By far the best quote I’ve ever heard about advertising is from the author Steuart Henderson Britt. Never heard of him? Doesn’t matter. It’s the quote that counts: “Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.”
You know it’s important to get your message out there. Otherwise you really are winking in the dark. But before you start winking (in the dark or otherwise), think about what signal you’re sending. For advertising to be effective, you absolutely must have the right message. Three tips to make sure you’re on target:
Know what makes your product or service truly special
It’s fun to be in advertising right now. We have more tools at our disposal than ever before to reach people – specific targets or the general public – plus tools to monitor how well ads perform. But your message will fall flat if you fail to make yourself stand out for the right reasons.
Know what makes you special. Know what makes you valuable. And know that the message might need to be different for every audience you’re planning to target.
Be honest with yourself
If the thing you’re trying to market isn’t special, good copy can’t fix the problem. The money you’re looking to invest in marketing might be better spent on improving your product.
This is more important than ever because bad impressions spread like wildfire on the Internet. As the old saying goes, “Advertising speeds the demise of a poor product.” Because we’re communicating so quickly today, a not-so-great product can be condemned that much faster. Consumers have a much shorter decision-making cycle. Instead of doing weeks of research, we quickly read what others think (total strangers, even!) and then make buying decisions with the click of a button. So ask yourself – honestly – whether your product is worthy of that click.
Don’t rush it
A good message starts with strategic analysis of your audiences and attributes. That requires a significant time investment. Unfortunately, some businesses view this investment as something that might help them meet their objectives, rather than something that will have returns when done well.
With apologies to my friends on the design and development teams, I’m going to make a really strong statement: If you fail to get your message right, you fail to get your marketing right. So don’t rush in to marketing before you have a solid strategy.
