Want to learn how to lose all of your small business advertising money? Keep spending your advertising dollars and don’t worry about what customers are discovering about you and your company. Don’t worry about how your customers are affected by the advertising you’re throwing money at.

Most small business owners wouldn’t dream of throwing their small business advertising dollars into the trash, but that’s pretty much what they’re doing when they spend money on advertising and then don’t track-and measure-the results. Advertising executives read the numbers off of the advertising space, television and radio time, and many other forums for small business advertising. The executives often throw out numbers about demographics, readership, listener-ship, viewers, and “hits” your advertising will be exposed to. It’s simple to believe that with all these numbers being spread around the advertising world, that your advertisement is being seen by many.

But good advertising takes a bit more than just having your message viewed by customers. Your customers do need to view your advertisement multiple time first, before they’ll actually take action from it. Second step that matters is the customer’s action. Whether it’s grabbing the phone to call your business, or making a purchase on your website. And finally, you have to record which advertisements received the best actions taken by customers.

So basically, the main thing that matters is that action based off of your small business advertising. And because it counts so much, you should be counting it-every bit as much as you count the cash your customers are spending as it comes in. You should be calculating your return from every advertising dollar your spend on different venues and promotions. This is the only way you will objectively be able to determine where your advertising dollars are getting results and being well spent.

“How did you hear about our business?” This question is asked by some business owners to their customers or new clients, but many don’t even go that far.. The companies that do record the results, often never actually analyse the data. In fact, the data isn’t even completely collected.

Don’t spend any more money towards your small business advertising, at least until you’ve studied the techniques that profitable businesses use to track their advertising results. Then study ways to take those results, and calculate into them the return off of your investments. Learn how to determine which advertising is effective for your business and why. Figure out which customers that advertising is attracting-in terms of specific demographic groups. Determine which advertising gets the best results for your business dollar for dollar.

Good advertising executives that know their way around the market and their businesses will teach business owners how to compare the data from your best advertisements. You can easily do this in many successful ways. Polling your customers doesn’t cost an arm and a leg, and can be quite simple to do.

It’s easy. So if you’re not looking to throw away all of your small business advertising funds, then learn how to track the success of your small business advertising before spending more money towards advertising. And then ask the next advertising executive who approaches you: “How can I track and measure the results of this advertising to prove that your advertising is as effective as you say it is?”

Some small business advertising isn’t produced in order to make an immediate sale. Many forms of advertising and promotion are incorporated for the sole purpose of building a brand image, or increasing and maintaining customer’ faith in a company, product, or service and also use marketing materials in order to gain an immediate response and if all goes well, produce sales - all of which I’m going to cover here.

There’s many forms of direct response marketing, from the short-form advertising copy (such as print ads, TV commercials, radio spots, contextual PPC advertising, etc.) to the longer marketing messages like text-heavy, full page, advertorials and the Dale Carnegie-style sales letters. All work and depend on what product or service you’re offering, and who you’re trying to sell it to; which you already know if you’ve spent more than ten minutes in marketing. – but timing is also important.

The Right Message To The Right Market In The Right Media At The Right Time

Direct response advertising campaigns rely on these four factors. – and we’ll briefly cover all four below:

Message: If you can’t effectively tell your target audience about the advantages over your competition in regards to your product or service, then it doesn’t really matter how good what you’re offering really is. – in other words you won’t make any sales. If you want an immediate spur into action from your audience then you must appeal to them on many levels, especially an emotional one. We’ll go over this a bit more later, and I’ll show you how to create an attention grabbing message that seals the deal.

Market: As I said, if you’re targeting the wrong audience then it’s not going to matter how great a product or service, or even how good of a message you’re putting out. In other words keep coal out of Newcastle. If you don’t know who your target market is before starting a direct response campaign to reach them, then you need to fall back on the basics of your business’ marketing plan. Knowing who you’re product or service appeals to is the only way to create an effective direct response message.

Media: Market research really comes to light when choosing what type of media to convey to your target audience based on the demographics of that group. Depending on who your target market is, different media channels will be more – or less effective in reaching them. Some people are more influenced by direct mail, and some by print advertising, and others prefer online marketing strategies such as email and banner ads. Creating a message and method that best impacts your audience is like preparing to give a speech, you have to know who you’re talking to.

