Help! I Don’t Know Where To Advertise!

So the question was recently raised on our Facebook page (click here if you’re not part of this already); “Help, I don’t know where to advertise!”

It seems like quite a few others are having similar problems, and thus it warranted a discussion on the matter.

You might recall my recent blog post which listed 50 different ways you can promote your business – so we are rather spoiled for choice these days.  (If you’ve not seen that then check it out right now here).

So how do we know which to use and which not to use?

How do we know which magazines will be the best?

How do we know what will work and what won’t?

You’ve got to test, test, test!

Yup, the only way you’re going to find out what works and what doesn’t is by testing.

This is the formula and process I use, and I suggest you try something similar.

All being well you’ll end up a year from now with a kick ass marketing machine churning you out more clients than you know what to do with – can you imagine that?!

So to begin with then you need to test a new method of advertising.

This could be any of those in the previous post, or a subdivision of that (for example a new magazine title you’ve never tried before).

You trial it on a small, and affordable basis.

Go on, try something new or different. What’s the worst that could happen?!

This isn’t about going all guns blazing on the latest new thing which may or may not work.

Nor is it about trialling the medium of whichever persuasive sales rep has called you that week!  (More about that in a future post!).

You run your trial for a month.   No longer, no shorter.

That will give you a reasonable indication of whether the trial has worked.

If it has then great!   You run it for another month, and depending on the level of success you may even wish to ramp it up a little.

If it hasn’t then don’t beat yourself up about it!

It’s fine!   You’ve learned something valuable.   You now cross it off the list and stop running that campaign.

When month two starts you try another medium of advertising.   Either in addition to the previous one if it worked, or instead of if it didn’t.

At the end of month two you assess it again and see if it has worked.  If so, great!  If not you know the drill!

Simply continue this every month!

Each month try something new.   Keep the ones which work and scrap those that don’t.

You’ll probably find half do and half don’t depending on your service, your area and lots of other factors.

By the end of the year you can expect half a dozen (or maybe more) reliable sources of customers.

No more guesswork, you know they work!

Then when you want you can turn the tap up and you’re away!

The $64,000 Question: How Do You Know If It’s Working?!

Now here comes the crunch question…

How do you know if it was a success?

There is only one way to know and I’m not talking about a hunch or a gut feeling here.

You have to track the ROI.

“What?”  I hear you shout!   Don’t worry, I’ll explain.

The ROI is the Return On Investment.

In the simplest terms possible for ease of understanding, it measures how profitable an advertising piece either was or wasn’t.

The amount you received back as a percentage of what you first put in.

It’s calculated by dividing the net profit by the original investment and multiplying by 100 to express as a percentage.

Let’s look at an example to make things clearer.

If you spend £10 on Facebook ads and they generate you sales of £50 then your ROI is –

– Net profit of (return – investment) – £50 – £10 = £4o

– Original investment – £10

So – £40 divided by £10 = 4

Multiply by 100 = 400%

(For anyone who really struggles with maths then there is handy calculator you can play around with to get your head around the concept here).

Don’t worry, maths lesson over!

The point of this is that you can then weigh up which of your marketing efforts are performing the best and which aren’t.

It isn’t the one which brings the most money in that you want to do more of; it’s the one which provides the greatest return for your investment!

Find out which that is and do more of it if you can!

However, of course you should never rely on just one source of business – you should aim for a variety.

Are we done yet? My head hurts!

There is one last part to cover, which in many ways is the most important.

You must have a system in place for accurately tracking where your business is coming from.

If you take a telephone enquiry, for example, and you have three different adverts running in different magazines then how do you know which is responsible for the enquiry?

It could make a massive difference as to whether the advert is worth running again or not!

And simply asking the client is not good enough!

So what can you do?

Well to be concrete about these matters you should aim to send web traffic to specific landing pages which are shown only to people reading that advert.   For example if you have an advert in the Liverpool Echo then you might encourage people to visit your website, www.hairandbeauty.co.uk/liverpoolecho.

That way you can track the traffic to that page and judge the success.

Alternatively you can set up telephone tracking numbers which generate a specific number for each advert so that you can calculate how many times the telephone rings as a result of each advertisement (not as expensive as it sounds, either).

Or for a cheaper option then you simply put specific codes in each of your adverts and encourage your clients to quote them when they call.

Of course, this will only work if they are getting something in exchange such as a discount, upgrade or a freebie!

Phew!   We covered a lot today!

If you’ve questions then let me know in the comments below – now get out there and get testing!