Advertising When Times Are Tough
Advertising When Times are Tough
The situation business finds itself in now is unprecedented. We can throw our arms in the air and give up, we can ride it out, or you can thrive in the face of adversity. The choice is yours. If you choose to thrive, you need to start thinking outside the box. Come up with ideas on how you can serve others in this time of need.
— Cheryl Jowitt, The Truth About Advertising
When times get tough one of the first expenses that business owners and managers cut is their advertising. Businesses say to me, I have to pay rent, I have to pay my staff and I have to keep the power on, so the next biggest cost is advertising and that in tough times is the first to go.
If you curl up and die (go quiet) during tough times you are handing 100% of market share to your competitors. You need to fight. Don’t react. Build a long term strategy that gets you the right tools, gets cash flow moving again with a call to action campaign and look at branding your business long term. If you do this properly now, you’ll come out of these tough times stronger than before.
In a fight, the person that has had the training and has a plan of attack will always win over the person that comes out swinging wildly. A knee jerk reaction now can cost you dearly. So let us help you plan to be around for the long term.
Mistake #1
Stop Advertising
When times get tough one of the first expenses that business owners and managers cut is their advertising. Businesses say to me, “I have to pay rent, I have to pay my staff and I have to keep the power on”, so the next biggest cost is advertising and that in tough times is the first to go. If no one knows you exist how can they use your products and services?
No customers, means NO SALES, NO MONEY COMING IN and that means no money to pay your staff, rent or electricity.
Cut your advertising and you’ve just signed your business death warrant.
Mistake #2
Not having an effective online shopfront
If your website is not working for you, you are just handing business to your competitors.
Common Website Problems that give business to your competitors
Mistake #3
Spending huge amounts of money for a 1st page Google Ranking
The only business making money on a Google search is Google. If you are in a very competitive market you are probably paying big dollars for your leads on Google Adwords.
Stop spending huge amounts of money now and start advertising your brand on radio and get your customers Googling your business name NOT your industry.
Mistake #4
Investing in Dead Media
What is going to cut through all the clutter? We are subject to up to 10 000 messages every day and now, with more and more people fighting to be seen and heard, you have to make sure that you get your name out as often as you can to as many people as possible. One ad in a newspaper is not going to do that. Radio and social media is the best way to reach your customers cost effectively. Radio to brand, social media for call to action.
Mistake #5
Building your own Website
Unless you are a website specialist or have someone who really knows what they are doing, invest in a great website builder.
You need to plan for what happens when your website is finished. What do you do with it then?
Building a website takes time if you are not an expert and it can also mean lost income for you if you don’t close the circle.
A website that has no visitors is like a stack of your own business cards sitting on your office desk. You’ve got to get the cards out to potential customers and spread the word. It’s the same with your website. How are you going to tell people that your website is open for business?
The best and fastest way to do that is to advertise it. Get your message out there to as many people as you can, as often as you can.
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Common website problems that gives business to your competitors:
#1 Your website is an online business card
A website that is nothing more than a business card is just like a business card in the middle of a football stadium with no one in it. The internet is HUGE and your website is just a tiny minnow in an ocean of fish. How are people going to find you? And if they do find you, are they going to get what they want from your website?
#2 Slow to load
If you’ve paid for Google Adwords and a client clicks on your website and it fails to load in a few seconds, your prospective customers will click back and check out your competitors website next. You pay for the lead, but don’t get the business.
#3 Poor on page optimisation
Every website must be properly optimised for organic search. Factors like keywords, page titles, XML sitemaps and keyword density are imperative set up. They play an extremely important role in helping Google work out what your website is all about.
#4 No offer to grab your customers attention
Keeping customers on your website is essential for several reasons, the longer the customer engages with your content, the more likely they are to invest in your brand and move down your sales funnel. They can’t turn into paying customers until they trust your business and believe it has something valuable to offer.
#5 You don’t have a way of remarketing to your visitors
Remarketing is essentially those displays of text ads users see on the side of websites when they are searching or browsing the internet. A business remarketing campaign helps you show your ads to people that have visited your website before. When people visit your website, then leave without making any transactions or purchase, you can target your ads to them as they browse the web in the future.
#6 Broken links
A broken link is either a link you have included which goes out to content on another site. If the link is broken, when your website visitor clicks on it, they most likely see an error page telling them that page no longer exists.
#7 Not paying attention with their current position in Google’s search result
By understanding this information, you’ll be able to better identify why your website isn’t ranking and provide yourself a solid base from which to work.
#8 Touch competition
Google Ads & Facebook advertising works on cost per click. It’s like an auction so the more competitive your industry, the higher the cost per lead may be. It’s important to combine SEO which is organic with paid digital strategies.
#9 A lack of call to action
Missing call to action is probably one of the biggest small business website mistakes we see across the board. The best website user experience should tell a customer the what, where and how.
#10 Not closing the circle.
Remember that little fish in the worlds’ ocean? (point #1)That’s your website if you haven’t told people how to find you or even why they should be looking for you. You need to close the circle
Closing the circle
Everyone wants that MAGIC PILL.
Businesses are always looking for that magic pill to cure all their business problems. It’s like looking for a get rich quick scheme that actually works. The magic pill is more customers. So how do you bottle up customers and get them into your business? You need to tell people that you exist.
If people don’t know you exist they can’t use your business products or services.
How do you get more customers? Forget about short term results. You need to plan strategically and plan your advertising for the long term. You also need to have an understanding of the two types of advertising; Call to Action (CTA) and Branding (long term). You also need to understand the buying cycle of your customers.
Call to Action Campaigns
If you need a quick cash flow boost you can do call to action advertising. Heavy frequency over a short term with a special offer that encourages people to buy fast. You’re encouraging people to part with their money faster and before they normally would.
For example: A couple might think of buying a new washing machine, but won’t because their old one is still working. But if there was a 40% off sale on washing machines, they may change their mind.
This turns a cold buyer into a hot buyer and gives you more cold hard cash!
Brand Campaigns
Imagine how much money you would save if people started putting your business name into the search bar and not the industry. For a start, it’s likely that your business would be top of the google search and all your social media (if you have them linked properly)
That’s like getting a free drumstick at the movies! A whole Google page with just you on it!
It can happen if you brand your business. For example: If you are a lawyer, you can google “lawyer and your suburb, town or city” and you and all your competitors will come up, but if you get your customers googling “John Smith Lawyers” they’ll get you everytime.. You need to get your name out as often (frequency) and to as many people as you can (reach).
Radio does that and surveys are telling us that the best ROI is when you combine radio and digital advertising. To get customer conversions you need a minimum of 20-75 ads per week. How much will that cost you on television? Imagine how much it would cost you to do that with your local newspaper? Radio Advertising is the best form of branding your business.