Why advertising doesn't work or stop wasting money

This happens so often that success stories are more of an exception than a rule, if we talk not about the biggest brands, but about the overall situation on the shop floor.

Advertisers get frustrated, cut their advertising budgets, but keep ordering because they see no other way to promote their product. At the same time, for some reason, it is extremely rare to find a serious analysis of the reasons for the failure of a campaign and a really thoughtful approach to the next one. And here the responsibility lies with both advertisers and advertisers.

The latter can - no, not be justified, but at least understand - someone is just a "not-very-specialist" and does not know how to do the right thing, while someone is no longer able to prove his case to the customer and agrees to any compromises, so as not to lose earnings. Advertisers, on the other hand, are harder to understand: they invest a lot of money, spend even more precious time, in order to end up with a mechanism that doesn't work!

Let's figure out what is going “wrong” and what needs to be done in order to achieve the desired result.

0. Axiom

Before we start debriefing, let's call on common sense and recognize that advertising, in order to work, must clearly formulate a thought (message) and attract attention.

The first literally means that after seeing your ad, a person will understand what you want to say to him and will understand it correctly. The second implies that a person will see your ad at all and will pay the minimum attention necessary to perceive the message. Generally speaking, this is even more important, because if the ad is not noticed, then everything is in vain. If he was noticed, but did not pay attention, it is also in vain, since the message will not be read and accepted for consideration.

1. Old tricks don't work

In general, this rule must be burned out with fire and kept in front of your eyes, if you really decide to declare yourself.

Times are changing, society is changing very quickly. Take a look: 15 years ago, many things that surround us today either did not exist in nature, or they were the ancestors of the dinosaurs modern subjects. Appliances, electronics, computers. Especially computers.

Lyrical digression

Computer technologies - they changed society.

Customers continue to write in their briefs that their target audience is successful people 25-40 years old, and they advertise on TV. Come to your senses! Many of these people have long been using television primarily to watch Blue-Ray and video games, and find news, movies and TV shows on themed sites on the Internet. And every day there are more and more such people. TV, of course, is still watched by a huge audience, but in order to stand out there, advertising must have exceptional properties, since over 20 years of advertising on Russian TV viewers have learned to filter such "information noise". Moreover, commercial breaks are most often used as breaks in a program or film in order to run to the toilet or to the kitchen.

If you want your ads really saw, do or entrust specialists to make it so bright, unusual and memorable that in social and corporate networks he wandered from wall to wall with enthusiastic comments like "Have you seen this ?!" With this attitude, you can safely count on loyalty and celebrate success. advertising campaign... If, reading this paragraph, you think “well, this is not for me, we don’t need this,” you should not give video advertising at all - today there are other, much cheaper ways to simply tell about your services, new products and promotions.

If your customers can be grouped by interests, find sites and places that accumulate people of certain professions or hobbies, and place your ad there. Arrange with fitness clubs or coffee shops serving business lunches from 12:00 to 15:00 if you are confident that your audience is the overwhelming majority of their customers.

Social networks have already been mentioned. The number of people registered in them and visiting their page at least once a week is colossal. They are fueled by a myriad of communities, from various “joint purchases” to large professional groups by interest. Look, it's hard to find even one foreign company, which would not have its own Facebook page. They make friends with their audience through it, communicate with it, report on new products and promotions. Create a page for your organization there, attract subscribers - they will learn everything about your news from their feed.

Not sure how to attract subscribers? Organize an advertising campaign in the most social network- all the mechanisms for this are already in place, and the cost of the campaign can be directly proportional to the group visits; make an action "raffle the iPhone" among the subscribers who repost the message on their wall - that's the audience. In this case, you only spent on the iPhone and the necessary costs.

Another "great" advertising mechanism is leaflets and flyers. If these pieces of paper do not allow you to get a discount or do not represent any other value for a person (put a calendar there or print a pizza recipe), how long will they stay with a person from the moment they are handed over? That's right, to the first urn. Almost all the money that was spent on printing them, on the work of distributing them to people, goes to the trash can. Moreover, many take them out of politeness and throw them away without even reading.

Why not invest that same money in mechanisms that are at least more likely to work? Self-deception, like, "Well, we did something," will not benefit the cause, because this "something" actually means "nothing." Make a cool bright ad with the same message on the bus, transforming it beyond recognition - you will get your advertising contacts and save a couple of trees.

