"Which publication should I advertise in? What size should the ad be? How frequently should I run it?
"What should my headline be? Which service should I offer? Should I mention my fees? Offer a discount? A free consultation?
"Should I do "lead generation" advertising, or go for the immediate ‘sale’? How many times should I follow up with an inquiry? How often?"
These are VERY good questions!
The answers are found through "testing."
Testing is the process of trying different variables and recording the results. It means, for example, trying four different versions of an ad, each with a different headline, and tracking how many sales or inquiries come in from each.
Some headlines outpull others by as much as 3,000%. Testing might allow you to bring in that much additional business with NO additional expense.
The key to success in advertising is constant testing. You try something, see if it works, then try different variables against the original (called the "control") to see if you can improve response.
What kinds of things should you test?
The single most important thing to test in ANY kind of marketing, but especially in advertising and direct mail, is "the list". WHO sees your message is will affect response more than any other variable.
If you are offering estate planning services, for example, a list of 50-year old men with a wife, kids, and a home, will undoubtedly pull better than a list of college students. That’s obvious, of course, but there is much profit to be had in testing more subtle variables.
For instance, in marketing those same estate planning services, will a list that includes men with three children outpull a list of men with just one? If so, you could get more bang for your marketing buck by using the better-pulling list.
In marketing my Referral Magic course to lawyers, for many years, I did a lot of print advertising in bar publications. Some publications produced a greater number of inquires than others, and some "converted" a higher percentage of those inquiries into sales. I tracked both numbers, and because I did, I knew which publications to stay in, which ones to drop, which ones produced the most gross profit, and which ones the highest net.
Some publications always did well, and I stayed in them for a long time. Others never did well, and were dropped. Still others produced a good response, then petered out to the point where it was no longer profitable to advertise in them.
Because I kept accurate records (the key to testing) I had this information at my fingertips and knew what to do.
Next to the list, the most important thing to test is your headline. It can make a HUGE difference in response.
Headlines are not just in ads, however. Your report or article title is a headline. Same for your brochure. The title of your seminar is a headline. The opening line in a presentation is, too. The "re" in your letter is a headline. And so is the "P.S."
What goes at the top of your web page? That’s a headline. So is the "subject" in your email. What’s the first thing you say when you call a potential referral source to introduce yourself? Yep, a headline.
Advertising legend David Ogilvy (Ogilvy & Mather) said that the headline is 80% of the effectiveness of an ad. Think about it. An ad with a bad headline but brilliant copy won’t get read; readers never get past the headline. But a mediocre ad with a GREAT headline gets read many times more often. More people reading the ad means higher response.
After the list and the headline, the next thing I would test is the offer. You can’t possibly know which offer will result in the greatest number of replies. Want to try a discount? Well, it may increase response, it may have no affect on response, or it may DECREASE response.
Wouldn’t you want to know?
There are many other things you can test, but these three are the most important in any ad.
If you want to pull in more business, reduce expenses, and increase your bottom line, test!
