I’ve long been frustrated at the advertising I see from my colleagues. The headline screams, BANKRUPTCY and is followed by Free Consultation, Payment Plans, Debt Relief or something like that. Someone, please wake me up!
If your ads look anything this then your advertising stinks. I’m sorry to be the one to say it, but your prospects don’t even notice you.
John Jantsch over Duct Tape Marketing likens most advertising to dating, and posits that the approach most advertisers take is akin to asking a prospect to marry someone they’ve barely or never met.
Here’s my ad, here’s my phone number, you don’t know anything about me, but call me so I come on over and sell you something.” – more or less the same as if you walked into a crowd of people and ask the first person that appealed to you if they would like to get married. Flash around enough cash, ask enough people, and maybe you get lucky with this approach every now and then, but it’s no way to build a small business.
Advertising, he says, should be approached more like dating. Give your prospects a compelling reason to mget to know you better, enabling you to set yourself apart from the rest of the yokels in the bar. Buy them a proverbial drink, twirl around the dance floor, make pleasant conversation. Then, once you’ve established that you’re a good catch, ask for a date. Let the date turn into two dates. If it works out, get engaged. Then get hitched.
How do you do this? Offer free, valuable information that they can gain access to with very little commitment. Use ads to attract and educate the public with information that will let prospects come to the conclusion that you’re the best one for the job.
Remember those goofy guys from Saturday Night Live who went to the clubs every night only to get turned down because they were goofy and brazen? You know, the Night at the Roxbury guys? The skit was hysterical precisely because you knew they were going to strike out.
Don’t be those guys.
