B Squared Ads

Posts Tagged ‘advertising budget’

You’ve spent the money, you’ve generated traffic (or sales) and now you want to know what worked and what didn’t in terms of your advertising dollars. So now what?

In general, we advise clients to use traffic reports as a guide — not gospel — when evaluating media plans, as not all media is created equal.

For instance, magazine advertising is generally used for image building and branding. If you didn’t get a large response of people reporting that they saw your ad in one of the various magazine pubs you used, don’t be surprised.

Newspaper advertising is highly ranked, because people tend to report the reason for their visit (or sale) based on the last thing they saw or what they had seen most often. Since newspaper advertising is run frequently, people remember the ads more often.

Also, people may have seen or heard your television ad, radio spot or saw your banner ad, but if it wasn’t the last thing they remember it most likely will not register as the impetus for their action. This also explains why signage is most often sited as a traffic generator. Typically, advertising signage is the last thing a respondent sees before taking action.

Another consideration is that repeat customers may claim the reason for their purchase or visit is because they are already clients. Keep in mind that your radio ad, television ad, web banner, email, signage, school flyer’s, etc. may have prompted their most recent action.

Advertising works best when it is part of a wide media mix, enabling you to reach as many people as possible in as many ways as possible. This is why your entire advertising budget should never be allocated to a single medium. (And yes, that includes the web.)

A brand is like a jewel – it needs to be protected and valued and placed at the best vantage points. It is what keeps you recognized, relevant and real.

Part of what helps to establish a brand is creating a simple and easily understood logo coupled with effective advertising and marketing. After this, however, your company needs to go further. Someone should take charge keeping that brand consistent.

Your brand’s keeper, be it an ad agency or in-house marketing person, is there to ensure the brand remains true to its origin. It doesn’t stray from the thing it ought to be; it doesn’t compromise, and despite product changes and upgrades, remains true to what gave it its fame. Its longevity could transcend months, years, decades or centuries but the brand must remain relevant and always be the link between your company’s name and its products. So in retaining this revered image the keeper of the brand must also bear the responsibility of making certain that the continuity of the brand remains the same through all mediums.

It’s a strategy that should also be reinforced and utilized at all levels of the company; everyone needs to learn the common vocabulary and refer to this vocabulary every time an employee is engaged with the public.

Above all, clear, concise repetition is key. Every single time a prospective or repeat customer sees your brand he/she should easily identify that image with your products and become used to the language through which you are communicating. Nike’s brand is so well known that people have used its “Just Do It” as a rallying cry for everything from getting out of bed to launching a life-changing project.

Idea. Brand. Purpose. It all comes together through a cohesive advertising strategy. Your brand can never stray from what it stands for. And what it stands for can never change.

While the dollar seems to be shrinking these days, you don’t need to be a magician to make your money do more – all you need to do is rethink how to spend that money already allocated. It’s not as difficult as you may think. A new line of attack that promotes your business and lets you reap the rewards of a more streamlined, tighter advertising campaign is possible.

With budgets as tight as they are, how do we make our advertising dollar work harder for us? A dollar is a dollar is a dollar, right?

Think about this. Sometimes, it’s not about stretching the budget but instead, condensing it.

Say you have somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 set aside for marketing and advertising that you’ve traditionally used in a campaign over a 12-week period. Make a bold move and consider using that same amount of money over a 6-week period instead. Create a promotion and condense that promotion over a shorter period of time. Figure out a reason for people to visit your place of business today rather than inform them of your existence over a longer period of time.

Studies show that people respond better to a direct offer than they will a series of regular programmed ads that promote what your business does, but that don’t sell a specific product or advertise a specific event. Whether it’s a coupon, a one-time offer or a longer running ad campaign with multiple offers attached (ala McDonalds’ Monopoly campaign), create something unique and advertise the heck out of it over a condensed period of time.

We call it “condense and conquer” for the residual benefits will far outlast the length of the campaign itself.

As to the advertising vehicles you choose: internet, newspaper or radio and TV – choose the medium(s) that suits your business and your promotion best.

The idea is to drive as much qualified traffic as you can through your doors over a condensed period of time thereby increasing your rate of return (sales). Give it a try, it works.