Moment: On top of reaching the correct audience with the right message using the proper media, you also need to reach them at the right time. So how can you tell when the right time is? It’s when your target audience is ready to make a purchase, and not when you’re ready to make them a sale. You’re always in sell mode, but even after choosing the proper demographics your customers may not always be ready to buy.

Message, market, media, and moment are all important factors of a direct response marketing campaign that generates positive results and good return on investment by targeting the right people that are ready to buy from your business right now.

There are a few ways of doing this. Email and auto-responder software can be used to stay in touch constantly with possible clients. If it’s more likely that your audience would go for offline methods, then by targeting the media channels that have the greatest influence on your target’s demographic area can ensure that your message is heard loud and clear.

But any way you look at it, these are the 4 componenets of successful small business advertising…

You’ve just read a small segment of the free guide titled “How to Use Direct Response Small Business Advertising to Grow Your Sales and Profits.” The guide is available for free - along with several other resources for small business owners - when you sign up for small business advertising e-course…

To learn more about how to massively increase the sales in your business through smart advertising and marketing, click the link to grab your FREE small business advertising Course…

What triggers a person to buy a product or service? One reason might be classic salesmanship from a salesman to a customer. And what does classic salesmanship entail? It inclides getting to know the customer and how they can get the best from a product or service. Then the salesman directs them to the product or service using features the customer needs in order to gain the desired benefits.

A good salesman does things that most small business advertising don’t. It makes a personal connection with the customer and elicits an emotional reaction. They then back up the emotional response with logic and reasoning that support what they want to do based on that emotion.

The majority of small business advertising in print an other media simply show the features of a product or service, instead of showing the customer how they’ll benefit from those features. Customers don’t really care about features unless they directly benefit them.

For example a vehicle that can hold up to seven passengers. If I have a family of three, then I have no want or use of this feature. It doesn’t benefit me. But say a good salesman learns that my only child has a bunch of friends over to our house and that I shuttle them between activities a lot, the classic salesmanship can take over and the salesman will recognize that the feature can benefit me.. That vehicle with room for seven can make my life easier because I can fit everyone into the vehicle and be the great parent because my child can spend time with more friends.

In order to create effective small business advertising, it is important to know your customers or potential customers and to know something about them. Once you know enough about your customers to describe them, you can make small business advertising that directly speaks to the customers. You can demonstrate how they will benefit from your product or service.

Features. Benefits. Emotion. Those are the keys to small business advertising. But the response you want to elicit-and the order in which these words and concepts matter to potential customers-is in reverse order.

First, your small business advertising must elicit emotion. It must create an emotional reaction or response. They have to desire and feel connected to your product or service.

Next, your advertising must show off the benefits that justify the emotional desire from your customer. Most people are looking for a reason to purchase a product or service they desire, but they need to justify the expense. Describing the benefits will help your customer justify their expenditure on your product or service.

Finally, you can showcase the features of a product or service. But remember, benefits of the features only matter if they support the customer’s emotional reaction and desire to buy in the first place. So don’t start out by focusing on features in your small business advertising.

If you want your advertising to result in actual business for you, then you have to remember to elicit responses in the proper order. Emotional response comes first. Describe the benefits that justify the purchase second. And third, showcase features that provide benefits.

Let’s not kid ourselves. Rather than focusing on their customers and answering the number one question they have, “What’s in it for me” (WIIFM) many small businesses unknowingly commit the number one sin in small business advertising, talking about themselves or their business. This is mostly due to many small business owners, and sometimes their advertising executives not being able to tell the difference.

The thing is, you’re not alone. You are not the only one who has been committing this “sin” in your small business advertising. So are you competitors. This is mostly why you wouldn’t be able to get the results you’re after if you copy your competition’s advertising.

There is hope. You can make your small business advertising much more effective by turning this way of advertising away. Also you have to change the way you deliver your message, and the message itself to “steal” your competition’s customers away! Even using subtle, yet effective changes in your advertising, your competition wont even know what’s happening to cause their customers to go after your business.

The key to successful small business advertising is telling the customers what’s in it for them. Why should they purchase the product or service offered by your business, as opposed to any other is what your advertisement should answer. “We’re the best.” or “Cheapest” or the “fastest” is what many small business owners think answers this question, but usually they just seem self centered or like they’re bragging.