You can give other examples, but it all comes down to the simple truth: in order for an ad to be seen, it must be placed where it is more convenient for your audience, and not where it is more familiar to your advertising department. The world is changing, it is in constant motion - you need to track these changes, learn to feel trends, at least to understand how best to communicate with your audience now, and ideally have an idea of what this dialogue will be like tomorrow ...

2. "No ice"

There is such a word, I do not like it because of its harsh sound, but it accurately describes what is often lacking in modern advertising: "wow factor".

Imagine a bulletin board with 50 flyers of roughly the same size. The board itself is in the entrance, you are waiting for the elevator and looking at these ads simply because there is nowhere else to look. You see them all. But so far not a single message has been read - this is the fundamental difference. What 3, 4, 5 pieces of paper will you read before the lift arrives? These will be the ones that are different. Moreover, they differ precisely from those surrounding them at the moment: in color, size of letters, shape of the sheet. The meaning of what is written, the beauty of the syllable, the benefit for you personally - yes, this is wonderful, but if the piece of paper on which all this is, is unremarkable, then it will remain unread, lost in the gray mass.

So today there are a lot of advertisements. Inside any type of advertising product there is a huge mass of units that were initially equally uninteresting to the consumer. Remember: competition does not begin between products or services (this is the second stage) - competition begins with a struggle between advertisements for the right to attract attention. Let your product be a thousand times better than your competitor. But if his sign attracts more attention, if his image is more consistent with the ideas of the target audience, the buyer will go to him first.

Therefore, in order to attract attention, an advertising message should evoke an emotional reaction of the viewer, reader, listener - surprise, tear it out of everyday life, shock - take a walk through the sites dedicated to world advertising - they contain huge collections of the brightest examples of advertising campaigns that arouse genuine interest to the products presented. This is what works. And needless to say that some of these videos or posters were made not for real campaigns, but for festivals - this fact, combined with the success of the advertising product, only proves the short-sightedness of decision-makers.

Are you afraid that you will not be "understood"? Regions or who else is there? ..

Better to ask yourself, will your message be noticed at all, before trying to understand it? To distinguish yourself, to stand out, to draw attention to yourself is the primary task of an advertising product. This is not to say that it is much more important than delivering the message, but if it is not resolved, then the rest is meaningless.

Trying to stand out, it is always worth remembering three things: about a board with pieces of paper (if all the other pieces of paper around have also become similar, then it's time to look for some new form); that old tricks do not work (people get used to them and what used to surprise becomes common, and sometimes even makes them bored - it's like a joke that is told in the fifth round); and about social responsibility(immoral advertising offends the viewer and society, causing moral harm to all of us - it is better to try to find a solution in a positive, in broad sense of this word, key).

3. Quality

Any advertiser always talks about the quality of their products and services. Show at least one brief that doesn't mention this word. It is logical to assume that the advertiser knows firsthand about quality, about what it is worth, but very often this knowledge does not leave the framework of his own subject area and is not extrapolated to other industries.

Advertising must be of high quality. Is always. Today we see a lot of quality (at least technically) cinema, supplied with first-class sound and accompanied by great posters. On the web and on television, there are tons of examples of stunning quality videos, screensavers and presentations. All this is in a single information field. Ask yourself a question: if your advertising products will seriously lose to standards, who will believe that you have a solid company, and not just another sharashkin office?

This is not a call to spend more - it is a call to spend wisely. Yes, quality is expensive. Always expensive. Therefore, it is better to do it once well than to redo it many times; it is better to make fewer posters, but make them cool, one video instead of five, but which will not be ashamed to be revisited in five years.

Of course, the quality of an advertising product is not only about the appearance, but also the idea that we talked about in the previous section, but any idea can be easily killed by poor execution. You don't need to console yourself that poor performance is the performer's fault. This is the customer's fault in the first place - you could not formulate the task, you did not provide the conditions for its implementation. The contractor depends on your decisions, deadlines and budgets: if they delayed making a decision, it means that the work will be done later and in a different way (for example, a full-scale summer shooting was supposed, which became impossible due to winter), the budget was cut by 10, and even for 5% - the contractor could not use the technologies that would provide the best result, reduced the time - there was no time left to polish the work to shine.

Find yourself a good design studio, radio station, video production team, advertising agency whose opinion you will trust - and trust them in their work. They made so many videos, posters and held so many promotions how much you will never order for yourself during the entire time of doing business, which means that you will never know this business better than they do. They have experience, they know how to work correctly, just like you know everything about your business.

