LEAVES OF ADVERTISING
by SMSMoneytree.com
COPYRIGHT SMS MONEYTREE 2008
“Have a Strategy in Mind”
This section in the SMS MONEYTREE will cover many aspects of advertising. Advertising is the gas that fuels your business, without it you will not grow and you will lose out on many opportunities. You gain momentum by advertising precisely to your niche customers. Think of advertising as fuel. Compare your business to an automobile or any type of fuel propelled vehicle. You will not advance unless you provide a fuel for the propulsion. The more fuel the further you go. You should also think of your advertising as an investment not as an overhead expense. Advertising is definitely a necessity, and the amount of money you properly invest will determine how far you will go. Be wise in your decisions and try different mediums and track them. This is discussed more in other sections of the SMS MONEYTREE. Advertising is much more than just throwing an ad together for a flyer or the yellow pages. Advertising should be entered into with a strategy in mind. A strategically designed ad will steer many more customers to your business than a poorly designed ad. The investment to hire an ad designer rather than designing ads yourself is a solid investment and will pay huge dividends in return unless of coarse you have had training or education in this field of advertising. Graphic designers have endless possibilities to offer you on freshening up your ads and making them more appealing to the public. Graphic and ad designers are familiar with new trends that are working for others and can offer experience from their industry. They generally have learned by trial and error and have had some type of training in this field. Designing ads yourself is like someone else trying to do your job without the proper training that you have gone through.
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Most of us learn our profession by education along with trial and error. We are generally extremely busy with trying to run our business. Why wear hats that we have no knowledge in? Why risk your advertising dollars on only your designs and waste valuable time and money realizing your ad just isn’t right? You may have some great ideas and you can share them with an ad designer and together you can put together a masterpiece of an ad that makes you money hand over fist.
When designing ads you are trying to reach two types of people for the most part. The population in most areas of the country is closely divided in half with approximately 50% of the population having introverted personalities and the other 50% having extraverted personalities. One other difference in the personalities of different people is that there are left brain dominant people and right brain dominant people. You must try to target as many personalities as you can with your advertising designs to be successful. If you are not currently reaching all of these personalities you are wasting much of your precious money and time.
When your advertisement bridges all of these types of personalities then you are maximizing your advertising dollars. Your ad should also have the components that make it most attractive in its particular section and stand out from the other ads. This technique is also valuable in your sales presentation. The SMS MONEYTREE goes more in depth in the sales presentation section on some of these techniques that are useful. Be extremely cautious before you start an advertising campaign. If your business is not profitable or well organized and well managed, you will only accelerate the demise of your business. All internal problems should be fixed
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before an aggressive advertising campaign is launched. If your internal problems are not repaired you will not be able to capture and retain all the capital that you need to run a successful business from your advertised sales. You will find great ideas to plug the holes in your company boat and how to make more money with your business in other sections of the SMS MONEYTREE. Many companies have figured out advertising only to fail because they are losing money in the way they operate their business and their demise is accelerated by a great advertising campaign. Running a successful business requires hard work, creativity and not being afraid to make changes or try new ideas. Taking well calculated risks may also be needed for your success. Remember; nothing ventured, nothing gained. One of our first recommendations in ad design is to avoid using the people in the art department from where you are placing your advertisements or yellow page ads. Sometimes you can get some great ideas from these people and they can be extremely talented. Typically they are just trying to move on to the next ad and most of their techniques are over used. They are generally very busy and can only allot a small amount of time into your design. Use someone who specializes in designing ads and that works for you independent from the ad house. These types of ads usually stand out from the rest because you are using an outside source. This type of a specialist is trying to gain your business to design all of your ads. Ad and graphic designers will work hard to set you apart from your competition. Typically ad designers will also offer you a few designs and you choose the best one or a combination of ideas from the different designs to assemble your ad. Using ideas from someone who is extraverted and someone who is introverted and bringing these ideas together is a great way to get designs for your ad to bridge personalities. Trademark your name and slogan in your ads to avoid
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“Examine what your Advertising Dollars are doing”
future competitors from trying to copy you. Contact a trademark lawyer if you think protection is necessary.
