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corporations are going to have much more money to spend on things like advertising and development. That is a
fact.
However, they also seem to frequently waste their money  not just a little, but a lot. Their ads are often
noninformative, and even though a flashy Hollywood producer may direct them, the message doesn t get across
well. Sure, it s a great-looking ad, but the product barely gets mentioned or receives too little attention. Too
often the ads incorporate a sports star or famous actor that becomes the focal point of the ad, leaving the product
shrouded in a cloud of oblivion. Big corporations frequently overdo it...way overdo it. Consequently, their prices
for their product goes up, or the guarantee suffers.
They also have to deal with the  corporate ladder  which frequently stunts any innovative growth within
their marketing. They re often forced to be conservative and traditional in their thinking and marketing. Take
advantage of this. If you flaunt an entirely fresh, nontraditional and nonconforming marketing program, you ll
get attention.
The benefits and discounts that the larger companies get, through their buying power, can be relatively
insignificant. And you can more than offset their advantages by  cutting corners. You, as a smaller company,
have more versatility and are more flexible. What s more, because you don t have to distribute your profits
through layers of people and a ton of overhead, you can act more quickly and efficiently.
To compete with these bigger businesses, you must take advantage of all their testing they ve done for
themselves  and utilize it yourself  for free. If their ads are working (and you ll know if they are: How
popular has their product become? How frequently do you see or hear about their product? Is the company
visibly prospering and growing?), then find out what specific factors in their ads are working. Incorporate your
own version of those elements in your smaller-scale ads.
Also, now more than ever, you must tighten and enhance your message, making it more powerful; more so
than the messages promised by the big businesses in your industry. You have to be exact with your USP (Unique
Selling Proposition), making sure that it is right on target to satisfy your customers needs. Elevate your
guarantee and benefits to a more encompassing level. Make your offer sound irresistible. Focus on the quality
control and customer service that you as a smaller company can provide.
Most importantly, make certain that you listen to the market to determine its wants  rather than you telling
the market what it should want. And directly address those wants in everything your company offers.
You have to understand that, to an extent, in the customers eyes, everyone is equal in a sales letter; everyone
is equal in a commercial; everyone is equal in an ad.
And, although you re smaller, you will have a greater advantage.
Why? Because you understand the dynamics, leverage and the potency of effective marketing, and they
don t. You can compete with people 10 times your size, and win their would-be customers, by using effective
marketing. You can make 1/10 the budget go 10 times further.
Motivation is a key component to the overall efficiency of any business or operation. And the easiest
motivation is to compensate your employees for supporting your goals and the company s aim. Hopefully, your
employees won t require compensation for supporting your marketing efforts (I used to believe that was a
prerequisite to employment).
Incentivize them and explain to them your objectives and goals. Let them in on the methods behind your
madness. If they do accomplish something, give them some kind of reward: lunches, buying sprees, bonuses,
trips. Do things that will make them want to work on your marketing. Use variable compensation.
84. I ve heard that you have to run ads in different media so that people see your name in more
than one place. Is this true, and how can I do this cost efficiently?
Again, test. Do not necessarily use the cheaper or cheapest medium, but rather find one that will expose you
or your product/service to the most qualified prospective customers. Make sure to use direct-response ads to
record the effectiveness of each promotion and medium. Keep testing that medium with different packages,
promotions, copy (or scripts) and combinations of them to get the most results.
After establishing the most effective combinations with that medium, then you can try a different medium
with a new set of methods and tests. You should be comparing the leads per dollar for each medium after
implementing different kinds and types of packages and promotions to find the most cost efficient combination.
If every ad you run is a direct-response ad and not an institutional ad, it will pay its own way. It will produce
a profit either directly or very quickly after you run it. And it s correlatable. You ll know whether it s profitable
to continue running it or not. If it works, you keep running it; if it doesn t, then stop running it. If an ad doesn t
do well the first time, it ll very rarely do any better the second, third, or fourth time. Determine your target
audience, and select the medium which most effectively reaches those people. If it works there, then you might
try to run it in a medium that is more expensive or more marginal, if it s appropriate. Lowest cost/highest yield is
your strongest option  not simply the lowest cost. Too many people go for the cheapest without thinking of
responsiveness. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]