You’d be surprised how many business owners think that if they do an advertising campaign, that the phone will start ringing, people will flood in through the doors on Monday morning, that Facebook or Linkedin will convert without them lifting a finger or their website visits will jump by 1000%
The expectation is that you buy a product (in this case advertising) and you will get immediate results. It can happen, but you have to have all your ducks in a row first. Everything needs to be ready for the campaign to work. It’s like buying a miracle wrinkle cream, expecting to wake up the next morning and look 10 years younger. (If you find one, let me know). Not even the best pills, creams or potions will work if you continue to smoke, drink, eat the wrong things and burn the candle at both ends.
Your business marketing is the same. You need to look at everything in your business and make sure that you have the right operating conditions and the right tools. There are so many factors you need to take into account before you start advertising for it to work. If you are going to invest money in telling people about your business, you need to make sure that you shape up when they research you online or visit you in-store.
Types of advertising campaigns; Brand and call to action (CTA)
Regardless of what campaign you do, you need to make sure that you’re operating in perfect conditions. THere’s no point sending customers to your store when you are not open. And there’s no point in running a sales when your product is out of stock. The same applies to your website. If you are running a brand campaign or a CTA campaign, you need to make sure that your website is working for you.
One in two Australians checks you out online before they shop in-store.
This means if your website doesn’t stack up they’ll be gone next door to your competitors real quick. With Google, that’s really fast, because your competitors are usually the ones around you on the Google search. Your website and your Facebook page, along with your Google My Business pages need to get an A+ rating.
Checklist for your website:
- Clean, modern design (you don’t want your website to look like it was done by you in the ’90s)
- Great photos of real situations including before and after. If you need to use stock photos make sure they don’t look like stock photos. Many companies are American based and most photos look like it.
- Your offer (if you are doing a CTA Campaign) front and centre, so your customers don’t need to go chasing around your website looking for it. Pop ups are great.
- Check your website load rate is fast. If it takes longer than three seconds, your potential customers are out of there.
- Check your bounce rate regularly. If your customers are not finding what they want on the home page they are out of there fast.
Checklist for Facebook:
- Up to date posts (your potential customers need to see some love given to your pages)
- Great photos including recent jobs
- Positive reviews or at least great positive replies from you to anything that is not 5 star!
- Your offer (if you are doing a CTA Campaign) front and centre, so they don’t have to go looking for it
- CGood engagement. If no one is engaging with your FB posts, then get some help.
Checklist for Google My Business:
- Great photos
- Great photos including recent jobs
- Opening hours and other information is relevant and up to date
- Contact details are up to date
- Links to your social media accounts and website work
Making sure that you have the business tools in place is great, but there are also a few other factors that could cause your campaign to fail.
- Is your staff aware of your current offer or campaign?
- Do you have enough staff to handle new customers?
- What is your customer service procedure?
- Do you have enough product or can you deal with an influx of new customers?
Once you have the right operating conditions, it’s time to start your awareness or brand campaign knowing that you are the sharpest looking tack in the tool box.
Many business owners and managers think that they can start a campaign and get immediate results. That’s an unrealistic view. Your customers need to know you exist before they can buy from you. This means creating an awareness or brand campaign that is ongoing and long term.
Your awareness campaign also helps your Google ranking. Why spend thousands of dollars on Google Adwords when you can get results from potential customers punching your ACTUAL BUSINESS NAME into a GOOGLE SEARCH? Once you’ve got this up and running you then engage your customers and excite them with a call to action campaign. If all your ducks are in a row, you can start converting.
To help businesses run a successful advertising campaign, we use the 7 Steps to more customers plan. We work with you to build a long term plan to bring in new customers and then keep them coming back. Our plans work to your advertising budget and use Social Media Advertising, Radio advertising and POS design and printing.
Do not invest money in advertising to bring in more customers if you are not ready and do not have unrealistic expectations of what your campaign is going to do.
If you want to get fit you are going to use the GYM you hear about all the time or see on the way to work every day. You are not going to use a company you know nothing about. So why do you expect your potential customers to use you if they have never heard about you?
Do not expect advertising to be a miracle cure. It has to be a holistic approach and that means you have to work at it too.