Try different ad layouts in different mediums. Review all the sections in a phone book to make sure you are not missing out on advertising in a different header. Track what works and what doesn’t work by inserting a number into each ad around the same place to help with tracking your ads. You can ask the customer when they call your company, “can you please tell me the number in the box on the top right hand corner of the ad?” This type of tracking will let you examine what your advertising dollars are doing, which phone books are profitable to be in and which are not. By calculating your income from each ad you will be able to invest where investing is most profitable. By dividing the number of calls a particular ad attracts in one month into the cost per month to run the ad, you can determine your cost per lead for any particular ad. Another calculation is to divide the amount of money brought in by an ad and divide it by the number of calls, subtracting the cost of the add. This will give you your return on investment or your R.O.I. One way of tallying this information is when the customer answers your survey question as to what ad number or phone book page they used to get your number you enter it into a spread sheet. Typically you would have the different sources or ad page numbers down the left side of the page and across the top you would identify the columns for the number of calls per week. The next column would be total income that week per ad and a third column for your average income per call. This is further discussed in our
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master the phone section in the SMS MONEYTREE for ad tracking. You must track your ads. Learn what works and what doesn’t work, which ads are a good investment and which ads are a bad investment. Do not continue to waste your money on a bad investment because you do not track your ads. There is an example layout for ad tracking in the SMS MONEYTREE ad tracking section.
Your message needs to be clear, at the top of the ad and to the point as well. Use the word “you” in your ads, draw the customer into your advertisement. Try to give them an image of themselves using your company. Try to think of this first line as the title of a book. It needs to be different to reach out and grab people. An example would be an electrician may write “25 ways to save money on your electric bill with every call” with a picture of a low electric bill. Or a tire store may write “we don’t sell tires we sell safety” with a picture of kids buckled in the car. A carpet cleaner may have “5 ways to longer carpet life”. Use the space that you are paying for to be different, not the same as others. An example of wasting space would be a picture of your vans. That space can be used for something catchier. Most people already know you have a vehicle, why do you need to show them? What message will you use that will attract people to your ad that resembles a book title? Your logo should not be more overwhelming than your message. What the customer is looking for and what can you offer them should be your headline. Your ad will need to answer the who, what, when, where and how questions a customer will have. It also needs to appeal to both types of people, introverted and extraverted as mentioned above. You should invest studying this type of technique. There are many books on this subject by many successful authors from the world of advertising. These books lay out
COPYRIGHT SMS MONEYTREE 2008
techniques in advertising that will help you be more successful in bridging the personalities that can be attracted to your ads. You will be pleasantly surprised on what an updated attractive ad can do for a business that reaches out and grabs more people. Most people think they need bigger and brighter ads. This is not always the case. A small well written and designed ad can attract just as many customers. Do not be deceptive in your ads or it will backfire on you. Be creative and take some chances, then track your results. Running two ads in one phone book that are differently designed and located on different pages will help you in determining which ad is more attractive. Track the calls that they draw in to determine which is more successful.
There are, for the most part, two types of people as we have noted above, introverted and extroverted; also categorized as left brain dominate people and right brain dominate people. The population is closely divided in half between extraverted and introverted. Extraverted type personalities have lots of relationships, very social, factual, they also analyze. Introverted people have few relationships, great imagination, forgiving and flexible. These are only a few distinctions and there are many. Some people are attracted to humor in an ad, some rely more on fact. Being able to bridge between the two is the key. This will be discussed more in depth in other sections within the SMS MONEYTREE.
