When it comes to crafting your ad campaign, the price you pay and results you get are not necessarily connected. It's unfortunate that many advertisers pay the same price for poor results when they could have acheived great results. The difference is planning. Plan well and you'll get better results from every campaign.



Before you start to write copy or call your friendly media sales rep, plan your advertising so you can see better results without spending more money.

Here are 4 steps to help:

(1): Understand your strengths. Ask yourself these questions...

● Why do people buy from you?

● What do you really do for your customers?

● How are you better than your competition?

● What special skills or advantages do you have?

The answers are your competitive advantages. They are what make you different from your competition. They may be related to price, location, professional skills, attitude, responsiveness or your own personality.

People buy from you because you do something for them no one else does. Understand this and you've taken the first step to create a better ad campaign.

(2): Identify your customers (a/k/a your target market)

Focus on people who value what you do. Your strengths (or competitive advantages) will help you focus on who will most value your service or product.

For example, if your location is your strength, target your message on the customers who desire a convenient location. If product / service quality is your strength, focus on customers who appreciate quality.

To get an idea of who your target market is, look at your current customers. You might have several target markets because you have several products or services and a variety of strengths.

Focus on people who will place a high value on what you can do for them. These will be your most loyal and profitable customers.

(3): Create a meaningful message

This is, without question, the most important element in your advertising. Crafting a message that is compelling, persuasive and delivered to the heart will overcome poor production quality and a weak media schedule.

Conversely, the greatest media schedule and the slickest production quality will fail miserably when combined with a message that doesn't resonate with prospects.

Your message needs to make your prospects want to do business with you. Engage the imagination and tell the customer what they want to hear, not just what you want to say. Speak in language they understand, not your industry jargon.

And remember to deliver one message at a time across all mediums your campaign employs. This will amplify for message and deliver far greater returns.

(4): Deliver your message as often as your budget allows.

You have multiple choices here: TV, radio, outdoor, direct mail, newspapers and so on. There are three things to remember as you plan your media campaign:

● Set a budget for your campaign.

● Get the most exposure possible for that budget.

● Focus your exposure on your target group.

Unless your budget is unlimited, you need to choose delivery vehicles that focus your message. For example, if you have a single location retail store and you know 90% of your customers live within two miles of your store, focus your message delivery on people who live within two miles of your store.

It's also important to not cut your campaign short. NO campaign will deliver instant customers that prove to be the loyal & profitable base you seek. You need to understand your sales cycle and plan your campaign on that history. For example, if people tend to buy your product one time each month, don't expect a big return until after a full month of message delivery. This gets even more complex with professional services.

One final tip: spend your money on what you can afford to buy on a consistent basis.

Your potential customers will respond to your ads, provided you have planned well and offered them something of real value.