Advertising Basics for Business 7

Reprinted with permission from Janet Attard* Copyright 2004. All rights reserved.
     
Do I need to be able to accept charge cards?

The answer depends on the type of business you are starting and the location. If you are starting a small local deli, you may not need to accept credit cards. If you sell big-ticket items, or if you sell by mail or over the Internet, being able to accept credit cards will greatly increase your sales in most cases.

Should I use special offers?

Special offers can increase your response rate and help you determine which media gets responses. However, special offers can also bring out the tire kickers and freebie hunters, too. You need to test special offers to see which attracts the most paying customers. If you use a special offer, make sure it has a cut-off date or people will be pulling out the coupon or ad for months to come and demanding your product at the special rate. Also, if your cut-off date is at 9 P.M. Friday, don't be surprised if a lot of people wait until 8:30 P.M. on Friday to order or to walk into your store.

What kind of special offers can I use that won't cost a lot?

Discounts on products work well (the need to offer discounts should be considered when developing your pricing strategies), free information, and giveaways of inexpensive items, such as balloons, markers, pens, and magnets, may be useful in certain circumstances. For kids, free samples of your product or a free trial period are typical types of promotions.

Can I say my product is better than that of the competition?

The only safe way to indicate that your product is better than the competitor's is with indisputable facts. Size, weight, retail price, and number of pieces, for example, could be compared without problem to show your product's benefits over that of the competitor. But if you say your competitor's products are ugly or shoddy, you could be setting yourself up for a costly lawsuit. The same is true if you say your products are healthier or longer-lasting if you don't have hard facts to back up your claims.

Should I advertise in card decks?

Card decks can bring your sales message to a large group of potential customers at once (typically 100,000 prospects), and the prospects can be well targeted, such as all readers of a particular trade magazine. Response rates are low—typically one-tenth of 1 percent—though they may be higher or lower depending on how well your items match your target audience. As with mail order ads in magazines, however, there are companies that can make a profit despite the low response rate. Those companies seem to be ones with high-ticket products, products that lead to repeat sales, and products that are one of a line of products sold by the company who places the ad. If you only have one product to sell, it is probably unwise to try to use card deck advertising unless the product sells for at least $40 or $50 or more and you will be following up leads from the card deck with sales calls or additional literature.

How do I get into card decks?

Many magazines do card deck mailings periodically. In addition most card decks you receive will contain contact information for the publisher of the deck. Thus, if you see a deck that seems to be addressed to your target market, just call the publisher of the deck and ask for their rate card. You can also find the names of card deck publishers in directories available in the library. Standard Rate and Data Service directories are among those that list card deck publishers.

Are there any ways to cut the high costs of advertising?

Here are several ways you may be able to cut costs:

• Barter your product or service for space or air time. (Barter is taxable. Ask your accountant about tax implications.)
  
• Ask for a lower rate than the one advertised on an advertiser's rate card—the rates may be printed in black-and-white but aren't necessarily carved in stone.
  
• Ask about remnant space, which is space left that hasn't been sold at the time a publication is ready to go to print. If you have your ad ready to go, you may be able to purchase the remnant space for much less than the price of the space listed on the rate card.
  
• If you sell retail products, ask manufacturers about cooperative advertising programs. These can reduce your advertising costs.
  
• Do cooperative advertising with other small businesses. You may be able to advertise in their catalogs or have your product literature inserted into their merchandise packages in return for inserting theirs in with mailings going out to your customers.
  
• Trade lists with other noncompeting businesses, or trade your list for ad space or air time.
• Rent out the traditional mail mailing list you accumulate to bring in extra income. Note: while renting names and street addresses is still an acceptable practice, renting email addresses is inadvisable because of privacy and spam laws.
  
• Send an ad or a catalog of products along with every order you fill to encourage additional sales. The ad or catalog rides free with the order if it doesn't increase the shipping weight enough to raise the cost of shipping.
  
• Tack up business cards in stores, beauty shops, print shops, universities, and other public places if appropriate.
  
• Post computer shareware or text files with contact information in electronic libraries on commercial services and private bulletin boards. If you don't have a modem or don't have access to these online services, you can get people to upload your shareware and files for a fee.
  
• Send disks with your shareware to companies that sell shareware through catalogs.
  
• Consider placing inserts in weekly shoppers rather than doing a residential mailing.
  
• Consider doing small direct mail campaigns instead of advertising if you don't need to sell to a lot of people at once.
  
• Have your business card or other business information printed on a Rolodex card and mail the cards to your customers and prospects.
       

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