Why doesn't traditional marketing work so well?

The main reason traditional marketing doesn't work is the small business owner doesn't really know much about marketing, and relies on the salesman of the marketing media to tell them what they need. The problem is they use the “trust me” method which is: “Give me your money, I'll run your ad and trust me; the leads will come rolling in”.

Heard that before???? They strong arm you to spend your whole budget with them and then….you guessed it, it doesn't work.

That's like asking a car salesman which type of car you should buy!!!

Another reason is Laziness. Business owners that do not understand marketing, very often just want the easy way out. They just think….. And we can all be guilty of this at times… that “well I'll just run an ad for a while, and that should bring in some sales”. If only it was this easy.

Advertising copy is a highly specialized field that very few advertising sales people know anything about. They are selling ads….they don't write them, and they rarely understand what makes them work. Yet they are usually the ones that are asked for advice. It's just crazy.

If advertising doesn't work, just do more of the same advertising!!! What?

Let's look at an example of this type of scenario. I know of a small business owner that wanted to retire.

He was great at what he did. In fact he was meticulous and a master of his trade. But he was no marketer. He never had to. He knocked back more work than he took on. He was that good at what he did, and he never wanted to get too big. He kept excellent control of what he had, and how he managed his lifestyle.

But when it came to selling his business he did what anyone would do. He advertised the business in the “Businesses for Sale” section of the largest newspaper in the city.

Seems fair enough! However, over the following 6 months he got about 3 calls. He thought that 2 were from other people in his industry trying to work out what their business was worth. How depressing.

Nothing was happening. So he virtually decided to just close up and walk away from it. He had done very well from it anyway…. So no big deal!

Well that was in 1982 and at that stage I was just going into business opening my own investment bank. You know how it is…. I just decided to do it all of a sudden in one of those bursts of over confidence that we suffer from in our early 20's. You know … back in the days when we knew everything…. and no one could convince us otherwise!

So here I was sitting at my desk, in my very salubrious office with no work to do. Ah ha… I thought to myself in another one of those sudden bursts of over confidence… I'll sell that business that is for sale. So off I go with a strategy. A very special strategy! I'll advertise it.

Oh wait a minute…. He had already done that… and it ain't working too well!!! Mmmmmm…. What to do? My first client too… although he didn't know it yet! So I researched all the newspapers and decided to do something that was rarely done in those days…. And it has not changed these days by the way!

It had to be different. It had to stand out.

You need to look at the way everyone else is doing it and do it differently.

So I called a smaller newspaper…. but it was the leading financial newspaper in the country, The Australian Financial Review… And it was national. It was the equivalent of The Wall Street Journal.

I had noticed that there were many advertisements titled “Business for Sale”. Well…. Fair enough I suppose. That's what they were….they were businesses for sale. They were also boring, mundane statements…although some were saying that it was the opportunity of the century, and one would think that Bill Gates and Warren Buffet would be reeling in their chairs at the missed opportunity. Or maybe it was just hype….. Do you think?

Now previous advertisements for this small business were small statements of fact. It went like this:

"Business for Sale

Sheet metal fabricating business established 15 years. Profitable small business. WIWO. $55,000."

So I thought lets have some fun and also get some attention. So I met with the family selling the business and they gave the go ahead. Fortunately the push to sell the business had come from the family. The advertisement then went like this:

"MY FATHER'S POOPED! (in very large type)

Business for Sale (in the very smallest type)

My father has been self employed in the sheet metal fabricating business for over 15 years. The gross profit margins are 90%. He is now 63 years of age, and as some of the work is heavy physical labour, his family think he should retire. However he is reluctant to do so, as he is making so much money, and he wants to maintain his standard of living.

So I will sell his business to you at last years profit and make the difference up to him myself if it means getting him to retire."

Then it simply showed the contact details.

The advertisement took me about 5 minutes to place and the lady on the other end of the line was in hysterics. She even helped me with some of the wording. She was great!

By 11.30 am the next morning my receptionist, who in the previous 2 hours had more than once threatened my future ability to become a father, took over 120 telephone calls, many from accountants.

And the outcome?? The business was sold to a senior partner of one of the big international accounting firms, who bought it for his son. And get this… I sold it for three times what my father had advertised it for. That's over $165,000! We sold the company structure and all…. Lock, stock and barrel!

SUCCESS!

All because of:

A great headline that was fun and attention getting and very different
A great story that reeked with honesty and trust
A drop of appeal to the emotional senses
Exposure to a different, and more astute, demographic.

But most of all:

A desire to be different!

And yes you heard correct ….. three times what he wanted for the business…. $165,000 instead of $55,000. Worth the extra investment of $365 for the advertisement don't you think?

The owner was retired within 11 days of that advertisement appearing. Now I know that was back in 1982, but it is no different now.

Now let's look at this scenario, because it is important:

Most marketing (and most advertising in fact), just says “look… buy this because it's good…. And it's good because I say so!”

Riveting!!!! It is usually a lazy way… an easy out. There is no work involved, no effort mentally, and it's no effort to spend lots of money. Its just plain lazy! It's a cop-out.

I see this all the time. I hate lazy marketing as much as I hate advertising. It's risky, it's expensive and you have to do lots of it to before you even start to see the smallest result…. Maybe…. Or if at all! It's generally one way that businesses go broke while they are trying to get rich!

There are so many things that can be done that produce enormous results that do not cost very much at all, or in many cases nothing at all.

So if you really have to advertise, which I really do not recommend, look at your headline, and ask if it stands out in a sea of mediocrity.