Jun
28
Taken from a conversation held last week with a prospect - as we tried to identify why his marketing wasn't working for him...
"We tried advertising last year. It didn't work. So I don't want to try it again."
What a pity. Because advertising can work - if you give it a chance.
"We tried advertising last year. It didn't work. So I don't want to try it again."
What a pity. Because advertising can work - if you give it a chance.
We dug a little deeper to find out why things had gone wrong the last time. It turns out that this particular hotel ran their advert once. It wasn't planned at all, they did it in response to a telephone sales call from a Sunday newspaper offering them "cancellation space" at a quarter of the normal price. What a great deal!
Obviously I can't show you a copy of the advert they used for fear of offending anybody. But I can give you some idea of why it might not have worked.
1. Advertising relies on repetition. "One shot" advertising almost certainly won't work. Repetition is critical if your advert is going to be noticed by anyone. Understand this, almost nobody actually reads an advert the first time they see it. In fact research (and experience) indicates that it can take at least 12 repetitions before people start to read and respond to your advert.
2. The headline should not be your business name. 99% of hotel adverts have the name of the business as the headline. The headline has a really important job to do - it attracts attention - yet sadly most adverts don't get read because they have awful headlines. You see the reader has lots of other dreadful adverts to negotiate before they find yours. As they scan through the pages of newspapers and magazines, lots of other businesses are vying for attention too. Admittedly, most of them are using their names as headlines too. So it shouldn't be too difficult to stand out. Should it? The headline not only has to stop the reader and make them look at it, it also has to encourage the reader to read the body copy of the advert. That's the bit that should contain your offer and tells them how to buy it.
3. No interesting or compelling offer. "Come and try our new menu in our lovely conservatory" is DULL, DULL, DULL. Why should I try it? What is so special about your new menu? Come to that, what's so wonderful about your conservatory? Mind you, what's just as bad is shoe-horning your entire menu into the advert in tiny print - even if we want to read it, we can't unless we use a microscope. Funnily enough, not many readers will bother...
4. No instructions. What is sometimes known as a "call to action". Call this number! Visit this website! Bring this coupon! Visit Today!! Sometimes you've got to tell people what they need to do next.
5. The wrong message in the wrong publication. Who is your target market? Where are they? What newspapers do they read? What do you want them to buy? What might they be looking to buy? Just a few of the questions you need to answer before you spend £1 on advertising.
6. No measurement. How do you know it's not working? How do you know if it works? If you're not measuring, you're not marketing. Full stop. You need your advertising to be measureable. If it's not measurable, change it so it is. Otherwise, how are you going to explain to your boss the reasoning and results behind spending £1,000 on an advert? If you can't be clear exactly how many enquiries, responses or sales you got for that money, is the boss likely to let you loose with another £1,000 to have another go? I doubt it.
To give your adverts a chance, all you need to do is follow this simple mnemonic: AIDA
A - Attention - Take your time to develop (and test) a solid attention grabbing headline.
I - Interest - Make your message of interest to your target market.
D - Desire - Construct your message so that the reader wants to know more or take steps to buy what it is you're selling.
A - Action - Tell them what to do next. If you don't, they won't do anything.
All adverts should follow that simple structure. Sadly, more often than not they become a triumph of style over substance.
Read up on the subject. You'll find that a good headline typically contains at least one of the following four qualities:
1. Self interest (that's the readers' self interest, not yours)
2. News
3. Curiosity
4. A quick, easy way
Tell me, in what way does the name of your business portray any of these qualities? It doesn't, does it?
So, to give your advertising a chance, try giving it a decent headline.
Obviously I can't show you a copy of the advert they used for fear of offending anybody. But I can give you some idea of why it might not have worked.
1. Advertising relies on repetition. "One shot" advertising almost certainly won't work. Repetition is critical if your advert is going to be noticed by anyone. Understand this, almost nobody actually reads an advert the first time they see it. In fact research (and experience) indicates that it can take at least 12 repetitions before people start to read and respond to your advert.
2. The headline should not be your business name. 99% of hotel adverts have the name of the business as the headline. The headline has a really important job to do - it attracts attention - yet sadly most adverts don't get read because they have awful headlines. You see the reader has lots of other dreadful adverts to negotiate before they find yours. As they scan through the pages of newspapers and magazines, lots of other businesses are vying for attention too. Admittedly, most of them are using their names as headlines too. So it shouldn't be too difficult to stand out. Should it? The headline not only has to stop the reader and make them look at it, it also has to encourage the reader to read the body copy of the advert. That's the bit that should contain your offer and tells them how to buy it.
3. No interesting or compelling offer. "Come and try our new menu in our lovely conservatory" is DULL, DULL, DULL. Why should I try it? What is so special about your new menu? Come to that, what's so wonderful about your conservatory? Mind you, what's just as bad is shoe-horning your entire menu into the advert in tiny print - even if we want to read it, we can't unless we use a microscope. Funnily enough, not many readers will bother...
4. No instructions. What is sometimes known as a "call to action". Call this number! Visit this website! Bring this coupon! Visit Today!! Sometimes you've got to tell people what they need to do next.
5. The wrong message in the wrong publication. Who is your target market? Where are they? What newspapers do they read? What do you want them to buy? What might they be looking to buy? Just a few of the questions you need to answer before you spend £1 on advertising.
6. No measurement. How do you know it's not working? How do you know if it works? If you're not measuring, you're not marketing. Full stop. You need your advertising to be measureable. If it's not measurable, change it so it is. Otherwise, how are you going to explain to your boss the reasoning and results behind spending £1,000 on an advert? If you can't be clear exactly how many enquiries, responses or sales you got for that money, is the boss likely to let you loose with another £1,000 to have another go? I doubt it.
To give your adverts a chance, all you need to do is follow this simple mnemonic: AIDA
A - Attention - Take your time to develop (and test) a solid attention grabbing headline.
I - Interest - Make your message of interest to your target market.
D - Desire - Construct your message so that the reader wants to know more or take steps to buy what it is you're selling.
A - Action - Tell them what to do next. If you don't, they won't do anything.
All adverts should follow that simple structure. Sadly, more often than not they become a triumph of style over substance.
Read up on the subject. You'll find that a good headline typically contains at least one of the following four qualities:
1. Self interest (that's the readers' self interest, not yours)
2. News
3. Curiosity
4. A quick, easy way
Tell me, in what way does the name of your business portray any of these qualities? It doesn't, does it?
So, to give your advertising a chance, try giving it a decent headline.
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