Get Big results on a small ad budget -

A business must have a product or service that people actually want and will come back again for. A great example would be: CPA, Dentist, Plumber a good restaurant, or a retail business that will keep customers returning again and again. There are many business models that are good. But I’ve seen hundreds of businesses go broke because they didn’t pick the right kind of business to start with or put it in the wrong location. Two main things that hurt a business: picking a poor business model and saying the wrong things about it in your advertising. Roy Williams says, “I’ve never seen a business fail because of reaching the wrong people… but I’ve many fail by saying the wrong things in their ads.”

  1. There should be something about the architecture of the building or that would be unique, generous, or different enough about the business, to cause a lady that leaves the business raving about it to her friends. Much has been written about word of mouth advertising. Read what good is "Word of Mouth Advertising"
  2. The business needs to create as many different ways of bringing in new customers as possible. A gravity well. Mass media is good but expensive. Newspaper ads....maybe. (If you can afford it.) Billboards though are usually a good "bang for your buck” as far as reaching the greatest number of people for the lowest dollar. The next best buy is radio. To buy newspaper ads in the counties surrounding my business each week would cost could cost about $250,000 a year. However I can effectively reach 60 to 70% of the population of my area for about $50,000… and I can reach them with 20 times a week 52 weeks a year on several different radio stations for that 50 grand. YOU CAN TOO!! That would be over 6000 commercials! You should buy media as smart, effectively and inexpensively as you possibly can. You probably should have someone to negotiate the price for you…a professional media buyer can always get a better buy than if you try to negotiate for your own business.
  3. The business needs a website. It needs to be well planned, with well-written copy, coming from an Uncovery and Strategy planning session. (Read the New York Times best seller: Waiting for you’re Cat to Bark?)
  4. Next the website needs SEO  (search engine optimization) . (Bringing it up in the search engines to the first page.) Better yet: the 1st 2nd or 3rd position. You can pay someone to do it, or you can learn it yourself. That’s what I did but it takes a lot of time and a lot of work. It would be a better bang for your buck (unless you just want to do it; to hire a reputable company to do it for you.
  5. The business owner needs a good writer for radio, newspaper ads, ad copy for website and your newsletters. Most business owners just aren’t very good at this unless they have taken a keen interest in it. One exception is my client: Bernard Lewis Jewelry. Download bernard_lewis_mixdown.mp3
  6. Your business needs a good looking, well thought out, well planned brochure that fits your core values. These core values come from an Uncovery and a Strategy Planning Session. If you want to know what a great brochure looks like; send me a self addressed stamped envelope and I’ll send you one. The brochure is cheap in comparison to the high value of new customers it can bring in. If you use your imagination you can think of lots of places and ways to give out brochures. One of the very best ways to get More Bang for your Buck is to hire a writer to do all your copywriting for you. A properly worded brochure is worth as much to you as a good nine iron to Tiger Woods.
  7. Keep a database of the people who come in and do business with you. This is the biggest mistake I see most businesses making. It costs nothing to email out a nice chatty newsletter to a 1000 people who have been to visit your store. Small businesses do NOT realize how many dollars they’re actually losing by not keeping a current mailing list and sending them something regularly.
  8. Cut back your ad in the yellow pages. Most retail businesses are spending WAY too much money there. That money can give you more bang for you buck in lots of other places. Yellow pages are a great alphabetical listing for products services, but very poor for giving you any Top of Mind Awareness. The new yellow pages is a good website. Ask someone in an office, under 30, that has a computer in front of them, to please look up a phone number for you. You can count on 9 out of 10 looking on Yahoo or Google instead of the yellow pages.
  9. Survey and ask questions of your customers all the time. Constantly. Consistently. Deliberately. Quiz them. Poll them. Ask them. Offer to put they’re name in a drawing for a humongous big screen TV if they’ll honestly answer your questions. Or…offer to put their name in a drawing for a trip to the Bahamas. What do you ask them? Start by asking them what is the main reason they do business with you. What’s one thing that your business could improve for them? Ask them if your prices seem about right, a little too high, or a little too low. Ask them if there is anything about your business they would change if they were the boss. You get the idea. Ask them to give you honest genuine feedback. They will.
  10. The most inexpensive advertising you can have is expensive rent. Do you need a different location? Great marketing and promotion can get a person to come to your business once. What brings a person back for the second visit is their FIRST visit!
  11. Hire the nicest, sweetest, kindest, friendliest person can find to answer the phone and greet people as they come in. Don't you hate going in to a store where there is no friendly greeting. Owners need to TRAIN the employees what they want them to say. Verbatum! Whether on the phone or when greeting a customer.
  12. What is worse than training your staff then losing them? NOT training them and keeping them!

I was in business talking to the owner a few years ago and I asked him how he was able to train his people to be so nice to his customers. He said something I'll never forget: "We don't train our people to be nice. We hire really nice people to begin with; then we train them to do the work we need done." I say GREAT Plan!