4. Fears

Everyone always has fears. In business, fears can generally be divided into two types, which, closely intertwined, spur each other on. If this is not controlled, then the results are completely ineffective solutions.

The first type of fear is the fear of loss. A person develops this type of fear in himself. In the overwhelming majority of cases, it is expressed in the fear of losing money.

It is typical for both customers and performers. At the same time, for some reason, both those and others are much less likely to be afraid of losing time or reputation. After all, the loss of time for both means missed opportunities, and the loss of reputation can further aggravate this effect: the performer is rude to the customer, throws him and seriously expects that no one will know about his “quality of work”? The customer works according to the principle "I am the owner, you are a fool", tightens deadlines and cuts off funding (if he does not withdraw money), and really thinks that this information will not be distributed in professional circles? Losing money is unpleasant, very noticeable at the time of loss. But often the end result is not as bad as the loss of reputation and time. It is not so noticeable. Exactly until those around you “suddenly” stop working with you.

The second type of fear is the fear of responsibility. He comes from outside. The performers are dominated by the fear of responding to the customer in the event of disputes, which leads either to voluminous scrapping with seals of each step, or to inexorably shaking nerves. It's hard to argue with the fact that thoughts like, "what if you bother" rarely contribute to productive work. Against the background of this fear, so real, constantly in the air, other fears of the same nature - such as social responsibility (“and if the children see it”), administrative (compliance of advertising with legislation) - often fade into the background, which can eventually go sideways to all participants of this event.

For the customer, this fear has a slightly different form. The prevailing problem sounds like: "What if I look bad, what if they think of me something wrong, consider me an upstart?" Here, with the same wording, the fear of trying something new and non-standard looms. Although one should focus on the problem of the quality of the goods and services produced, if it is unsatisfactory, then they will think.

They will think badly if you sell shit in a beautiful wrapper and advertise it cool. And if your product is good, no amount of advertising will spoil it. This absurd desire to appear better than you is will not impress anyone. Today, sincerity and simplicity of communication work - do not miss the opportunity to be yourself, speak with people in a simple language and demonstrate a sense of humor (naturally, within reasonable limits).

Have you noticed these posters in the offices of well-known companies, where beautiful smiling girls in uniforms say that they are glad and obliged to do their job well? What is the reality? And how does it feel as a result? That's just it.

Fears negatively affect the outcome. The stronger they are, the less productively the work is built, the worse the result will be. However, most fears can be dispelled by the parties themselves - let the temporary team "performer - customer" be a team, not a camp internecine wars... You are doing one thing - help each other do it well, because all participants are interested in this, no matter who thinks anything.

5. Priorities and a vicious circle

A few more words remain to be added to the above. Once you've thought about running an ad campaign, start by prioritizing. This is important, it will save time, which is often spent on meaningless "discussions", will allow you to set tasks correctly and generally decide what needs to be done.

The most important thing is to determine what goal you want to achieve with your campaign. If you just decided to “make a video and play it on TV,” then think about what you are trying to achieve? This action can be aimed at creating a certain image, or a story about a certain service. Think about the audience - who will watch it, who you want to show your message to. As soon as you decide on this, it will immediately become clear how to set the task and by what criteria to evaluate the work of specialists - to ensure that the advertising product conveys the message clearly and in an interesting way, and not for the presence of a mole on the model, without which you would personally like it more. Track what's really important, delegate the rest to the right professionals.

Why is it important? Incorrectly set priorities, an attempt to get into the work of specialists, showing that you are the smartest here and know everything (which, in principle, is impossible for any person), incorrectly formulated tasks and requirements lead to the creation of a product that does not work as expected. If you want a car, but ask the contractor to organize a "vehicle with four wheels" for you, allocating only a third of the cost of the cheapest car for this, do not be surprised at a wooden cart with an old nag - the task has been solved, costs are minimized, you can only kick yourself for an incorrect wording.

This phenomenon has another negative consequence that affects the advertising market, and therefore all its participants: disappointment. As mentioned at the very beginning, if an ad doesn't work, its budgets are cut. We saw that often advertising does not work by itself, but as a result it is incorrect. decisions taken... However, if this is not realized, it is considered that the advertisement does not work at all. Further budget cuts only exacerbate the effect: fewer messages, lower quality, worse effect.

