Advertising is a funny old game.  We live in a society that is bombarding us with adverts every minute of every day.

Some advertising is useful and informative.  Some advertising has even become part of our culture and language – think of the Heineken “Refreshing The Parts” campaign and Martini “Anywhere, Anytime, Any Place” (apologies for showing my age!).

But on the whole most advertising is useless and a complete waste of time and money for most of you reading this article.

Many business owners get confused with the terms “advertising” and “marketing”.  It is easy to believe that spending money on advertising is marketing your business.

I still remember the Business Link advisor who asked me the question “so, how are going to advertise your business?”

The question should have been “How are going to market your business?” as advertising is only one small part of an enormous marketing mix that you can choose from.

You will often hear me say that I don’t believe advertising works for the majority of small businesses. But as many of you see your competitors advertising, it is eaasy to feel you must be seen alongside them in the local newspaper or business directory.

I know I break the mould when I say “Don’t advertise.  Leave advertising to the likes of Coca-Cola and Persil Automatic. Spend your money on other marketing activities.”

And this not because I am anti-advertising.  It is because most adverts that many of you use just don’t work.

Poor copy writing, no call to action and bad designs are all reasons for an advert to fail.  As well as poor positioning and bad choice of publication.

So, if you are certain that advertising is a course of action you want to take then I would like to share with you my secret to successful advertising.

That secret is to advertise your free give away.

“You What?” I hear you cry.

Yes, advertise your free give away!

And this is especially so if you are selling a service such as interior design, beauty treatments, life coaching, nutritional therapy or corporate training.

A customer making a purchase cold from a single advert is highly unlikely.

People buy from people they like, trust and feel comfortable with – and this is why a bulk standard “buy me” advert fails time and time again.

Why does advertising your free give away work?

1. People like getting something for nothing so are more likely to contact you
2. Getting someone to contact you is the most valuable first step to building a relationship with this person
3. You are always asking for the person’s contact details for example email address to send them the report, address to send them the discount voucher, phone number to arrange that consultation

Building your own database is the foundation to your business success.  And far better to advertise a quality, free give away to encourage potential customers to contact you and give you their contact details, then try and sell them something when they know nothing about you.

The next step is to build a relationship with your potential customers and the rest is easy ;o)

Quick Tip: depending on your give-away, you may attract a percentage of “freebie-hunters”.  Make sure you automate this give-away by using web based opt-in forms and autoresponders where ever you can and this will take up less of your time to deliver what it is you are offering.

I am sure you all know that testimonials are a great addition to your website, leaflets and brochures.  Rather than bleating on about how good you are, let your clients tell it in their own words.

They work because its “social proof”.  The same way that 8 out 10 cats prefer Whiskers, your potential clients want evidence on why they should spend money with you.

But instead of getting evidence, most small business owners end up with pretty poor excuses for a testimonial.

“Steve was a really wonderful trainer.”

“We had such fun working together.”

“The widget is lovely to use and I wholeheartedly recommend it.”

Lovely words, but as testimonials they absolutely stink!

The demand for personal recommendations is getting higher and higher every year.  And with wishy-washy testimonials like these are, quite frankly, a waste of space.

A wasted opportunity!

For a testimonial to work effectively for you, it has to explain the benefits of what you deliver.  Here’s an example of one my testimonials that I have displayed on my business coaching page, kindly given by Lisa Turner from Pyscademy last year.

“I started working with Karen because although all the bits of my business were working they weren’t really integrated with each other. Karen helped me get some real clarity about the processes and steps I needed to make to achieve my goals.

After only a single session I achieved my first two goals – to start running teleseminars and to get bookings for an upcoming course. With Karen’s support and advice, I set up and ran my first ever teleseminar and as a direct result got bookings on an upcoming course. I am absolutely delighted with the result and how easy it was with Karen’s help.”

Why does this testimonial work harder?  Let’s break down the 3 key questions that were answered:

What was life like before working with me? Bits of Lisa’s business were working, but they weren’t integrated.  If I really wanted to push this testimonial further, I would have probably asked Lisa how that felt and added that, too.  Would it have been frustrating?  How much time did Lisa waste?  This helps a potential client to relate to the story being told.  “That’s just like me” you want them to say.