COPYRIGHT SMS MONEYTREE 2008
“You are an Expert in your Field”
You are about to discover a GOLD NUGGET. A GOLD NUGGET is information that will help you get something for almost nothing. Typically, no money at all, or saving a substantial amount of money. All of these gold nuggets are found throughout the other sections of the SMS MONEYTREE. This section has a few gold nuggets (drum roll please) gold nugget number one; How would you like to have an ad in your local newspapers or neighborhood magazines and not pay for it. This is done by writing an editorial or story that can benefit the readers of the publications. In today’s life style we are all too busy and welcome the thought of someone else helping us do our job for free. It is no different for many editors of publications. You are an expert in your field so take as much time as you need to create a press release that is informative and interesting. Your press release only needs to be three quarters of a page to one page. Write at the top in big letters (press release). Make sure your spelling and grammar are correct and submit it for approval to an editor of a local newspaper or neighborhood magazine. If you are rejected try not to fold up and quit just yet. Ask the editor if there is anything you could add to your press release to make it acceptable. Usually they will work with you as long as it’s a minimal amount of corrections that are needed. Submit your press release to as many publications as possible. When they publish your article ask them to give your company credit for the article and the contact information on your company. Once you have connected with someone and they have allowed your article in a publication, they may ask for your contributions for future publications. Send out new press releases when you write new articles. One
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example of an article could be, if you were an electrician, you could write about the dangers in making repairs to electrical problems by the unqualified home owner and the amount of deaths attributed to electrical hazard. You would also try to drop subtle hints of how inexpensive it really is to hire a professional. Someone who has a great reputation like yourself. Try to paint your company into the picture in their head when they read the article without overdoing the illustration. This may be a little out of your comfort zone. In business you need to take chances. Just think of the extra business you can attract without paying a dime for advertising. There are countless amounts of studies that have proven statistics that most people, after twenty one days, can become comfortable with changes in their lives and new tasks they may need to perform. Step out of your comfort zone and try new things. Surveys are also important for you to conduct on thousands of people in your area. Discover where your types of customers go for services that you provide. What phonebooks they use and what type of online phonebooks they like. You should conduct these surveys at public events or at networking gatherings. You may also choose to call people and ask them which phone book they prefer. Check the phone laws in your area for any type of regulations restricting this type of survey. When conducting a general survey you may also want to ask the participants what is the first company that comes to mind that is in your type of industry. If you don’t like the answers that you hear you will have some work to do in your advertising and marketing to change it. You can use the information from your surveys to determine where you want to maximize your advertising dollars. Call both residential and commercial establishments for your survey. When you survey commercial companies ask the person on the phone what sources they use at home as well as at work. This will give you an
COPYRIGHT SMS MONEYTREE 2008
opportunity to get more data on one call. Tally the results after thousands of people have been surveyed. This may not be a scientific evaluation but the data you receive will be useful. Use this data to negotiate pricing with the representative from the phonebooks. When your advertising rep first arrives at your meeting for the new phonebook try to find out when books are scheduled for release and the deadline for entering new information. Try not to be forward with these questions. Drop them one at a time in between other questions. The reason this information is important is because as you get closer to the deadline they are more willing to negotiate. Be prepared to make whatever deal on the last day of the deadline. Until then play hard to get. You may not be able to lower the cost of advertising. You should be able to get some free bells and whistles like a free in column ad or a free ad on another page. GOLD NUGGET: When you have data in favor of a particular advertising medium, offer it to the sales representative to use in his sales presentation with others for a discount on your ad. You may also choose to sell your data to other companies in your area that advertise and are looking for information on what medium people use to look for services. Lets go over the checklist again on Key items that should be in you’re ad. 1) Your message near the top that resembles a book title clearly describing what you have to offer your customer and reaching all types of personalities. A rhyme may help as long as it’s not too corny. Use a thesaurus to help you find new and exciting words to express your message. Some recommend the reading of poetry to spark interesting ways to use words. 2) What sets you apart from other companies? 3) Always use a phone number matching the area you are trying to service. 4) Warranty information is always helpful. 5) Attractive art work and fresh graphic design is a must.
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“Never throw away your Phonebook”
TV and radio commercials are a great way to reach a large audience, but they need to be repetitious and consistent for weeks or even months at a time. Time of day is also important for this type of marketing. Morning is good for radio, evening is good for TV. This type of advertising is expensive but it’s worth it when it is done correctly. Your results won’t be overnight. If you are patient, this type of advertising can work. Branding for your company takes place by constant exposure of your logo and message to people over a prolonged period of time. Using a commercial to recruit employees and mentioning all of the great characteristics that are needed will not only get you applicants but also show potential customers what kind of people you hire that work for your company.
You should never throw away your phone books that you have advertised in. At least not for a few years. Every year take them all out and lay them out on a table and look at your ad and your competitions ads. See who is where, analyze where you want to be. Confirm that you are in the right place. If you are not in the right place with ad placement you may be due a substantial credit for the mistake done by the publishing house. There is a lot you can learn by laying out your phonebooks and reviewing them. GOLD NUGGET: Would you like to direct numbers from other companies like yours to ring on your phone? (Drum roll please) this is a suggestion we recommend you try. When you receive a new phone book, go through and call all the businesses in your particular trade. You are searching for those phone numbers that have been disconnected because the company went out of business or closed
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up shop. Then call your telephone service and ask them to direct that number to your business. These fees are usually small and can produce extra customers. Some phone companies have restrictions on holding the number for six months to a year before releasing it. Make a list of the number then check with licensing or other sources to see how long they were in business. Choosing the companies that have been around the longest is probably the best gamble. Some of these companies may have closed shop because the owners have moved or the owners have become ill. There are many reasons why people close up shop. The longer they were in business the more likely it is that their customer base was large. Many of these customers may only call every couple of years. If your investment is only three hundred to four hundred for the year it may be a good risk. We also recommend exploring other trade sections in your local phone books. Check out what other people are doing. What can you learn from their ads?
