With social and mass media being an ever-growing influence in the lives of millions of people throughout the world, it’s no wonder that the majority of advertising dollars are focused on those fields. Yet, there are many other ways to reach an incredible number of people in a short time.
As ad magnate Morris Hite once stated, “All advertising is local and personal. It’s one man or woman reading one newspaper in the kitchen or watching TV in the den.” You need to have a clear master plan with goals as well as a way to track your success. With that in mind, here are 5 unique ways to make your company stand out through techniques that will build a super professional advertising campaign.
1. Master Plans Require Brilliant Ideas
When you decide it’s time to upgrade or redirect your advertising campaign, generate as many great ideas as you can. In order to ensure some of the best ones don’t get lost or forgotten along the way, write them on note cards along with information on the resources you’ll need, the length of the program and what you expect to happen.
For example, a nighttime silhouette created against a building with a windowless wall on a busy street is fairly easy and not very expensive to implement. Under resources you would need the cooperation of the building owner as well as the owner of the building across the street and a projector. At night the projector is turned on and suddenly your name, logo, phone number and any other information people may need shines like a neon sign on the blank wall. It’s inexpensive and unlimited. You can even show slides creating a living billboard. When you’ve collected all the ideas you can think of, post them on a bulletin or white board. As you’re exploring options, the cards can be rearranged in the order that you think will generate the most success.
2. Keep it Personal
Remember that you’re one company trying to reach one customer at a time. As such, evaluate things such as the type of customers your campaign will target, what ideas worked best in the past as opposed to what failed, and what it is your customers need most. Then ask yourself how you can ensure your customers get what they need at a value that will build loyalty. Customer acquisition, in fact, costs 7 times more than retaining the customers you have. According to the social analytics platform SumAll, 25–40% of the total revenues for the most stable businesses in America come from returning rather than new customers. Additionally, they are the ones that ensure businesses survive the economic lean times. Customers must have a great experience with your products and/or services as well as with your employees. This can be accomplished by keeping it personal.
For example, if you send out mass-mailers, spend the little bit extra to personalize your letter. It’s not that hard to do, and once you have your database, you can just keep adding to it. Another successful idea is to put up outdoor posters using durable snap poster frames. In this case, you just have to make sure your script is written with the individual in mind and not the masses. It’s okay to say “you” in outdoor advertising. If you’re unsure of what the majority of loyal customers require, the Global Loyalty Sentiment Report from Nielson provides great insight into buying habits as well as the needs of consumers. Once you know the direction you need to take then you can adjust your new campaign to reach individual consumers rather than the masses. Don’t worry, each individual you add will build to the mass that will become your loyal base.
3. Your New Campaign Landing Page
With the right outside advertising campaign, people will become curious enough to check you out. That makes an inspired, action-oriented landing page all the more important. It is the first step to generating a seamless, delightful marketing experience for your customers. Additionally, by establishing a dedicated landing page to each campaign, it becomes easier to track your success. You need to begin by answering the question, “What will I (the customer) get out of it?” It must include a unique proposition, a list of the benefits not just features, a visual representation of what you’re offering, social proof in the form of customer feedback or reviews and a call to action. The video presentation needs to be compelling such as when utilizing a virtual showroom. In such a case, customers can click on the video to see your product or service in action or look at the organization and contents of your showroom. Virtual showrooms are especially important when your products and/or services are difficult to explain in writing.
4. Getting Your New Campaign Out There
Once you’ve decided on a plan, figured out how to track success and created a brilliant landing page then you have to promote your campaign in the most efficient way possible. Social media is an excellent start especially if you already have a loyal customer base that follows you on one of the major sites or can be contacted through email. The content of your message should match the language in your landing page. If you embed links in your message, then potential customers can be directed straight to your new landing page. Be sure and watch your sites closely to collect feedback and respond immediately to questions and comments. It’s important to remember, however, that social media is only one avenue of getting the word out. Hiring people to wear T-shirts or vests with a “Thought for the Day” message and phone number can get people contacting your company. Another way is to hire someone to ride up and down escalators, walk through home improvement stores or stand at bus stops and start conversations with strangers saying things like, “Have you heard about _______? I hear they now offer ________. What do you think?” or “Have you tried that new ________ store over on Hudson? It’s awesome.” It may sound bizarre, but research shows it’s effective. Plus, there’s the old standbys like radio, print and billboard advertising. The goal is to get people to the landing page. Out of those that visit, about 25% will contact you, and 25% of those will become loyal customers. Doing better than that is a win-win.
5. Nurture Your New Leads
Even if customers don’t buy because of your current campaign, it doesn’t mean they won’t eventually become customers if you nurture the relationship. The ultimate goal is to add to your customer base by turning your new leads into customers and then having those buyers come back again and again. By finding out everything you can about your new leads then creating a database of that information, the easier it is to send targeted offers during future campaigns that you already know will fit their needs. That could also help generate new ideas about what you need to offer your customers in the future. It’s important to offer something just for contacting you like an eBook based on something related to your business or a “how-to” booklet on something you found out they needed. It’s important to ask permission to stay in touch and find out if email, mail or phone would work best. Most importantly, listen to them. People will let you know what they need if you allow them to do the talking. The information you collect can be added to your database which can then be made available to any of your employees that may end up working with them. There’s little that endears people more than when a business calls them by name when they come in or call, sends a birthday card or even just checks in from time to time to make sure they’re okay. It makes business owners feel more like friends, and that eventually leads to sales.
By pre-planning an advertising campaign, using a little creativity to get the word out, following up, and tracking the progress, your next campaign could your best one yet. There are many more unique ideas and techniques that work well when it comes to advertising so your job is to find out what works best for you and your business then honing your skills to make the most of each advertising campaign.