo.
All they are probably interested in is ensuring the readers or viewers of the advert medium they are using see their new logo. They can decide to spend N100m doing that and they will be happy. Money no be the problem. They just want to spread the new logo. That’s all.
What about you? I guess what most small business owners want when they run adverts if for customers to come. They want customers to call them. They want customers to email them.
They want customers to come to their shops. They want customers to come to they websites. They want customers to sign up for the newsletters. They want customers to buy from them. All they want is ACTION which makes sense because that is probably the only money they have for ads.
They want customers to come to their shops. They want customers to come to they websites. They want customers to sign up for the newsletters. They want customers to buy from them. All they want is ACTION which makes sense because that is probably the only money they have for ads.
The problem I see is that small business owners are running adverts looking for instant responses from their targets but are creating adverts looking like all they want is branding and mind share. The components of the adverts are different. Don’t write them the same way.
The type of advert you will create when hoping for instant response is different from the kind of advert you will create when you are just trying to do branding and get some mindshare.
When you are looking for instant response from your target market, here are the things you should consider when creating your adverts.
1. You must arrest attention.
2. You must make an irresistible offer
3. You must ask for an action.
1. You must arrest attention.
2. You must make an irresistible offer
3. You must ask for an action.
I believe you get my drift. I expanded on these points in my book, Small Business Big Money but I assume that even if you don’t read the book, this article is enough to open your eyes to a major reason why many adverts fail.
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