This is the very vicious circle that you need to try not to get into. And, to try to figure out how to avoid this, where to look for the roots of problems and ways to solve them, this article was written.

6. Instead of summing up

The above can be reduced to simple thoughts: keep pace with the times, do not be afraid of changes, because they will happen anyway - you will either continue on board or be left behind; think over everything carefully and prioritize correctly; trust the opinion of experts; do not skimp on quality, as the miser pays twice; cooperate with colleagues, customers and performers, and demonstrate your superiority to competitors by the results of your work; re-evaluate the situation each time so as not to aggravate it by repeating past mistakes.

Everything said in this article is not revelation at all. One way or another, such thoughts can be gleaned both from books and from conversations with any specialist in the field of advertising and business promotion. Many things are generally based on everyday logic. But at the same time, for some reason, they are constantly forgotten. The purpose of this article was precisely the desire to remind, to re-illuminate some aspects of advertising.

The article was written based on personal experience and, of course, does not pretend to be the ultimate truth. This is the point of view that it is proposed to supplement, revise, rethink, so that one day not individual units, but an absolute majority advertising products and campaigns have become effective and responsible tools for product promotion, for which we would no longer be ashamed.

Have you launched an ad but it doesn't work? Let's figure it out together

Advertising is the most important aspect of the development of any business. Whatever you do if you want decent earnings, then you must definitely refer to advertising. Of course, I read many articles, books, topics on the forums, where they talked about how you can go to decent level earnings. In some cases, this is true, but 99% of the business is faced with competition, which can only be overcome by the quality of the services and goods provided, as well as good advertising.
But it often happens that advertising does not work. Everything seems to be done correctly, but there is absolutely no return. Why? Where were the mistakes made? Something went wrong? Experienced marketers identify five main problems, calling them classic, that almost all aspiring entrepreneurs admit. Today we will talk about them, as well as tell you how to solve this or that situation, which way out will be optimal.

Related article:

Finding a solution to a problem is not an easy task, but it is very important. If you work on an imaginary difficulty, then the result has not been, and will not be. It's like treating a back and a dentist.
So what are the main advertising and marketing mistakes most advertisers make?

1. The problem of "invisibility".
One of the earliest challenges faced by many entrepreneurs is the “invisibility” problem. To explain briefly, imagine the situation that your store is located on Balashova Street, building 19, building 4 (the one that is most difficult to find), 4th floor (going up the fire escape), office 54. And here's another thing , the entrance is not through the main doors, but on the side of the house is separate, for offices. And then many people wonder why visitors do not come to us, why many cannot find us. Once I myself ran into such a store. It is located on the territory of some factory, and in order to get inside I went through 3 security posts and left my passport data at the checkpoint  If it were not for the urgency of the purchase, I would hardly have turned to them.

It is clear that such a room will be several times cheaper, and when choosing it, the entrepreneur proceeded from the price per square meter. But if you want to work with people, accept clients, then think about convenience. Of course, you can have an office in such a corner, but then you will have to invest in advertising many times more.
The ideal option is to place your store somewhere in a prominent place. They can make it smaller in order to save money, but then every passer-by will know that this is where the store is, and they can go in, select the desired product, and make a purchase.

Related article:

2. The problem of the "missionary".
As you already understood, we will consider all the problems on "live" examples, so that you can better understand what is at stake. So the “missionary” problem can be characterized as follows. Imagine a tribe of natives somewhere in the depths of the Amazon. They have lived according to their own way of life for thousands of years, and do not know anything else. Here is a tribe going to cook dinner from another person, and at this moment a Christian missionary appears, carrying the word of God. He says that there are people not good, that Jesus bequeathed to live differently, that they all need to repent, pray, stop doing what they are doing. What will the natives do in this situation? Will they listen to him, or will they make themselves dinner from two people? I am sure the answer is obvious.

These are the problems that a company faces when it plans to bring something new to the market that has not yet been known to anyone. She immediately pounces on the buyer and insists that everything that you used before is not right, but our product is an innovation, a breakthrough, an incredible find that will change your life. It is clear that the reaction of people is negative, because no one likes when something is imposed on them, moreover, accusing them of doing the wrong thing all their lives.

If you are going to bring a new product to the market, then do it as carefully as possible. Conduct presentations, comparisons, various tests and experiments. Highlight the product in the media as widely as possible, but do not present information about it in an advertising manner.

