The value of testimonials
Nothing communicates the quality of what you are offering better than the words of other people who have experienced doing business with you.
One of the biggest obstacles to growing your business is convincing people that you can really deliver on your promises. A testimonial does it for you. And it’s free!
So when customers tell you that they’re pleased with your work, ask if they would be willing to share their experience with others.
Testimonials should give a detailed and specific description of how the person has benefitted from what you have to offer. Try not to use one liners where possible. Include the customers’ name if they don’t mind and, if appropriate, their business name on the testimonial.
Do not use anonymous testimonials because people don’t believe them.
• Once you’ve got testimonials – use them. Put them everywhere – on your website, brochures, emails etc.
• If you are planning to start a new business, plan to make testimonials an integral part of your marketing from the beginning.
• Don’t underestimate the power of testimonials…….They can increase your conversion rates by 30% or more.
Can radio advertising boost your business?
Radio advertising can be effective if it is done correctly. Large international brands have been using national radio stations to promote their products for a long time. Smaller businesses have used local radio very effectively, generating significant profits for their business.
Radio adverting is worth, considering, at some point. Firstly it is reasonably inexpensive especially when compared to other forms of adverting e.g. TV advertising. Secondly, radio advertising is very personal. People listen to the radio in all sorts of locations including the car, at work in bed or even in the shower. Radio listeners are a very captive audience.
People have an attachment to their chosen station which means that any advertising featured on the station can also be well received. It is also difficult to ignore an advert on the radio when compared to adverts within a magazine. It can be easy to skip over adverts within a magazine but when people listen to the radio and an advert comes on, all of the listeners will hear it.
Radio advertising can also be very targeted. If you wanted to promote a product to an audience of men aged between 24 and 44, you would target your campaign on a station that attracts that kind of audience, usually by the nature of the music they play.
So why isn’t everybody advertising on the radio?
Radio also has a number of disadvantages. There can be a huge amount of wastage. There will be a significant number of listeners who will not be interested in the products being advertised. Businesses who redirect their budget from radio advertising to direct mailing or telephone calling will be speaking directly to a potential customer.
Radio is also not a great direct response medium. Direct response advertising must result in a sale that can be measured for it to be successful. However, this can be difficult to do when the peak times for advertising are during the mornings and early evenings. People rushing around to get to work, or driving home from work, are not necessarily going to make a note of your phone number or website when they hear it on the radio.
10 steps to successful radio advertising
1. Only think of radio advertising as one element of your marketing mix. Don’t be dependent upon it. Never spend more than you’re willing to lose.
2. Don’t commit to radio advertising until you have tried more obvious forms of marketing. Improve your marketing to existing customers before you try radio advertising.
3. Test your advertising on a small scale before rolling it out on a large scale. Ignore the incentives that radio sales teams will use to encourage you to try a large campaign.
4. Understand how radio stations come up with their advertising rates. Stations often have two different ways of charging for their advertising. Small businesses new to advertising are often charged from a rate card where to pricing can be high. Agencies who book advertising on behalf of their clients will be charged per 1000 listeners. Radio stations employ independent researchers who are able to identify the number of listeners tuned into to a particular station at a particular time of day. Agencies are then able to select and agree a rate and a time of day when the radio runs an advert. Ask the radio sales team what the cost per 1000 listeners would be. You will probably get a much reduced rate.
5. Make sure that your adverts go out at the best time of day when they are most likely to work for you. Remember that there are certain periods of time during the day when very few people are listening. The most popular time of day is the breakfast show; however you may not want to be advertising at this time of day as most people are just too busy to respond to your advert. Mid-morning and early afternoon are often good times. Avoid evenings because people watch television. Weekends tend to have fewer listeners than weekdays.
6. Beware of the cheap deals on very small local stations. They often have very low listening numbers and are not worth the investment. You will get what you pay for.
7. Negotiate great deals on your radio advertising. Offer to run a week’s advertising at a ridiculously low price. You may not get the price that you asked for but you will get a much cheaper rate than you would have done if you had booked adverts using the rate card. The sales teams are always working towards targets and will be more desperate to hit their targets towards the end of the month. This tends to be the best time to negotiate a really good deal.
8. Avoid clever or funny adverts. You don’t want an advert that’s going to win an award, you want an advert that’s going to sell for you and bring you customers. Follow the AIDA principal: Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. Try using a straight-forward voiceover and use the word YOU a lot in the script. Remember to tell the listener what to do next. Create a direct personal, message to the person hearing your advert.
9. Consider other forms of radio advertising. You can sponsor the weather or the news. Radio stations also run promotions which tend to be competitions that run throughout the day or week. Advertisers provide a prize and pay for the commercials but often get greater airtime because of the number of time the competition is mentioned.
10. Measure the results of your advertising accurately. You need to know if the advertising is working. If it is, you will want to roll it out on a bigger scale, even trying different stations. If it’s not working, drop it and invest your marketing budget elsewhere. You need to know where your enquiries are coming from. Set up a separate phone line for radio adverts only.
