This one costs companies BILLIONS of dollars.
It was also one of the key causes of the DOT COM disaster that tanked the stock market in 2000. Advertising is a crucial ingredient, yet it actually works against many companies. But when it works in your favor, amazing things can happen.
All advertising MUST do one of two things:
1) Generate Sales or 2) Generate Sales Leads.
And do so in a measurable, quantifiable way.
If you do either of those things, you'll have no problem 'getting your name out there' and you'll also make money in the process. But if you simply attempt to get your name out there, it's very likely that you won't generate sales OR sales leads.
Worse yet, if you hire an ad agency, your ads will usually be written by some English major who's never had a sales job in his life (a colossal mistake, since advertising and selling two sides of the same coin) and the agency account rep will try to win you over with a song and dance about winning awards.
Here's an ugly truth: Ads that win awards rarely generate sales. And ads that sell rarely win awards.
Remember the Talking Sock in the PETS.COM superbowl commercial? It was cute and memorable, but it didn't save those guys from the Dot Com Boneyard. Dead Dot Coms Don't Lie.
People don't expect nearly enough from their advertising, and they don't hold it accountable for results. So they waste millions of dollars... then they start pounding their sales people for orders on the 26th of every month. Most companies also try to make their advertising do too much. Let me explain.
When you're generating sales leads, you must remember that all you're really trying to do is get people to raise their hands and identify themselves as someone who has a problem - and tell you who they are. Anything beyond that dilutes the effectiveness of your ad. So don't make the mistake of telling them too much. The purpose of pure lead generation advertising is NOT for you to tell them all about yourself - not in the first step anyway.
The purpose is for them to tell you who they are.
When you do this correctly, it's simple, elegant, and outrageously effective. And most importantly, nobody feels like you're chasing them. Oh, and one more thing: Everything you say in advertising must be very, very specific, including what you do and who you do it for.
If you're busy being all things to all people--if you've got a huge list of things that you can do,
you're probably not going to sell anything to anybody. You must define a niche for yourself that's reasonably unique. In fact even if you don't have a niche, you need to invent one where it did not exist before.
Here's an article about what's so desperately wrong with most business-to-business advertising, and what to do about it:
http://perrymarshall.com/marketing/b2b_marketing.pdf
Original Source: Perry Marshall
It was also one of the key causes of the DOT COM disaster that tanked the stock market in 2000. Advertising is a crucial ingredient, yet it actually works against many companies. But when it works in your favor, amazing things can happen.
All advertising MUST do one of two things:
1) Generate Sales or 2) Generate Sales Leads.
And do so in a measurable, quantifiable way.
If you do either of those things, you'll have no problem 'getting your name out there' and you'll also make money in the process. But if you simply attempt to get your name out there, it's very likely that you won't generate sales OR sales leads.
Worse yet, if you hire an ad agency, your ads will usually be written by some English major who's never had a sales job in his life (a colossal mistake, since advertising and selling two sides of the same coin) and the agency account rep will try to win you over with a song and dance about winning awards.
Here's an ugly truth: Ads that win awards rarely generate sales. And ads that sell rarely win awards.
Remember the Talking Sock in the PETS.COM superbowl commercial? It was cute and memorable, but it didn't save those guys from the Dot Com Boneyard. Dead Dot Coms Don't Lie.
People don't expect nearly enough from their advertising, and they don't hold it accountable for results. So they waste millions of dollars... then they start pounding their sales people for orders on the 26th of every month. Most companies also try to make their advertising do too much. Let me explain.
When you're generating sales leads, you must remember that all you're really trying to do is get people to raise their hands and identify themselves as someone who has a problem - and tell you who they are. Anything beyond that dilutes the effectiveness of your ad. So don't make the mistake of telling them too much. The purpose of pure lead generation advertising is NOT for you to tell them all about yourself - not in the first step anyway.
The purpose is for them to tell you who they are.
When you do this correctly, it's simple, elegant, and outrageously effective. And most importantly, nobody feels like you're chasing them. Oh, and one more thing: Everything you say in advertising must be very, very specific, including what you do and who you do it for.
If you're busy being all things to all people--if you've got a huge list of things that you can do,
you're probably not going to sell anything to anybody. You must define a niche for yourself that's reasonably unique. In fact even if you don't have a niche, you need to invent one where it did not exist before.
Here's an article about what's so desperately wrong with most business-to-business advertising, and what to do about it:
http://perrymarshall.com/marketing/b2b_marketing.pdf
Original Source: Perry Marshall
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