Related article:

3. The problem of the innovator
Imagine the situation that you have come to a record collector who has been listening to his favorite songs on an old turntable for 30 years. And so you offer him to buy a brand new DVD player, giving up everything he used before. You assure that he will no longer need records, because ten such collections can fit on the player's hard disk. What do you think the answer will be? Here I am assuming that you leave with nothing.

A similar situation is very similar to the previous one, but if the problem of the "missionary" was that you offered people a solution to problems that they did not think so, in fact, you offered them no product needed, then the situation is different. You point out a problem that the buyer already realizes, but propose to solve it in a new way, although he has been solving it in his own way for decades, is used to it, and is unlikely to refuse.

How to be in such a situation? Choose the right ad audience. If you sell youth goods, then focus on youth. If your goods are designed for very wealthy people, then you should not hang up billboards in working areas or when leaving the factory. An advertisement for a new Bentley near the entrance of a metallurgical plant looks very ridiculous. Most hard workers will not earn so much in their entire lives, why should they advertise it?

4. The problem of clones
One of the well-known automotive magazines, which annually presented the rating of the best cars, was forced to abandon its rating systems, which had been used since the 20s of the last century. As wrote Chief Editor: “We must look for new approaches to solving the assigned tasks. Why? Our rating system doesn't work because all cars are good. They don't make bad people anymore. "

So you have decided to launch a new product. It could be a new clothing line, a new dog food, a new perfume or cosmetics. For you, it is new, better, innovative. BUT in the store, your product will be on the shelf next to dozens of similar ones. And why are you better? How can a buyer make a choice.
Solution: it is necessary not only to produce a product, but to find a zest in it, a distinctive feature that can distinguish this product from hundreds of others. Therefore, when you think over your advertising, focus on the features, on what people should notice, why they should choose your product and your company.

Related article:

5. Seller problem

In a sense, this is an exacerbation of the previous problem. You are not just trading a product that resembles 20 other products from the same category that your competitors are selling. You also face competition from other sellers offering exactly the same product. If a client can buy a Ford car or a can of Coke from both you and your competitor, it is not enough for you to solve the “clone problem” so that the buyer does not choose Toyota or Sprite - if you do this, you risk that a potential customer will not make a purchase from you, but around the corner, so that the effort and money invested in his conviction will be wasted.

- You say you need advertising? This is the right place for you! What are you promoting there? Italian shoes? So this is our topic - we ate the dog on these shoes! Now we will arrange it in a flash! The main thing is to "create" the idea so that UH!
No slogan? We can think of a slogan in no time! Now-now ... "We will shoe the whole country!" In! Well, class is it, in kind ?! It really works!
Text? What text? Ah, the text ... Don’t worry, we have a copywriter with experience - all his life in sales. We spotted her like in the Hot Pies kiosk near the office, so we immediately put her on copyright. Now she gives us texts instead of pies - 20,000 characters per hour!
Picture? Yes, you need a picture. Where can we go without a picture ... Oh, and our cleaning lady Tanya checked in from the fitting room yesterday just on Instagram, how she felt. What do not you understand? And here's Tanya, don't you understand? We will make up an exclusive, I say, luxury-style picture. Notice the bonus!
And the background is brighter. It is imperative for the red ones to immediately catch the eye! It really works! Corporate color green, you say? So we will write the text in green, and the background must be red!
Well, that's almost done. Now we will reduce the font to fit the text ... What does it mean, the text is unreadable? Whoever needs it will see. In general, let it be better to look at Tanka - the girl got a creditable selfie ...

"Oil painting" - would say the well-known hero of the film actor Mashkov. Say, exaggerating? Well, perhaps in the details. But in general, this is a completely ordinary sketch from life. It can be even worse! It’s interesting, has anyone in our country tried to calculate how many different kinds of advertising specialists are there today per capita? It feels like everyone is doing advertising today. Former salesmen, doctors, construction workers, janitors and even professional parasites.
Well, what, judging by the above, neither mind, nor body movements are needed for this. Sit back to yourself rivet pictures with slogans, hang noodles on customers' ears about “it really works” and crunch bills. And nothing that the client, even if he does not even understand anything in advertising, will not go to these "specialists" the second time, because he knows how to count his money and will no longer want to repeat the experience with the illusion of "money down the drain". There will be others. And our businessman will also go looking for others who "certainly know" WHAT "really works".