Newspaper Leafleting Campaign
Leafleting through newspapers is probably the simplest and cheapest form of direct marketing. However it is true to say that leafleting through newspapers has a poor reputation. Most of the leaflets that fall out of newspapers are thrown away without actually being read. This problem can be overcome with careful thought, planning and preparation.
Companies like Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Homebase, and Robert Dyas use newspaper inserts on a regular basis because they generate business and sales. A carefully targeted leaflet campaign can bring new business to companies with small marketing budgets too.
It is feasible to distribute 5000, full-colour leaflets to 5000 households, targeted in a specific location, through a local newspaper for less than £300. This works out at £0.06p per leaflet.
Here is a guide to organizing a leaflet drop through a newspaper and how to avoid a large amount of wastage.
Set your objectives
You may want your campaign to generate sales, launch a product or service or build a database of leads.
Allocate a budget
How many leaflets can you afford to design, print and distribute? Set yourself a budget and stick to it.
Create an action plan
How many leaflets do you want to distribute? When and how often will they be distributed?
Homebase will often use leaflet campaigns through newspapers the week before a bank holiday, promoting their gardening products, because they know that on bank holidays most of us will want to spend time working in our gardens. Supermarkets will often run weekly leaflet campaigns through newspapers in the lead-up to Christmas to generate sales of food, drink and gifts.
Identify your target audience
Who are your current customers and where do they live? Do you need to identify and target new customers? Distribution agencies use data that is collected from the national census and other sources. They use this data to help you target your distribution. It is possible to distribute to households within a certain street or to households that fit into a certain income bracket. The demographic information available through distribution agencies is endless and will dramatically increase the success of your campaign.
In theory, if you are able to identify an area within a town, where you currently have existing customers, then those people who live in that same location, who are not yet customers, will have a similar demographic profile to your existing customers, and therefore, are a ‘hot target’.
Select your targeting method
Distribution through newspapers can be done in two ways:
• Newshare – your leaflets are distributed alongside the free local newspaper. This is the most flexible and widely-used method.
• Paid for – your leaflets are inserted into ‘paid for’ newspapers on a local and regional basis. This method is best used in rural areas where there is no free newspaper distribution.
Produce effective leaflets
Your leaflet needs to be eye-catching and professionally printed. A sales campaign will be more cost-effective than an awareness campaign. Create an incentive and a call to action on your leaflet. Offer a discount available for a short period of time.
Check the distribution
Contact friends, family members and customers who fall within your distribution area to see if they received a copy of your leaflet. Distribution agencies are bound by legislation to carry-out the services that they offer and, as a result, many have a follow-up procedure if you feel that your leaflets were not distributed as you had agreed.
Analyze and measure your response
If the test that you have carried out on a small scale has been successful, consider rolling out your leaflet campaign more frequently and on a bigger scale. Don’t forget to include it as a part of your annual marketing activity.
The response rate of a leaflet campaign can be drastically improved if the leaflet is supported with an advert within the newspaper itself. However this can often double the cost of running your campaign and you may decide to run two leaflet campaigns back to back instead.
Advertising – some do’s and don’ts
Do – Stop your advertising if you can’t measure how effective it is.
Don’t – Place adverts in the local newspaper because you feel that you have to.
Do – Focus on advertising a special offer or a specific benefit of your product. This is known as direct-response advertising.
Don’t – Create an awareness advert telling the reader about your business. This is known as brand advertising used by Coca-Cola, McDonalds etc.
Do – Think about who is going to read your advert. Is it going to be new customers or existing ones?
Don’t – Use an everlasting advert. Readers will become board with looking at the same design.
Do – Create an urgency for the reader to react quickly e.g. include a closing date on an offer.
Don’t – Rush into making a decision about placing an advert because someone is offering you a deal.
Do - Think about a run of at least three adverts in your chosen pubication.
Don’t – Just book one advert as you will dramatically limit the number of potential readers.
Do – seriously consider whether advertising is the most cost-effective solution to promote your business.
Don’t – advertise just because your competitors are. Think of a new approach that they may not be using.
Do – Think about the media that you are intending to use. Is there an opportunity for you to focus on a more specific journal targeted at your customers?
Don’t – Believe that if a journal has 80,000 readership, then 80,000 people will read your advert. It’s more likely to be 80.
Do – Think carefully about your design. It needs to be simple and to the point.
Don’t – Try to be too creative and flashy with your design. The message may be difficult to find.
Do – Spend most of your time coming up with a catchy headline.
Don’t – Include your company name in the headline. You will almost certainly increase the response rate if you leave the name out and sell the benefits.
Do – Always make sure that your advert is on the right-hand page.
Don’t – Ever place your advert on the left-hand page. The readers eyes are always drawn to the right-hand side of the page when they flick through a magazine or paper.
Do – Negotiate with the journal on pricing. Rate cards are often inflated.
Don’t – Pay the normal rate. Haggle with the salesperson. They are used to it.
Do – Consider using Apple Pie marketing for the content and booking of your advert.
Don’t – Forget to ask us to measure the results of your advertising or, any of your other marketing activities.
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