Alice
Many people consider advertising to be a waste of money, because they do not get any business from it. They spend a lot on the design to make it look good, and even negotiate where it is placed in the publication for maximum effect, and yet the punters don’t come flocking in.
This can be very demoralising, especially when your advert is placed alongside others that are trying to promote the same product or service. (This is particularly poignant in those local magazines that plop on your doormat once a month.)
If you took a step back and looked carefully, you would probably notice that all the ads are saying the same thing: “This is the company’s logo and name, this is how wonderful we are, this is what we do, this is where we are located, this is our contact details”.
Sometimes doing what everybody else is doing is not a good thing. To grab a customer’s attention you need to be different. You need to analyse what is their problem or what do they need/want, and you need to show empathy with the customer’s predicament. You then need to provide the solution or answer.
If your company provides answers to lots of problems, don’t list them all (that’s incredibly boring, and there probably won’t be enough room in the advert), do some research to find out what’s the most important thing people are looking for in relation to your industry. If your marketing message hits home what the customers are most likely to be thinking about – maybe it’s seasonal, fashionable, most popular, a gap in the market, your expertise – it will relate to them more and you are more likely to be noticed above the others.
Also, the first area of the advert that is noticed is the top left. This should not be where your company logo and name should be, it’s where your main marketing message should take pride of place. Get the customers on your side, make them feel comfortable, and let them appreciate your empathy with their need before they read on.
Then you should list the reasons why customers should do business with you. These are the benefits they will experience from your company’s service and the products you provide or instal, and how much their lives will be improved. It does not mean listing how wonderful you are and all the special features your product or service has; they may be important to you, but the customer only thinks about themselves and how it will affect them. List feelings rather than facts, or lifestyle rather than performance.
And then you must tell the customer what to ‘do’ after you’ve given them all this information. Never assume they will automatically pick up the phone or look you up online. Why should they, if they have no compelling reason? What incentive do they have to make contact? What will they get for nothing if they leave their details with you? What special, timebound deal with entice them to immediately fumble for their mobiles or go straight to your special landing page on your website?
And when you have put together this totally unmissable incentive (which should be part of your marketing planning activities done way in advance of setting the advert), make sure your contact details are LARGE and clear, not stuffed somewhere at the bottom as if they were an afterthought. Outline the special offer equally clearly, and add in a post-script at the bottom – a very powerful tool to entice the customer to take the bait.
And to be able to measure the performance of this advert, or within its position within a series (which does have more impact because one issue may not be enough to capture your customers’ attention; drip-feed marketing on a long-term basis will finally wear them down!), create a method of collecting data from reactions: Google Analytics for your special landing page, database programmes for collecting the names and emails of those participating in your special offer or downloading your relevant report or e-book, even having a special patter ready for those customers who ring up (maybe to a special telephone line) to find out how they heard about your company and what they are interested in.
Isn’t this better than blindly putting an advert in with the same copy as everybody else, with the vain hope someone might possibly see it and respond?
Filed under: Copywriting, Marketing, Measurement, Planning, Printed Marketing | Tagged: advertising, analyse the problem, benefits and features, empathy, grab customer's attention, incentives, landing pages, marketing planning, solutions to problems, special offer, Websites | Leave a comment »
What is the difference between Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0?
Alice
For those who are still confused by my title, Web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 are the various stages the internet has evolved, and how it has affected electronic, email, online or digital marketing (the various terms for marketing on the internet also suggests how technology and its concepts have rapidly changed).
Web 1.0 deals with static websites. These were originally set up to be online brochures, a representative of your business on the internet where people could go to find information.
A space was provided on the web which was filled with an attractive (if applicable) website that hardly changed since its conception, except for a few additional alterations and updates, sparsely accomplished due to cost and reliance on webmasters. The concept was simple, and at first confined to those who could afford it or had access to it.
Web 2.0 deals with interaction. Now there are all sorts of websites that allow their visitors to add their own contributions, that are regularly updated with new information, encourage participation, call to action and regular methods of following or subscribing.
This concept of interaction has been spread to social networking and sharing sites, a phenomenon that has expanded hugely to become almost a part of our daily lives, a requirement to be constantly up-to-dated with what’s going on, become a trend setter or act as an innovator to start off the next big thing.
Then there is the ability to update your website through CMS (content management systems), in whatever format it is in (website, blog, blogsite, forum, status update or whatever), by yourself whenever and wherever you like (on any suitable hardware, software or media), and also by others through leaving comments, feedback, contributions and advice.
Web 3.0 is no longer a concept of the future, it is already here. The use of smart and android phones have commanded a change in internet use. It’s not just that websites have to adapt to be effectively seen on people’s mobiles, but the technology behind them as regards data gathering, customer segmentation and promotional targeting.
Data about consumers are gathered from a myriad of sources: mobile use, payment cards, loyalty cards, telephone voting systems for popular television participation shows, the list is endless. Today’s technology allows marketers much easier access to all sorts of information that would have taken ages and with much higher costs than before.
This is mostly permission based (a requisite much more heavily policed in the States), but unfortunately subjected to technically advanced fraudsters and spammers. Even so, marketers have to find new ways of promoting their products to overcome apathy and avoidance of regular advertising, and technology provides constant answers to beat the increasingly rapid changes of today’s society as it adapts to whatever is thrown at it!
Filed under: Databases, Interaction, Online Marketing, Research, Social Media, Websites | Tagged: blogs, CMS, comments, contributions, customer data, customer segmentation, digital marketing, feedback, information, Interaction, internet, mobile marketing, social networking sites, technology, up to date, Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Websites | 2 Comments »