Free Air Guitars

Wednesday, September 22, 2010 Posted by John Tabita 0 comments

Photo by sepultura

Looks like 96.3 Rock Radio is running a free air guitar promotion. Get yours while you can!
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“I’ll Start Advertising Again when Business Picks Up...”

Tuesday, September 14, 2010 Posted by John Tabita 0 comments

That was an actual response heard by one of my appointment setters.

Why is it that no one says things like, “I'll pay my phone bill again when business picks up,” or “I’ll pay my electric bill once business picks up”? How do you expect business to “pick up” if you don’t advertise?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: A recession is the best time to advertise, because most of your competition is cutting back on theirs.

It’s the perfect opportunity to steal their customers.

You see, the average business owner tends to think that, in a recession, no one is buying; so if no one’s buying, why advertise?

That would make sense, if it were true. But the reality is, people are buying, you’re just competing for a smaller pool of buyers. (In fact, a recent study shows that 24 percent of consumers made only minor cutbacks to their spending during this economic downturn.) Only the businesses that continue to advertise will have access to the larger percentage of consumers that did adjust their spending habits.

Since you need to compete even harder for customers, don’t just keep doing what you’ve been doing otherwise, you’ll just get more of the same. Instead, figure out what will get customers to buy from you. Just advertising in itself will not do the trick. You’ve got to advertise better. In a recession, consumers become more value-oriented. So what can you do to create more value for your customers, so that they’ll remain loyal customers?

For example, in a recession, over 80 percent of consumers surveyed say they think it’s a smart idea to pay for everything with cash, debit cards, and checks. So how about offering a discount to these customers?

That’s just one idea. The important thing you need to know is, how does the consumer’s buying habits change when the economy is down? That knowledge is power.. but only if you act on it.

Need somewhere to start? The folks at mNovack Design have written a book “to inspire intelligent recessionary marketing.” You can order a free copy, or download the pdf.

Yellow Page Advertising, Part 4: Return on Investment

Friday, September 10, 2010 Posted by John Tabita 1 comments

Anyone who’s read a business book or gone to college should know ROI is a number derived from a simple mathematical formula.

Ian Sohn over at Flagged For Follow Up made that statement on a blog post about ROI. He’s absolutely right. Here’s a simple mathematical formula:

1. How much revenue do you want your advertising to generate each month?
    Pick a realistic number. In my hypothetical example, I’ll use...

      $5,000

2. What is your average sale?
    If you have multiple products, think about what your average customer spends.

      $1,000

3. [Now divide $1,000 into $5,000.] The number of sales you need is:

      5 sales

4. How many prospects must you speak with to make 1 sale?

      6 prospects

5. [Now multiply 5 sales x 6 prospects.] The number of calls you need is:

      35 calls

So to sum it up, 35 calls a month would result in 5 sales and bring in $5,000 a month.

This is an example of what a transmission shop could expect from Yellow Page advertising.

Remember in my previous post that I said you could get significant advertising in many independent directories for less than $3,000 a year? Spending $3,000 a year to get $5,000 a month x 12 (i.e., $60,000) is a 20:1 return on your investment.

And they say Yellow Page advertising doesn’t work...

Yellow Page Advertising, Part 3: Too Expensive?

Thursday, September 2, 2010 Posted by John Tabita 0 comments

I’ve been told by older reps how sweet it was to sell Yellow Page advertising “back in the day” (that being when phone companies had a monopoly on Yellow Pages). They tell me the typical sales pitch went something like this:

I’m here to sell you Yellow Page advertising. Oh, youre not interested? Well, you will be. Here’s my card; call me when you change your mind. Oh... and the book’s closing in 2 weeks.

That’s how first half of their day was spent. The second half usually involved golf...

Those days are gone forever, mainly because the deregulation of the Telecom industry allowed for smaller, independent Yellow Page companies to publish directories of their own. Competition has forced rates to come down. As a result, companies like AT&T and Verizon can no longer charge the exorbitant prices they once did. And the independent publishers’ rates are even more affordable. (You could spend less than $3,000 and get display advertising in multiple headings for an entire year.)

Of course, any advertising is “too expensive” if it doesn’t work. And by “doesn’t work” I mean that you paid more money for your advertising than you got back in return.

So any discussion of advertising must include Return on Investment. And that’s the topic of my next post.