So they walk in a circle. The number of all kinds of creative agencies, copywriting bureaus and design studios is growing by leaps and bounds, despite any crises and collapses of the ruble. And the amount of good, really selling advertising, as it was negligible, and remains.

But if from what you have read you have concluded that the general unprofessionalism of advertisers is to blame, I will disappoint you. This is not true. The stick, as they say, has two ends. And very often the place of the protagonist of the plot, which I described above, is replaced not by an impudent profane advertiser, but by an uncompromising ignorant client with a firm conviction in his talent as a marketer. And then even the most sensible specialist has to make a choice: either send such a client in the forest, or embody the ideas of his inflamed brain green on red with a heifer in his right side.

There is a phrase in the Bible: "If a blind man leads a blind man, then both will fall into the pit." In my opinion, it very clearly characterizes what is happening in our advertising market. And therefore, I am simply convinced that to know the very basics, to understand elementary laws and rules marketing communications should be both advertisers and advertisers. The latter may object, they say, we do not study surgery when we go to the hospital for an operation, and it would never occur to anyone to sign up for a pilot course before flying on vacation - everyone should do their own thing. Undoubtedly. But, excuse me, “specialists” with builders' diplomas do not work as surgeons and pilots ...

Do you know what entrepreneurs say when they attend my Business Copywriting Intensive? Yes, this banal phrase: tired of throwing money away. Moreover, not all of them are downright ready to independently advertise, write selling texts. They just want to understand what to demand from the performers. The most common mistakes that lead to the fact that advertising does not sell, I have collected in my small book-guide “Really does NOT work. 33 tips on how not to advertise "... You can download it. And if you are used to receiving and digesting information in portions, subscribe to blog updates: from time to time I will publish some parts of it. And I'll start right now with the first and very gross mistake to sell everything in advertising at once.

Everything at once means nothing

Have you ever been to a flea market? I do not mean the Internet bulletin board of the same name, but a real city flea market, where heaps of outright rubbish are laid out on simple counters made of cardboard and newspapers. There are probably such popular fleas in every city in the post-Soviet space. For example, in Yekaterinburg, the famous Uralmash flea market has been alive and well since the 30s of the last century.

I have nothing against this method of private trade. Flea markets really help people who find themselves in difficult life situations, and in times of crisis, for some, they become the only salvation. I'm talking about something else. About associations. These sad rows of all sorts of things, where plaster busts of the leaders of the people, books that have turned yellow from time and blue-eyed dolls without limbs, are waiting for their buyer next to worn-out boots, stand in front of me every time I see an advertisement in which they are trying to sell me everything at once.

There are plenty of examples. Just yesterday on the radio: “The company“ Horns and Hooves ”offers the population safe-doors of special reliability, and also carries out glazing of balconies, loggias and terraces. Experienced installers are required. The salary is high. Phone ... ”It feels like the company is participating in a competition for the most mediocre way to get its money down the drain.

Or here's another. One of my clients came up with a problem: in his car service, the demand for seasonal work on the repair of the chassis unexpectedly dropped. Always, he says, by the summer, by appointment, they gathered up a queue, and here it is May in the yard - and silence. We develop an action, decide on the carriers. And then he gives me: “Let's write in a leaflet that we are still repairing engines, we are opening a tire service and a car wash in July. Since spending money, so it is necessary to advertise in full. "
It is in this "to advertise in full" that the main root of evil lies. The advertiser thinks that he is saving, and the potential client - that they are trying to shake off "everything that is and what not to eat."

Advertise and sell are not the same thing. If you want to show yourself to the world so that you can see who you are and what you are selling, no problem - tell, show, print lists and price lists. If you want to sell, do targeted advertising. One advertisement - one product, one service.

By doing otherwise, you do not "save" your advertising budgets, but only dissipate efforts. In addition, by turning your ad into a banal flea market, you risk not only sales, but also your own image. Well, what can you think of a company that, instead of building a competent marketing strategy, foolishly trying to sell everything at once.

Let me remind you that the remaining 32 tips on how not to advertise can be obtained

"Why do some companies invest huge budgets in advertising and do not even beat off the costs of it, while others do more modest advertising in terms of size and volume and succeed by attracting as many customers as they need?"

