If you’re planning to spend money on advertising there’s not just one thing you need to consider, there’s 5 and without one or more of them, you are spending money for it to do nothing. It’s important to know that all five play an important part in the success or failure of your campaign so it’s important to get them right.
Let’s look at the 5 things you need to get right before your advertising campaign will work;
- Content
- Reach
- Frequency
- Website
- Budget
Many advertising campaigns go heavy on content but forget about reach and frequency because they don’t have the dollars to put behind a campaign. Without reach, frequency, or the right spend you will get much smaller results if any over a long period of time. If you have everything in place but don’t have a website to ‘sell’ people then you are wasting your money. You have a branding campaign in place, so people will know your name, but not use you, your products or services. Each of these five components plays an important role, so first let’s look at ‘content’ and how it works.
So how is content different from content marketing?
The content you use in your advertising is different from content marketing. Content marketing is the sharing of information about your products or services across multiple platforms to create interest in your products and services. In this instance, content is the messaging about your products and services and if you are using multiple platforms is how you describe what your product or service will give the consumer. If you are using radio, it’s your 30-second radio commercial, with television and newspaper it’s the same – your advertising spot or commercial. With digital, it could be a graphic (like outdoor) or a video. It’s the tool to get your message across to your audience rather than the platform.
In the past selling the benefits of a product or service was the norm. Every message or commercial talked about how long you’d been in business and friendly your staff were. These ads are not going to cut it any longer (and haven’t for a while). The reason is that the world has become a busier place and from the time we wake up to the time we go to sleep we are hit by thousands of messages. We hear, see, breathe them every moment of our waking time.
Advertising messages now have to hit our RAS ( the Reticulating Activating System; a bundle of nerves at the base of our neck) to have any effect. I described the RAS to my husband on a drive the other day.
We were sitting in traffic and I noted that all the cars were red, grey, white or black and how boring it had become. We watched for a while and that was confirmed except for one in every 100 cars or so they were those colours. Next, I said to him, wow, wouldn’t it be nice to see some blue cars in the mix. What do you know; it seemed that every 10th car we saw from that point on was a bright blue one.
Your RAS is an area of your brain that is responsible for bringing to the attention things that you are interested in, good or bad. For example; if you want to be pregnant or thinking about it, you will see pregnant women everywhere. So the aim of the content is to get the attention of the RAS. This works with the BUY CYCLE. If you are hot for a subject and it comes on the radio or you see it in your news feed, you are going to listen.
So how do we do that?
Firstly you need to see the product or service by telling the consumer what it does for them, not how good you are or your product.
Examples of messaging
Let’s look at a face cream company that is selling a moisturizer. You don’t need to tell them the company’s credentials or how friendly or helpful their staff are, you need to address the customers’ concerns or problems, which in this case may be dry skin or fine lines.
“Do you wake up in the morning and feel like the life has been sucked right out of your skin?” “Our new face cream makes your skin feel like it has just rolled in a tub of warm golden light” “Spending more time every morning counting your wrinkles?”
Solve the buyer’s problem for them and if they identify with the problem, they will search you out for a solution.
Too many businesses let ego reign and the commercial becomes all about them. How they have helped thousands of people, how long they have been in business, and insisted on their website, their street address, and their telephone number. This information is important, but it needs to be contained on your we
The commercial, whether its radio, TV, outdoor or digital needs to convey the message creatively or emotionally to get the attention of the buyer fast. Each media uses a different platform to promote your products and has a different audience structure. Radio is priced competitively so you can get repetition (reach and frequency) of the message easily and effectively. Outdoor advertising, on the other hand, requires a simple message as people do not spend a long time with it, so you need a clever campaign that is not overly complicated with graphics or words. Digital marketing is very similar. You need a hook that makes people want to spend more time on your ad instead of scrolling past it in their newsfeed.
With content marketing you also need to understand the buying cycle of the consumer. At any given time only 2% of people are going to be ‘hot’ for your product. This means if 10 people see or hear your product, only 2% of people are likely to be interested in your message. This is when it is important to decide what type of campaign you are going to do; call to action or brand advertising as the messaging is very different for both campaigns.
Great content is vital to the success of your campaign, but it alone cannot bring in customers or create cash flow in your business. Like teamwork, results come from the efforts of every member, not just one person.
Overview
When working out the content or message for your advertising campaign you need to decide whether you are going to commit to a long term brand campaign or a shorter-term call to action campaign as both use very different messaging.
You also need an understanding of why consumers buy your product or service. What problem does it solve for them? Then put your ego aside and create a commercial that talks directly to the ‘after’. How the consumer will feel after using your product or service.
FInd out more about what makes a successful campaign. Learn more about Reach, Frequency, How important is your website and what should I be spending on my advertising.
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