So your advertising campaign failed. What do you do now?

May 22, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising

There can be many reasons why advertising campaigns tank, but usually it boils down to three reasons:

1. Your creative is bad. Have you ever seen a TV ad and asked yourself “What was that about?” Or heard a radio spot that just made you change the station? Sure you have. Bad advertising is all around us. Bad creative makes us change the channel where good creative engages the audience and causes them to do something.
2. You paid too much. Many times the people paying for advertising don’t understand all the ways a media outlet can confuse, overcharge or package worthless ads into the mix to make you feel like you are getting a deal when really you just bought junk. Have a professional media buyer on your side. It’s like having a good doctor. They can heal a lot quickly by seeing where your campaign is sick.
3. You chose the wrong advertising medium. It’s amazing to me how many times clients have asked me to purchase advertising for them on programs, shows, stations or sites that they like. They paid for this and by gosh they want to see it–never considering where their target customers are consuming their favorite programming. Look at your media mix. Make sure your target customer are there before you invest.

Secret Steps to Making Your Direct Response Advertising Profitable

May 22, 2015 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising

Wondering: “How do I improve my advertising?” After 25 years of managing Direct Response advertising campaigns, here are some secret steps to helping you become profitable fast.

Step One: Before you spend a penny, know when you make a dollar.

The heart of direct response is knowing how many responses you need for your investment so the campaign delivers your profit instead of costing you your future retirement. Here are the metrics you need to know:

• How many responses, calls or unique visitors does it take for me to generate a purchase? That is your conversion rate or ratio. If it takes 10 calls for you to generate 1 purchase or sale, then your conversion ratio is 10%.
• Next, how much can I afford to invest to generate these responses? Let’s say your product or service costs the customer $500, and your profit on that sale is $250. If you convert at 10% then your target cost per lead can be no greater than $25 just to break even on your media, or deliver what is called a 1 to 1. Spend a dollar, make a dollar. So any media that delivers a cost per call or response under $25 is a winner.

Step Two: Match your media to your sales system.

Analyze your internal sales system. Do you generate most of your sales from your website? Do you have in-house sales people or a call center answering the phones? When do your best salespeople work? That will guide you to your media mix as to how much Television, Radio, Mobile or Internet you need to be doing.

Step Three: Make sure your creative is really a well-crafted Direct Response piece of advertising.

Direct Response advertising is a totally different animal than branded advertising. There are tried and tested formulas you need to adhere to. Hire a professional Direct Response agency. They will make sure  you have the best creative and alert you to any copy that may hurt your response rates. 

Six Secrets of Successful Direct Response Creative

Mar 14, 2013 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising

If you want to know the formula for successful Direct Response creative, here you go.

• Identify the problem: “Do you want to get high school skinny?” “Are creditors hounding you for collection?” “Do you need a second income?” Help the target customer know exactly who you are speaking to, and get their attention by grabbing them where they want a change, improvement or need a solution.
• Communicate and demonstrate the solution: “Now you can get high school skinny in 12 days.” “We help stop the creditors from calling.” “You will make more money than you imagined.” The next step is to show and tell what your product or service has to offer in simple, direct terminology.
• Establish credibility: People are smart. And they’ve been burned. So you need to be able to back up your claims. Legitimate testimonials work well. Any accreditations from third-party sources that support the benefits you are offering helps. Let the audience know they can trust you.
• Limit their risk: “Call now for a Free trial.” “You get a 100% money back guarantee plus we cover shipping.” The more you limit the consumers risk the more likely they are to try you out.
• Create a sense of urgency: You have to give your audience a reason to call or act now. That looks like… “Call or click to take advantage of our 48-hour 50% off promotion.” “This is a limited time offer.” “Supplies are limited so act now.” There are reasons you hear these familiar lines in almost every direct response offer: They get the consumer to respond.
• Give a clear call to action: Tell the consumer exactly how you want them to respond and make it easy. Show your phone number and give the website address often or keep it up during the entire length of your TV spot.

Use this formula and your spot will be successful more often. If you need help crafting your next spot and campaign, we would be honored to help.

Written by: Buddy Vaughn

4 Quick Tips to Turbocharge Your Advertising Campaign

Mar 8, 2013 | Advertising How-To, Direct Response Advertising

1. “Many a small thing has been made large by the right type of advertising.” Mark Twain. Know who you want to reach. Know where to reach them. Use the words they use. Give them good reasons to connect with you. Understand your customer, why they buy, what they want and tell them how well you can meet their needs.
2. “If you don’t drive your business, you will be driven out of business.” B.C. Forbes. You can’t manage what you don’t measure. You can’t achieve your marketing goals if you don’t measure. Put a goal and measurement for performance on every part of your campaign. Drive your campaign toward your goal.
3. Advertising that generates results communicates clearly what’s in it for the consumer. Like Samuel Johnson says, “Promise, large promise, is the soul of advertisement.” Make a promise that makes people want to do business with you.
4. “Great things are not done by impulse, but a series of small things brought together.” Vincent Van Gough. Details matter. You have to know what is broken in your campaign to fix it. To have a successful ad campaign you need four things. A.) You need to reach the right audience. Make sure you are talking to your customer base. B.) You need a well-crafted message. Many a campaign has failed because the audience is clueless as to what is being advertised and what’s in it for them. C.) The right frequency. Make sure your ad agency or you understand the strengths and weakness of every medium. D.) Don’t pay too much. Most people run out of budget before they see results because they paid too much for the ads. A professional media buyer/ad agency can save you a ton of time and money.

Written by: Buddy Vaughn