When it comes to advertising and creating interest in your business, you’ll
have to change your attitude about the way this is usually done. Start by
looking at some larger advertising campaigns. What do they do? What do
they attempt to achieve? Are they successful?

When you look at successful advertising and marketing, you will notice that
these campaigns directly address the customer and their life. Good
marketing strategies will consider what the customer should think or feel
after seeing the advertisement. Are you trying to make the customer feel
that your product can enhance or support their life in some way? Are you
trying to alert the customer of a problem that could be solved?

You can start this process by asking your customers what they think of your
product after seeing an advertisement. This will show you if your goals and
the actual outcome match in a way that is satisfactory. If they do match,
then you have found a good marketing scheme, if they do not, it’s time to
see where you can improve.

You’re also looking for how a customer’s attitude changes after seeing the
advertisement. You can do this by asking your customers about your brand
or product before they see the ad, and then asking them what they feel after
the ad as well. The difference in these two feelings should be different. You
are trying to change their minds or continue the same mindset that they
were feeling before (if it was good).

You also want to consider if you’re trying to change a customer’s reaction or
their action. We’ve already discussed changing their reaction. If you want
the customer to go out and buy the product, is your advertising directing
them to do so? Are you being clear in what you want the customer to do
now that they’ve seen the advertisement? You may find that you are
directing them to thinking about products like yours, rather than considering
buying.

Knowing your target audience is paramount in having success, but it’s also
important in maintaining your success through hard times. There’s no need
for your business to wax and wane when you’ve got a solid marketing plan in
place. Create a model customer in your head when beginning a marketing
strategy. What are their needs and their values—how can you address
them?

Think of the customer and they’ll think of you.

BEING SPECIFIC

We’ve talked about determining your target audience, so let’s broaden the
perspective to the target market.

Looking at your sales and your cost ratios, how are you doing with your
current marketing plan? If sales are down or they’re beginning to slow, it’s
time to jump in with a new strategy. This is where you will ask yourself what
might be going wrong. Perhaps your marketing is just fine, but the market
itself has become too saturated with your kind of product or business.

An example of a saturated market is the coffee shop trend. There are
hundreds of coffee shops, so each one has to create some quirk in order to
survive. In today’s market, it may not be a wise decision to attempt to open
your own—unless the community is lacking.

This has two routes that can help to change your downward trend. One, you
can go and find another business idea that might work better for you.
Perhaps you didn’t put enough research into your chosen field and you just
need to try another idea that you had. It’s better to do this than to struggle
without hope of profit.

Of course, you may want to just adjust the business that you do have in
order to see better results. This can mean changing your pricing to be more
competitive, or offering incentives to buy your product. By creating
something exciting and different about your business, then you’ll draw in
customers who are looking for those qualities (and those prices).

You may also want to create a place for yourself in the overall market or find
a little tweak that can give you a market all to yourself. This is sometimes
called a ‘niche’ market. And while some business owners dismiss the idea of
targeting your marketing to a small group of people rather than the mass
population, you will find that this is a more cost effective option. Not only
are you ‘preaching to the choir’ and getting sales, but you’re also getting a
return on that advertising time and time again.

Create a place for yourself in a particular population and they will do your
advertising for you. They will select people that would be interested in your
business and tell them about what you can offer. This word of mouth
advertising is free for you and much more likely in a niche market situation.

Go to your local phone book and see how many other businesses are out
there that offer the services or products that you do. How can you be
different and rise to top of everyone’s list?