Develop a detailed marketing plan: One can reduce advertising costs and advertising waste by proper planning. Many businesses place advertisements without a clear-cut plan. The most expensive advertising is advertising that does not work. To attain maximum advantage of advertisements, a clear plan is essential.
Make the advertising decisions based upon research and a formal marketing plan: Marketing plan and research will help to identify and target the best audiences. It will also help to determine the best vehicles to reach best audiences. Make sure to focus the message on what is important to audience and not to the manufacturer or advertiser.
Plan advertising calendar ahead: Failure to plan advertising in advance wastes a lot of money. Take a blank calendar and fill in the days, months or quarters to advertise. Figure out the number of ad insertions that will make sense and negotiate a contract with the various media suppliers.
Test the copy and ads: Only by trial and error, one will be able to set a baseline as to the best response rates for the ads and copy. It is very important to maximize response for the amount of money spent. Sometimes re-phrasing copy or adjusting ad layouts can make a difference between an average response and a great response.
Engage professionals to design advertising: Advertising is one area where people try to tell the professionals what to do and how to do it. Agencies are experts and will research the market and audience to learn the real issues concerning the product or services.
Develop and use creative briefs when dealing with agencies: A creative brief is a summary of all of the factors that will affect the advertising from company’s current business situation to competitive situation through targeted audience’s characteristics and buying habits. Even if one does not choose to use an agency, a creative brief is a good exercise to go through to make sure that everyone in creative process is on the same page.
Save copies of all of the ads, press releases and printed collateral Provide as much information as possible to the agency, in order to write the most persuasive copy and to design the most effective ads. There is nothing wrong with using elements of information from previously successful ads.
Make sure that advertising message focuses on what is important for the audience and not for the organization Speak in audience language in a way that they can understand. Big words and words that are not easily understood should be avoided. An advertiser’s job is to sell to the audience on using the product or services. Too often non-sales people write beautiful and witty prose that does not get a second look from the audience before they pass it over or discard it into the trash.
Avoid misleading or dishonest copy Honesty and integrity are key to repeat sales and repeat business. If one has to trick the audience to get their attention, one will have a very hard time in keeping their attention.
Avoid using committees to approve advertising A single point of contact is usually the best way to keep unnecessary changes and meetings to a minimum. If one has to meet as a group, do so in advance and work out any potential internal problems before meeting with the agency. When one finally meet with the agency one should be more productive. A lot of time and money can be wasted by committees due to: unnecessary changes, re-writes and wasting time in meetings. Every change, every re-write and every meeting means billable hours for the agency.
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