I have worked and work with many business owners and most of them have similar questions.
There is only one answer to these questions - because advertising should not be beautiful, but selling! You don't need to be an advertising genius to make a selling ad. Next, I'll describe the basics and techniques to help you figure it out.

1) Market
It is important to understand well where people belonging to your target audience are most often. For example, if you advertise home construction services in beauty salons, it probably won't work at all. The better you know your customers, the more accurately you can choose your ad placement.

2) Media
By this word, I mean a means or channel for delivering advertising to your potential clients... For example, the target audience can read magazines with your advertising and receive emails from you on e-mail, but for some reason your customers will only react to one thing. Therefore, it is important to constantly build and test new advertising channels.

3) Message
This is the information contained in the advertisement. Usually, most of the difficulties and questions arise here, so later I will tell you more about this factor.
In order for your ad to sell, it must be based on the MTO formula:
offer, deadline and call to action.

What is an Offer? This is some special offer, which contains a reason why a person should take an action in response: call, come to the office, leave a request. For example, such a reason could be a promotion, sale or some kind of free value.

Deadline Is a time limit. As you know, if some action can be postponed until later, most people will do so. And what is postponed for later, as a rule, is not done or is forgotten. Therefore, in advertising, it is important not only to make a “tasty” offer, but also to limit it in time. It is even better when there is not only a time limit, but also a limit on the quantity.
As practice shows, timelines of 24, 36 or 48 hours work best. There is no point in specifying a limit longer than 7 days, because it is not motivating.

Call to action.
If you want people to call on your ad, you need not just indicate the phone number, but highlight it in a bright color and write “call by phone”. If you need to attract customers to a store or office, write "come to the address."

The person who is interested in your offer must understand what the next step needs to be taken in order to take advantage of it.

What else do you need to know about advertising?
If you have a small or medium business, do not try to do image advertising. Such advertising is used only by large corporations to place their brand in the consumer's mind and stay there. If you want measurable sales results, this type of advertising is not for you.

Continues to talk about why your site has few customers. And what to do in order to increase its efficiency:

Analytics and goodness

It is for this request that a potential client who has contacted us is advertised in Yandex.Direct.

This article is about painful things. About analytics and statistics, which should be reviewed at least sometimes.

This article is about life. And in life, I often see how people inadequately evaluate something, starting with themselves.

But in order to evaluate anything in life, one must be able to see the numbers hidden from the eyes, see the "statistics" of life, and draw conclusions on the basis of it.

In such a bundle, the weak link is to see. Not everyone can do it ☺
It's different online. Everything is simpler.

If in a regular (offline) store, in order to assess the attendance, you need to personally stand and count all who have entered (I am already silent about the accuracy of the calculations), then in the online store you can find out the interests of visitors to the exactitude of each:

how long they stayed in your store,
at what moment and why did they leave,
how they moved the mouse, and how did they find out about you.

Monkeys are smarter than humans

There is a wonderful English proverb - "Monkey see, monkey do".
The monkey sees, the monkey does.

Human.

A person sees, a person does not!

Everyone who has a website has heard about site statistics. But not everyone, not everyone watches it, or at least tried to watch it.

How many stories have you heard that “Internet advertising does not work in my business”?

And what percentage of these entrepreneurs actually tried to figure out why this particular advertisement on this site did not work? I think the indicator tends to zero.

Because as soon as you look at the numbers, everything becomes clear - why this is so.

Real story

An unusual call came to our studio. The first conversation lasted 40 minutes. It was very difficult for me to understand what the client is doing, what service he sells, who his clients are, and so on.

It looked something like this:

“Our clients order a performance, as a result of which they receive an author's picture. Our paintings are in a museum in Paris and in a gallery in New York. They sell very well even from third parties. "

The client wanted to remake the site, and create a separate Landing page for the sale of this service, and engage in social media. networks, so that "the movement goes there."

As a result of the conversation, we came to the conclusion that I should better study their site, watch a video about IT, and only then continue the conversation.

After this conversation, a real brainstorm began in our studio!

We began to study all the information about this business on the net. We found a VK group in which there were not many, not a few - 1 person and 3 posts.

Found a Facebook group with 233 likes. And there are much more posts.

We climbed the site and looked. They roughly understood what it is, but did not understand who needs it and who is able to buy it. We still do not know the prices.

Remember the statistics! Oh great

I will say right away - I have never seen SUCH INTERESTING AND EXCITING statistics!

