 Here's your assignment: find somebody that is successful
in business and ask them what
are the three
most important factors in their
success.
One of those factors is sure
to be this:
You must have a compelling "story" to tell
about your business, one that
creates desire
and excitement and you must get
that story
in front of the people most likely to need or want what you are
selling.
This may seem like common senses,
but all
to often small businesses wrongly pick their advertising medium based on what
they can afford, or what a friend
says worked
for them, not by first determining
where there target audience would find them. Sometimes they don't even take a clearly
defined target market into consideration
- they just put out their message
and hopes
it finds somebody that will buy.
Advertising in the program for
the school
play may make you feel good,
but unless your
target market includes the parents
of school
age children, how many prospective customers are really
going to see it?
On the other hand, if you're
a family restaurant,
one that would be perfect for
an "after
the play" family dinner,
it might be
an excellent place for you to
advertise,
and maybe even list some special
offers!
How about a special appetizer
offer for parties
of 10 or more that bring in ticket
stubs
from the play? By the end of
the first night,
you'll know if that program ad
was successful
or not, won't you? The first
rule of writing,
and this includes marketing and
advertising
materials, is still what your
English teacher
taught you in High School: KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE!
Another excellent way of communicating
with
your best potential customers
is direct mail.
For many people, this may be
synonymous with
junk mail, but don't be fooled.
When you
try to reach too broad an audience
and send
to people who have no interest,
your mail
can be (and usually is) considered
"junk
mail." Think about you own
experience
- when you get something in the
mail for
which you truly have an interest, do you read it or toss it? You read it. You may not buy, but that business has gotten
your attention and taught you
something about
their product or service. That's
what your busines needs to do to be successful.
A customer may not buy right
away, but the
next time he or she does, or
is aksed to
make a recommendation to somebody
else about
this interest, your business
will be on their
radar. It's what the marketing
and adverting
folks call "Share of Mind."
The guys in the Ghost Busters
movies got
it right. You may never see a
ghost, but
if you do, we all know "who
you gonna
call?" They've got "share
of mind"
locked down!
Share of mind is an important
factor that
no business can be without. When a potential customers needs what you
can provide "who they gonna
call?"
If you've done your job right,
it's going
to be you!
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