7 Questions to Ask Before You Advertise

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One of my greatest struggles in my past 4 years of business has been finding effective wasy to advertise and attract new clients. I have tried magazines, high school sports sponsorships, ads in coupon books etc and still find that most new clients find my pet sitting business through online or paper yellow pages.  I found this article online and liked it as it gives some good suggestions for testing the market and includes an exercise to determine if you should be spending money on advertising.

7 Questions to Ask Before You Advertise

Guest Author Michele Pariza Wacek

Most business owners and managers keep a fairly close eye on their marketing budgets.

And nothing throws a budget out of whack faster than advertising.

Advertising, or paying good money to get your message in front of your target market, still has a place in your marketing mix, although it’s not quite as effective as it once was.

If you’re going to advertise, you need to be smart about it — or you can quickly find yourself with a blown budget and not much to show for it. Below are seven questions to ask yourself before writing out that check.

1. Do you need to generate customers/traffic/leads/etc. right away? If so, then you better pull out your wallet. Advertising is hands down the fastest way to get your message in front of your target market. (You’re paying for placement after all.)

2. Do you have another way to get the word out about your business? For instance, do you have a customer database or an e-zine list? If so, then you might be better off sending an e-mail (assuming you have customers’ e-mails). Although technically e-mail announcements fall under advertising, I’m not counting it in this particular case because it’s more or less free (or very low cost).

Perhaps you have a good news angle and a good relationship with a reporter. Or you have a high-traffic Web site and/or blog. Or maybe you’re an active volunteer with a large organization and can use networking to get the message out.

But if none of those really apply, then you’d better take a closer look at advertising.

3. Do you need to augment your other marketing efforts? Maybe you have articles featured on a Web site targeted to your customer base. Great when your article is front and center and not-so-great when your article is buried in archives. A little advertising on that site can keep you in your target market’s sight all the time. Or maybe you struck gold and got a big article written about your company in the perfect trade publication. Fantastic for that month and not-so-fantastic for the other 11 months of the year. Or maybe it’s taking you longer than you’d like to drive traffic to your Web site. Advertising is good for speeding things along.

Frequency is king when it comes to marketing — if you’re out of your customers’ sight, you’re probably out of their mind when it comes to buying time. Advertising is a good way to beef up or speed up what you’re already doing.

4. Are other marketing methods not appropriate in this situation? Let’s say you want to have a sale. But your customer database is small (or nonexistent). Your Web site has minimal traffic. And you aren’t going to get any bites from the media since having a sale isn’t news. What do you do? Run some ads.

5. Would you rather save time than money? Let’s face it. Running an ad is easy. Other marketing methods are more time-consuming. If you want your marketing to be easy, then advertising is about as easy as it’s going to get. (Now there is a caveat to this one, because you can hire people to do some of those marketing tasks, such as updating Web sites, running PR campaigns, etc. However, not everything can be hired out so you still might be stuck spending time you don’t have.)

6. Are you planning to test a new campaign or a new product/target market? Running small, inexpensive ads can be a good way to test certain marketing aspects before launching big, expensive, time-consuming campaigns. If you want to penetrate a new market or if you have a new product to launch or a new marketing message to try, buy some ads and see what the response rate is. Another strength of advertising is control — you have total control over your test.

7. Do other marketing approaches never quite measure up? It happens. Advertising in one or two specific media outlets seem to generate more sales and more leads then anything else you’ve tried. If that’s the case, then don’t mess with it. As the old saying goes, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Creativity Exercise — Advertising and your business

Is advertising right for your business? Try this exercise and see.

1. What’s your biggest marketing challenge right now? Write it down.

2. Go through the above list of questions and ask yourself each one. Does it apply to your situation? If it does, write that down too.

3. Do some brainstorming. In what ways can you use advertising to solve your marketing challenges? What media would work best? Online? Print? Radio? Television? Direct mail? Something else? Make up an ad for a variety of media.

Now do the exact opposite. Think of ways advertising WON’T work for your business. Brainstorm at least 25 reasons why advertising won’t work for your specific situation. Be silly. It’s a good way to loosen you up.

4. Go back and reread both your pro and con lists. Now read your ads. Do you like what you came up with? Do any of them resonate with you, even now after coming up with your list of objections?

You may have just come up with your next advertising campaign.

