from the “Bob Pritchard Radio Show”
But, right now let’s talk about a couple of the mistakes that companies make that are simple but could also cost them their business.
So many businesses focus on themselves, and not on the prospects and customer’s needs! That is who the ads are supposed to be appealing to. Why isn’t this obvious? Look through your yellow pages or today’s newspaper ads. Now answer this question: Are most of the ads telling you what benefits you get if you become a customer? Or are the ads telling you about the Advertiser, where they are, how wonderful they are, what they do, how great their quality is, how great their service is, and all about them? Customers don’t care about you, they only care about themselves. 95% of ads today are totally focused on the business and not on what the business can do for YOU, the prospect!
Take a look at the ads on TV, and listen to the radio. You will find the same thing happening there, consistently, every day. This type of selfish advertising falls under the wasteful category of brand advertising. Brand advertising in my view, produces absolutely no benefit whatsoever. The advertising agencies will tell you that it produces deferred results. That is rubbish. Branding is worth zip in today’s market place. Brand equity is all that counts and this type of advertising does nothing for Brand Equity.
Why? Because brand equity is all about you, the customer, not them. At worst, brand advertising is ineffective, unproductive, and a wasteful expense that accomplish no profitable purpose whatsoever. Brand advertising tells you how great the company is, or how old and stable they are, or some other bullshit that no one cares about. This idiocy kills most of your marketing effectiveness and budget. From brochures to flyers, and sales letters to advertisements, your marketing message should let your prospects know that you are concerned ONLY WITH WHAT THEY WANT!
Anything about you, should always come last. Your customers, should always come first. Any marketing documents you create should start by focusing on the prospects wants. Every sentence should show that you understand the prospects wants. Until your marketing efforts focus on the prospects wants, your marketing will fail. This marketing failure will be followed closely by your company’s failure.
As I said last week excellent advisors and mentors, to help you avoid these mistakes are more important than a great product, but select your advisors carefully. A lot of people become consultants because they are hopeless at running a business, so check out their credentials before you hire them. The good consultants might cost twice as much and that might appear to be important initially, but the good ones produce great results. For one client we once increased inbound calls from 70 a month to 3500 a month with the exact same advertising budget.