What process did we follow? I helped Lisa get clarity and we figured out some steps to take.

What were the results? Lisa got her teleseminars up and running, plus got clients booking on her course as a direct result of running her teleseminar.  And the whole process was “easy”.  Most of my clients come to me because they struggle to attract the right clients so this testimonial highlights that I can solve this problem, as well as make everything easy at the same time.

Make sure your testimonials provide the answers to these 3 key questions and your testimonial will speak volumes when it comes to evidence.

One final tip – don’t expect your clients to know this.  Most clients find it very hard to know what to write when asked for a testimonial.  This is why most of you end up with one of the “really lovely person” quotes.

Ask them these questions on the phone or in person, write down the answers and ask them if you could use these words as a testimonial.  Present them with this pre-prepared testimonial based on the exact phrases they said to you, and you’ll get testimonials working harder for you.

Footnote: For businesses trading in the States, you may also be interested to read this blog post here from Joe Comm who commented on the new rules & regs brought in by the FTC last year.   Evidence is important, but do make sure you know the laws of the country you trade in.  Overcooking is not only poor practice – it can be illegal!

When a few long term clients begin to “evaluate” their current contracts, it is easy to feel a sense of anxiety.  Perhaps your motivation and confidence is starting to wane as one after another potential lead dries up.

When business is good, you are king of the hill.  But when business gest tough, it is easy to start panicking.

And when this panic starts to filter in to your marketing, the lack of business leads only gets worse.

Why?  Because the 2 biggest mistakes you can make when business gets tough is to reduce your prices and to widen your market.

I’ll come back to reducing prices at another time, but let’s deal with the widening of your market first.  I suppose it kinda makes sense to feel you must widen your market if your business leads are drying up.  After all, you want more clients.

But never get confused with wanting new clients with wanting to have any-new-client-who-will-have-you.

When you start to widen your market, it is easy to lose your focus, your speciality and your ability to compete with other businesses.

The more niche you are and the more focused your marketing is, the more successful you will be in winning more clients and customers.  And if there is one thing that you are more likely to win over other cheaper competitors is by being a specialist.

When you try to win any-new-client-who-will-have-you, your marketing starts to become spray and pray.  The more letters, emails, calls and tweets you can get out, the more chance you feel someone will come back to you.  Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.

Here are some of the problems caused by spray and pray marketing.

Sending everyone to the same website

Problem – the attention span of your average website visitor is less than 3 seconds.  People are not as patient online and scan web pages, rather than read them. If they can’t see the right information for them, they hit the back button.  And if you are sending everyone, online and offline, to the same home page, are you giving that potential new client the right information to make a decision on whether to buy from you?

How do you know if you have this problem? – check your web stats and look at your bounce rate.  This will show you how many people click away from your site after viewing only one page.  Also keep track of your conversion rates.  If you sell products and services online, how many visitors do you need to attract to your website to make one sale?

Solution – Having a separate website for each of your target clients is ideal, but not always practical.  Start off by having separate pages relevant for different clients and give out a dedicated web address to the right clients. For example a training business could have www.yourwebsite.com/retail if they have decided to target this sector.  When a potential retail client clicks through to this page, they can read about the problems retail businesses have, what specific solutions are on offer to them and what targeted results can be achieved.  There is a greater chance that this training company is going to be perceived to be a specialist in the retail sector, thus improve their chances of winning business.

Sending everyone the same letter & brochure

Problem – 1,000 letters and brochures are sent out to a mailing list which results in not one enquiry.  Expensive!

How do you know you’ve got this problem? – When the invoices for the printing and postage start hurting your bottom line.

Solution – Break down your database in to smaller lists, for example by industry sector, location or common problem.  Spend time modifying your letter so it is written specifically to that person.  The aim is to have each person read that letter feeling that it is written personally for them.  It focuses exactly on a problem they may have and gives them a clear call to action that is desirable enough for them to act on.  Save your printing costs and do away with the brochure, unless of course you have the budget to design a specific brochure to every target client.  And keep the mailing small enough so that you (or someone in your team) can follow up each and every letter by phone.  Follow up is key!

Sending everyone the same email

Problem – Emails are being ignored and possibly even reported as spam.