Copy all your ads and put them in a three ring binder where you can collect them. This can be a quick way to review all your ads at once without having to find them all in a phone book or anywhere else they might be, except for that one time a year when you lay all your phone books out.
Door hangers are also a great way to reach new customers. Door hangers should be left at the neighbors of where you are doing business, usually its 5 next door neighbors to the left and to the right and 5 across the street. The idea is to maximize drawing in customers. These hand outs only take a few minutes to deliver and it gives your crews opportunities to draw in more customers.
COPYRIGHT SMS MONEYTREE 2008
Post cards/mailing labels: Direct marketing can be helpful for driving up sales. Try not to throw too large of a net. Try to concentrate on the people that typically use your service and that you will make money with. Most mailing list companies can use different filters to pinpoint the type of customer you are looking for. Post cards are typically the most effective way to do direct marketing. Use a return address when printing so you can calculate how effective your data is. Most reputable companies offer a guarantee on their data and will offer some kind of compensation or replacement names for the unsuccessful ones. You may also want to print where the address is “or current resident” this way the post card can be accepted by who ever is at the current address. Be very careful when purchasing mailing lists. Search for a company that guarantees a large percentage of success with compensation of replacement names for those addresses that are not successful. The more names you buy the cheaper the cost per name. Some companies also offer flexibility in that you don’t need to get all names at one time. This is helpful when going on a long mailing campaign and not wanting to have old names by the time you get to the end of your mailing campaign. Mailing lists can be filtered to income, zip codes, value of home, age of homes and much more. These addresses can be requested printer ready or you can purchase printed labels. Be careful; ask a lot of questions when purchasing mailing lists.
Internet advertising in internet phone books: This is a relatively new medium and is really a great way to get your name out there economically and to a large market area. Everyday more and more people are using computers in the workplace or at home. These people hardly ever open up a phone book. They are more familiar with the internet
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and it is at their fingertips most of the day. When putting together an internet ad, be aware of your placement, as with a phone book ad there may be other fees associated with maximizing your ad performance by adding bells and whistles or having it come out on top when searched for. Revisit your on line ads regularly to make sure you stay up to date with what’s going on around your ad. You can also make changes as you wish to try different sayings or change information.
Running sales in your business may be helpful to improve quick cash flow, but in the long run you may be conditioning your customers to wait for a sale. A balanced campaign is recommended for long term success. Many of us have seen those companies that offer huge savings or “going out of business” sales and after a few years of seeing these sales you tend to lose interest in those businesses because of the tricks they try to play. Sales can be a good idea but don’t try to trick the public, they are pretty smart and they appreciate honesty and good quality. When you go out of your way to provide excellent customer satisfaction you will retain your customers. Word of mouth is a valuable way to attract business.
Your vehicles are another form of advertising. They should be kept clean, neat and maintained. Your signage should be as large as you can get for the surface area you
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have on your vehicles. The worst thing you could do is go cheap on your vehicle signage and use a small sign. These vehicles should be seen as moving billboards catching the attention of future customers. Another great idea to draw attention is to decorate your vehicle for upcoming holidays. If it’s almost Halloween you can use eye catching decorations. This also works for Christmas time and other holidays.
We are confident that the information provided in the SMS MONEYTREE will help pad your pockets with green or we will give you your MONEY BACK. The information in SMS MONEYTREE is put together by years of research and trial and error experience. This wealth of information is now at your fingertips. What are you waiting for? Invest in yourself and your company. Do it for your family. You may already be doing some of the ideas mentioned, but what are you missing out on? What does your competition not want you to know? Once you review the different sections in the SMS MONEYTREE and find each of the nuggets of gold that your company can benefit from you will become more successful. When you’re successful then we are successful. Benjamin Franklin once said “empty the coins in your purse into your mind and your mind will fill your purse with gold.” Now you might be asking yourself “where can I go to get more helpful information on the service industry?” Go to smsmoneytree.com for all the keys to unlocking the secrets that will help you be more successful. Plant your money tree today!
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