First, attendance... She's so uneven! Every day there is no one, then 50 people, then 100 people, then again no one, and so on.
This is not for those people who like stability ☺

Second, the average duration of a site visit... If you superimpose the graph of the average visit duration on the traffic graph, then you can clearly see the pattern - the lower the traffic, the longer the average time of visiting the site. Accordingly, most of the people on the site did not find what they came for. I'll tell you about this a little later, what they were looking for ☺

Third, the bounce rate !!!
Of such high rate I have never seen.

On that website average refusals 84.1% !!!

In total, there were 5,371 visitors on the site for the indicated quarter, of which 99.4% were new.

The most interesting!

Requests that people get to the site.

We decided to find out what the people who come to this site are interested in. Answer the numerous "Why?" That arose while viewing statistics.

But first, about the traffic sources.

It turns out that lion's share traffic - purchased. And the attendance floats precisely because of this. It all depends on whether there is money in the account in Yandex and Google or not.

Based on this table, relevant traffic flows to the site only from social media. networks. There, the bounce rate is acceptable and the visit duration is high.

All other sources have a bounce rate. But among them there are still some that are relatively relevant. These are affiliate sites. From there, probably nosy booking agencies still rummage through the site and order these artists.

So, requests. Paid. Expensive

And this happens quite often. Due to the inept setting of the context, people spend a lot of money on advertising, and as a result, not only customers, even no calls.

Because it is very important to think to whom (?) You are selling. Know your target audience in the face.

Based on this, one can compose semantic core(keywords for which they will search for you) and minus words for which they are not looking for you.

In this case, it is clearly seen that the keyword in the ads was "show", and the negative word was completely forgotten. As a result, a lot of inappropriate traffic, money down the drain, and the worst thing is that such an advertiser is disappointed in the Internet, says that advertising does not work, and so on, thereby complicating the life of both himself and other advertisers. And that's why:

Due to the low CTR of his ads, he is forced to raise the bid higher and higher in order for his ad to be noticed.
Other advertisers are forced to raise their bids too (auction system), even though they are not even competitors!
People don't find what they were looking for by clicking on such inappropriate ads. They get upset ☹
Potential advertisers may not even try to advertise on the Internet, because the first advertiser will complain to everyone and spread information that the Internet is not working

…

Recently, more and more often you hear such phrases: "Yandex.Direct overheated"; "The cost per click is unrealistically expensive"; "It's time to switch to other advertising channels."

Yes. There is a place for this to be. But let's understand the reasons - why is this?

This happens in two cases:

Or the advertiser is inexperienced (lack of knowledge)
Or the advertiser is irresponsible (he needs to master the client's budget / works for impressions / clicks, and not for KPIs)

Therefore, the one who thinks about people always wins:

If the ads in the context are configured correctly (the ad text responds to the user's request + the page inside the site where this ad leads corresponds to what the person was looking for), then the ad's CTR will be high
Yandex encourages advertisers who think about people (a high CTR is an indicator of usefulness for people) - it lowers bids, and the more you advertise, the more discount you get
The visitors themselves are happy - they found what they were looking for (technically, this means increasing the ranking of the site in search engines just like that - Google and Yandex read the time spent on the site, immersion, bounce rate)

Principle: Focus on the user

Why did he shoot like that? They do their job with such love for people that everyone becomes infected with it, and just like bees transfer pollen from flower to flower, so people spread this care and love further in their lives.

Is a company that makes people happy and helps to double the number of website customers in 8 minutes. No advertising costs. Without changing the site. No additional discounts for clients. And by organizing a call between the company and the potential client.

Therefore, if you want to achieve success - Love your client, love your product, make it as useful as possible for people.

Make good, understandable sites. Share useful experiences and observations with colleagues. Be open, kind and honest.

With this attitude to life, you will always have clients, you will not be afraid to invest in employees and marketing funds.

People will search for you in Yandex by your name (or your brand name), and no contextual advertising you will not need it!

Share goodness. Is free!

If the article seemed useful to you, tell your friends about it.

Subscribe to our blog about conversions and happiness.

If you have something to say, feel free to write in the comments. ☺

I undertake to write for you regularly.

P.s. the biggest gratitude for me will be - your choice to be kinder.

P.s.s. if you also want to disassemble your business on the shelves (I mean your site and advertising), on our site, we do it for free.

I wrote for you with love from Vladivostok

It might be helpful to read: