How much advertising does it take to sell just one car?



Multi-national car companies spend billions of dollars a year on TV commercials, paying high-fly ad agencies and hiring professional camera crews to showcase beautiful scenery.

And if you ask people who have seen the ad, they will remember the ad... but not the car.

Here's what the car dealership did to sell twenty cars overnight.

Instead of using advertising specials and discounts through classified ads, they released a special guide called, "How to Buy Your Dream Car at the Best Finance Rate." They had people flocking to their door for a test drive.

They took contact information from people who showed keen interest. They dealership pursued them aggressively through a sequence of messages and special offers.

The key message to the potential customers was this: save money and get the best financing deal. There is nothing fancy, clever, or creative about it.

But it's a powerful message to the would-be buyers. That question is perfectly tuned in to what they have on their mind.

If you want to make the most out of your advertising dollars, the first step is to stop wasting money buying media space to promote a weak message.

Why it's so important to have a strong message?

Let's assume you are going to advertise with Entrepreneur Magazine. A full page ad placement will cost you $60,565. If you divide it by the number of circulation 2,390,000 you will be paying two and half dime to reach each audience.

Wow - that's cheap!

But wait a second...

Don't forget that circulation includes a lot of unsold copies on newsstand that get returned. Sample copies also get distributed to interest groups for free.

To get a better idea of the size of your readership, look at the number of paying subscribers and that would be 615,605.

Even that figure offers no absolute guarantee.

Did you know that more than 90% of book buyers never reach the last page?

Let's assume that more than half of the subscribers will find the time to read the magazine with your ad. How many actually people read word-for-word, page by page, and eventually reach the section where your ad is?

Probably less than 10% do this. The majority of your would-be buyers simply skips and flips, sparing your ad few seconds of attention. If nothing catches their eye, they go on to the next page.

Now let's divide $60,565 by 10% of 615,605 that's $1.00 for each pair of eye-balls you fail to catch...

Sometime ago my client Scott did an experiment. He tested these two headlines against each other:

1. Who Else Wants To Discover The Direct Response And Direct Mail Copywriting Secrets That Can Instantly Attract A Flood Of Eager New Customers To Your Business Without A Million Dollar Marketing Budget?

And.

2. Revealed: Why Most Ads, Sales Letters And Web Sites Don't Turn A Profit - The Unvarnished Truth From Australia's Leading Copywriting Expert.

Which do you think pulled a better response? Take a moment and have a guess.

The answer is number 2.

It actually pulled in a 34% better response. So what does it mean for you?

It means you can get the same result from an advertising campaign costing $37,000 as you would from one that costs $50,000. It means you can instantly save more than $13,000 dollars without lifting your eyebrow.

Imagine this - how much more money you are leaving on the table without even realizing it?

If you want to get your hands on hundreds of other great marketing ideas, don't forget to visit my website.