They just don’t like bragging. You may be great, but they don’t what to know why you think so. Why is doing business with you in their best interest?

So make a subtle change to your advertisement to where it explains the customer’s “We’re the cheapest!” is something you shouldn’t say in your advertisement. Something more like “You save big money!” would tell the customer their benefit. They show their focus is on the customer that’s reading or listening to the advertisement. They see that it’s personalized for them.

Little changes made to the wording of your small business advertising are easy to make. Rather than “we” and “I” and “our”, just change them to “you” and “your.” Let them know that your product or service is what they want using easy to understand messages made just for them. Put something along the line of, “Your dreams will become reality with xyz.” “xyz” being what you’re selling.

Examining your small business advertising messages, and changing them when needed takes some practice.. As these adjustments are made, you’ll begin to notice an growth in business. They may not catch on to the subtle differences in your ads while heading to your business, but you’ll know it’s cause you avoided bragging, and answered what’s in it for them.

Are you buying your clients?

If not, then what are you waiting for?

That’s the goal of your “small business advertising” - purchasing customers…

Then they turn around and pay you more…

So it’s an investment…

So, since we agree that’s true… How much do your clients cost?

And do you know your ROI (Return on Investment) gained from that investment?

If you don’t know any of the answers, then trust me, many are in the same boat…

Most small business owners can’t answer these questions with hard data-based answers…

But they’re still in business right?

So it’s probably no big deal, right?

Well, it depends on how far you want to take your business…

A lot of small business owners are making less than mid-level management at medium to large businesses…

And work longer hours…

Some even have made it up into 6-figure net incomes…

Even less have achieved true wealth…

Personally, I view the latter group as financial and business successes…

Even if you love what you do - why spend 80 hours working and only making 40 hours worth of pay?

Didn’t we all start out trying to better our lives with our business?

Well then maybe we should review how we’re spending our money on advertising…

Learn your costs for each customer, because if you know that they could double your profits… how much more would you pay out?

Well, that’s the name of the game in small biz advertising…

Spend a buck this week and get back two next…

Rinse and repeat… and repeat… and repeat…

Until it stops working… Don’t quit on your ad before it’s done working… Measure and track its response and profit until it’s no longer gaining any…

But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Let’s answer those questions from earlier…

Like your ROI vs. Client Acquisition costs…

There’s a couple ways to track your ROI…

First is your break even point…

You could hurt your businesses cash flow if you don’t find this out…

But if you know that you break even – and get that ROI of 1 – within 7 days then you can plan ahead…

If you break even at 7 weeks – then you need to plan differently…

You get it…

Once you’ve compared your ROI to your customer-gaining costs within a various time frames, then we’ll begin to improve on your ROI…

There’s two ways in make your ROI better…

Lowering costs or increasing income… those are the two step towards growing your businesses profits…

To lower costs you could acquire customers cheaper by finding better deals on your advertising, or trying a different and cheaper way to advertise…

It could lead to improving your ROI, but not by much…

Because at some point along lowering your front end costs, you’re going to reach zero…

But if you are getting a 1,000% return on one dollar – whooptie-doo – who cares, right??

Well what matters to us as small business owners, is what do I get to keep at the end of the day?

All this boils down to is this - don’t focus on your ROI and throw out your worry about net profit…

If you go the second route towards improving your ROI, then you kill two birds with one stone - improved ROI and increased net profit…

Second being increased income from individual clients…

There’s two ways:

# Increase the transaction size for each client
# Increase the frequency of client purchases

You can raise prices, cross-sell items that loosely are associated with your product, upsell premium versions of your product or service, or sell add-ons at the point of sale in order to raise your transaction size…

By joint venturing to provide some added new products or services, or by adding continuity to your business (memberships, subscriptions, etc.) you can quickly increase the frequecy of your client’s purchases…

Within the next month you’ll see immediate increase in profit if your implement just one of these methods…

The difference between the successful small business and the failure is implementation of good ideas…

The majority of businesses that fail are run by owners with incredible ideas, but no will to implement them…

Don’t be that business owner…

Take what you are learning here and implement it – then share your success story with me so I can publish it on the blog…

As always, feel free to leave any comments or questions…

Here’s to always improving small business advertising!!!