Marketing - Marketing Strategy
The Finicky Business of Marketing

The Finicky Business of Marketing

The Big Secret Of Business!
Perhaps one of the best-kept secrets of business is that just about no one is ever really pleased with marketing results!

In some of my earliest businesses, I published newspapers and phone books and personally sold advertising to thousands of small and midsized businesses--and it was very, very seldom that I came across business people who were really thrilled with any of their marketing programs. At the same time, I found many business people who thought there must be some easy "silver bullet" solution that would drive huge crowds of customers to their doors that they just hadn't discovered.

Marketing is an art, not a science. There is no superman MBA or superwoman ad agency executive you can hire who can guarantee you marketing results! The experts don't have all the answers . . . and this is exactly why business owners and managers need to give a huge personal effort to make sure their marketing is working as hard as it possibly can.

It's Finicky, Tricky, And Tough!
Marketing is finicky; it's tricky; and it's unpredictable. I've seen the exact same ad pull great one day of the week and get no results on another day. I've run ad campaigns on radio and gotten virtually no sales--and other times I've run radio campaigns and doubled sales overnight. I've run huge display ads in prestigious newspapers and gotten no results--and I've run similar ads in much less prestigious newspapers and gotten great results.

A lot of people tend to blame it on the particular media chosen when an ad doesn't pull, but virtually every media can bring in some results. When ads don't work, chances are that one of the very many other variables is to blame: Is the offer attractive enough? Is it eye-catching? Is it believable? Is the timing right? Even the weather can be a factor!

So here's a crucial rule of thumb . . . never spend a lot of money on a particular ad campaign until you've carefully tested it first with a very limited budget.

Don't Leave Advertising To The Pros!
After all these years, I still get into trouble with my advertising. To jump-start the sales of the Adams Streetwise software line last year, I bought full-page ads in a major business magazine and got reasonable results. So this year I took the plunge and signed a year-long contract--our first six-figure ad commitment ever. Working with an incredibly talented designer we hired from the ad agency world, we created a much more impactful-looking ad that we thought would at least double if not triple our ad responses.

But when the new ad ran in the 500,000-plus-circulation magazine, we received less than five rebates for this $25 software package. I just blew over $10,000! Worse, I had eleven more ads to go in the contract, and the next ad was already past deadline!

For the third ad we switched back to the terribly cluttered, homespun ad that had worked for us last year, and results shot right up again.

Are Yellow Pages A Sure Bet?
What about the Yellow Pages? Isn't that a pretty sure bet for advertising results? Nothing is a sure bet for advertising results.

Nineteen years ago I made a sales call on a small service business in St. Paul, Minnesota that was just about to close its doors. The firm had bought an expensive ad in the Yellow Pages that wasn't bringing them results, and the cost literally bankrupted them.

Yellow Pages advertising does work great for many service businesses. But nothing is a sure bet in advertising. And when the Yellow Pages salesperson comes to visit and starts talking about how the ad will cost just a few dollars a day, remember that you've got to make a commitment to pay for the ad for the entire duration of the year.

Before you buy Yellow Pages ads get several years of phone books and note which ads changed from year to year and which ads didn't. This gives you some indication of which ads worked and which ads didn't.

The "Little Bits" Marketing Strategy
Until you've found a really successful marketing vehicle, I think the most important rule of thumb is to spend a little money here, and a little money there, and a little money everywhere, until you find the right media mix for you.

In addition to trying the traditional media, be as creative as you can.

With my first business, Bob's Rent-A-Bike, I advertised in local and daily newspapers. No results. Then I bought a 1/8 page ad in a million-copy-circulation tourist publication. I was so sure this would work, I didn't wince when the ad rep told me they had a policy of requiring a minimum of four weeks of advertising. So I spent $200 on the ads-a good portion of my life savings at the time. But the ads brought in only two $5 bike rentals!

Not one to give up, I next tried attaching crude, Magic Marker drawn posters at campsite bulletin boards offering mobile bicycle rentals. Bingo! A couple of cardstock posters sent my sales soaring!