Michele Pariza Wacek is the author of “Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money.” She offers two free e-zines that help subscribers combine their creativity with hard-hitting marketing and copywriting principles to become more successful at attracting new clients, selling products and services and boosting business. She can be reached at http://www.TheArtistSoul.com.

National Pet Memorial Day and The Pet Cemetery - An Unusual Pet Business

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Pet Memorial DayToday, Sunday September 9th, is National Pet Memorial Day.  A day to remember pets and honor the memory of pets that are no longer with us.  The day was established by the International Association of Pet Cemeteries in 1972 and is celebrated by most pet cemeteries across the US on the second Sunday of September each year. 

One way to remember your pets is to create an online memorial for them at I Loved My Pet.  At this site you can create a page that contains photos, audio, videos, and thoughts and memories about your pets. 

It seems strange that I saw an article about this day of celebration this week as one of my pet sitting clients was just telling me about our local pet cemetery last weekend.  I have never heard of pet cemeterys except the one in Stephen Kings famous book but when I did an online search I found that they are very common.  When our Lab Mackie passed away 2 years ago we were able to have her cremated at the hospital where she was receiving treatment and we keep her ashes in an urn on our mantle.

Pet cemeteries give owners a final resting place for their pets or their ashes and allow owners to visit to pay their respects and visit the grave as often as they want.  I can see how this type of facility can help owners ease the emotional pain of pet loss.

Many pet owners are also investing in elaborate headstones, caskets, or urns if they opt for pet cremation. There are many online vendors for pet urns and other memorial items.

The cost of burying a pet in a cemetary or cremation of a pet is often quite high. In a recent article about the Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park a park spokesman said that

the cost to bury a pet starts at $549 and is based on plot size and type of casket. The price includes everything–casket, plot and maintenance, and can go as high as $1,205. Cremation costs are based on weight–$85 for a pet under 10 pounds; $245 for an animal weighing 151 to 175 pounds.

 

The need for pet cemeteries and crematoriums is growing as pet ownership grows and  states start to impose stricter regulations against backyard pet burials.  Many veterinary offices work directly with pet crematories for their clients pet burial needs.

If you have experience with cremation or cemetary management and want to work with pets you may consider opening a pet cemetary in your area to serve local pet owners.

To find out more information visit the website of the International Assocation of Pet Cemeteries and Crematories. 

Alternatively there are many opportunities to create unique pet urns, caskets, or memorials and market to pet owners.  You can browse one of the search engines to find out what types of products are being offerred to pet owners.

BlogCarnival - Sunday August 12th

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There was only one article submitted for the carnival this week - thanks to Luke Houghton for his intelligent review of cat overpopulation -

Solving the Cat Overpopulation Problem 

I know there are more of you out there with great pet articles to share! Please send them to me at daniellechonody@gmail.com or submit through Blog Carnival for next Sundays edition.

Blog Carnival - Monday August 5th

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Oops sorry everyone - I’m a day late with this blog carnival post. Thank you to everyone who contributed this week, here is a roundup of articles:

The Cost of Living with Pets in Luxury and Some Really Weird Pet Product

More than a Pet - by Cheryl Zarra

Emergency C Section - by Lucynda Riley

Oscar the Cat - by Therapy Doc

Bladder Expression in Large Male Dogs - Sharonda Woodfin

Why Pet Sitters Drink Decaf - by Howtoholdacat

Please submit your pet articles for next weeks addition at www.blogcarnival.com - find us under Pets.

Free Pet Industry Magazines for Business Owners

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This weekend I found a couple of pet publications that offer free subscriptions for pet business owners. Both look like they have information that is valuable to keep on top of pet industry trends and new pet products. Both magazines are primarily aimed at pet product retailers - but if you have a pet service business it may be worth considering adding some products to you business. (I’ll be discussing the concept of Double Edged Sword marketing in a future post and show you how adding products to your business can help you increase your profits).

Pet Business gives pet retailers marketing tips and product information to help them increase their financial success. They distribute monthly and also run articles on grooming, trends in pet foods, and specialized pet care.

Pet Age is also targeted to retailers but also offers instructional pet care articles, customer relations tips, industry and regulation trends, and innovative new pet products.

I haven’t got my first issues yet but I’ll give you a full review when they do arrive. Until then it is easy to subscribe to the magazine at their websites online - they ask that you let them know what part of the pet industry you are involved in to receive your free subscription.

keep looking »