When you spend thousands of dollars on a campaign, you need your investment to pay for itself and then some, so that you can justify its cost.



Many small business owners and large business owners have tried advertising and marketing campaigns that didn't work and the costs could not be justified with sales. It's happened again and again, and I've compiled some qualities that are common to successful marketing campaigns so that you can avoid that hard, disappointing road of investment without justification.

Focus on qualified prospects

Many small business owners think that the more people they reach with marketing, the better. They don't think it's worth it to make their mailing lists smaller and more focused to get more customers. By sending out catalogs, booklets, postcards, etc. to everyone in the phone book, some business owners think their chances of getting a response grows. But think about it: they're just wasting their booklet printing budget by sending booklets and other direct mail pieces to people who are most likely to throw those things away. Wouldn't it make more sense to send marketing pieces to people who are most likely to respond? By focusing on qualified prospects, you can significantly increase your response rate.

Stand out from the crowd

Unless you sell a product or service no one else does, your marketing campaign will need to help your business stand out from your competitors. To stand out, you need to do a little research. By researching your competition and evaluating what they say in their marketing campaign, you can be sure that you don't stress the same qualities they do. If another pizza parlor claims to have the fastest delivery time, don't try to compete by saying you have the fastest delivery time. Focus on something that makes you different, like the freshest ingredients.

Show how valuable you are and focus on solutions

You need to tell customers and prospects how your product is valuable to their lives.

By showing your value, you give people an idea of what benefits they'll get from buying your product or service.

Along the same vein, show how your product or service can solve someone's problem. Everyone is looking for ways to make their lives easier, even if they don't realize it. What I mean is that you should show your product solving someone's problem so that potential customers will see your ad or marketing material and think “I didn't even know that was a problem that could be fixed.” For instance, if your product can save people money on their dry cleaning bills, they wouldn't have even known there was a cheaper way to dry clean if you hadn't told them! Show them your value and how you can solve a problem for them.

This all seems like a pretty tall order for one advertisement, but you can do it! A well-written message along with an effective photo or graphics is all you need to get your points across.