subject: Eliminate All Advertising And Marketing That Cannot Be Held 100% Accountable For Results [print this page] In case you're tempted, the marketing of your spa isn't something that should be delegated. At least not to a "traditional" ad agency, not to the guy selling space ads in the local magazine, not to your neighbor's kid who's home from college and who's getting a degree in graphic arts. I know it's tempting in all these cases just to tell them to "come up with something" - but don't do it. Why?
Maybe you've heard this line from your ad rep - "The more people see your ad the more the more 'name recognition' you'll get". That must be "the Con Artist B.S. Line #1 in the 'How to Steal People's Money' Manual!
Let me ask you - how the heck do you deposit 'name recognition' at the bank? Do you think your ad rep gives a flip about whether or not your advertising actually works? About whether or not someone actually responds to it - providing you with a profitable return-on-investment...? Not a Chance! Ad reps are in the business of selling space.
If you run a "general" ad in the local nightlife paper like the scenario I described, you might as well kiss your $350 goodbye. Now - don't get me wrong. Not all advertising like this is a waste of money. Far from it. In fact, there is no form of advertising media that is inherently "bad". Newspapers, direct mail, internet advertising, flyers on cars in a parking lot - depending on the offer and the target market, any one of these could be effective, depending on the situation.
Here's a short list of a few things that could possibly go wrong with a spa ad (or with a certain spa ad):
- The "headline" is the name of the spa. The headline is the most important real estate on any ad. If your target audience doesn't read the headline, they won't read the rest of the ad. Nobody really cares what the name of the spa is (except maybe the owner). The headline should always communicate the biggest benefit that calls out specifically to the target audience.
- There's no specific offer. This ad basically says to the prospect "when you're in the mood for a spa treatment, give us a call". There's no compelling reason for the prospect to call...and chances are good - they won't.
- There's no deadline. Because there's no offer, there's no deadline for the offer to expire. If you don't give people a good reason to respond now, they won't.
This type of marketing is called "brand advertising" and it should be completely eliminated from your marketing. Brand advertising is what really big companies do - companies like McDonald's, Best Buy, Allstate, Proctor & Gamble and Microsoft. These are companies that have multi-million dollar advertising budgets.
They are basically throwing shareholder's money at anything that will get their name out there and "build their brand" through repeated exposure.