How do you know you’ve got this problem? – If you are using a subscription based email service, check your unsubscribe and open rates.  It may be easier to send every email to the whole of your database, but if it is resulting in your subscribers ignoring you, you are in danger of damaging your brand.  Remember, useful emails to some may be spam to others.

– Again, break down your database in to smaller lists.  Can you define people by the products they have bought?  Or where they have subscribed from?  Is there an opportunity to make a special offer to just those who signed up for a free report you offered last year?  If you want a lesson on targeted emails, just buy something from Amazon or Tesco.

Spray and pray marketing may feel like the right thing to do when you desperate to find more clients.  But don’t!  Take the time to focus on your target clients, focus on their common problems and focus on providing a solution that is right for them.

Niche is the key to successful small business marketing.

Got a comment to make? Do take a few moments and leave your thoughts.

As we begin the last quarter of 2009 there will be no doubt that one of the reasons why some businesses have survived and others failed over the past year, will be the consistency of their marketing.

Many self-employed professionals have relied on referrals over the past few years.  They have built up a strong reputation and enjoyed a steady flow of client.

But, with the economy in a downturn, it is easy for those referrals to dry up.  Their clients may have cut budgets or have decided to spend their money on other resources. And the steady flow of clients stops.

On the other hand, there are many, many coaches, consultants and trainers who have been marketing consistently – month in, month out, irrespective of how busy their are with clients.

And it will be these businesses who will not only maintain their flow of work, but probably gain a little more as some other businesses go under.

Marketing is not an activity that happens once a month.  Nor is it something that you do every Monday morning, to kick start your week.

Marketing needs to happen each and every day, drip fed in to your working week so you maintain visibility and your potential clients think of you when they are ready.

Everyone seems to be focused on numbers at the moment, don’t they?

How many followers can you get on Twitter? How many friends can you collect on facebook?  How big is your network on LinkedIn?

How big does your mailing list need to be before you can make any sales?

Numbers, numbers, numbers!

It seems that everywhere you look, everyone is obsessed by size of lists.

So, does the size of your mailing list really matter? 

Now, there is no doubt that the bigger your mailing list is, the more likely you are to make sales. After all, if you trying to sell 20 places on a workshop to a database of 50 people, the chance of you filling all 20 places is minimal.

Even if everyone on your database is interested in the topic, they may be on holiday, have a meeting that day or  just couldn’t justify the expense at that particular time.

Therefore the more people you have, the easier it is to market your events, products and programmes.

But all this focus on numbers can be demoralising, stressful and not a lot of fun when you struggle to get just one or two newsletter sign-ups every week.

There is one factor that many small business owners forget.  And that is the quality of those you attract to your mailing list.

That phrase “size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with it that counts” rings true for your mailing lists.

And putting more focus on attracting quality sign-ups will mean that what you do with your mailing list – whether that’s selling e-books, workshop programmes or 1-2-1 services – will work far more effectively for you.

So what are some of the rules when it comes to successful list building strategies?

1.  Know your target audience – the more focused you are on the exact client you want to work with, the easier it will be to attract them.

2.  Know the pains and worries of your target audience – the more you know about what the problems your clients have, the easier it will be to come up with a great give-away to encourage them to part with their email addresses

3.  Offer results, rather than the solutions – your target audience aren’t really that concerned about how you go about helping them. They just want results.  So a “Small Business Checklist” which is rather blah-blah, suddenly becomes desirable when it becomes “The 5 biggest mistakes that small business owners make – and how you can avoid them”. Same content – just presented in a different way

4. Be clear on the language your clients use – tone of phrase, images, how you address someone, specific jargon – all of this matters.  Write and present yourself in a way that relates to your target audience

5. Know where your target audience hangs out – one marketing strategy does not fit all so be careful of using marketing tools and networks just because everyone does.  The more you know about your target audience, the easier it will be to discover where these people hang out in numbers – remembering that the offline world is just as powerful (if not more powerful!) than the online world.

OK.  Coming back to my original question – does the size of your mailing list really matter?

The answer is yes but only when it is full of quality, targeted clients who love what they have signed up for and are ready to make a commitment to you when you make them a good offer.

What are your thoughts? Are you feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to build your list? Or do you disagree and have another view point?  Add your comment below.