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Saturday, October 30, 2010

HOW TO KNOW YOUR BUSINESS ADVERTISING IS EFFECTIVE IN NIGERIA (Lagos, Abuja, Portharcourt)








Lots of small and medium scale businesses don’t believe in Advertising. One can never over emphasize the role of advertising in any business. I always tell business owners that having a business and not advertising it is like hiding your business from people, YES, it’s that bad.
And then I have seen some other business owners advertise and not monitor their advertising campaign, to know if it’s effective or not. That is why I am writing on this subject. It really does amaze me the number of businesses who advertise purely for the sake of advertising. If you were to randomly ask ten business owners why they advertise, nine out of the ten will most likely say, because everyone else does or something similar.

This may seem like a strange thing to do but it is a serious challenge that is rarely addressed, especially by the smaller business owners. The real question that needs to be answered is; are you potentially tipping vast amounts of your hard earned profits down the drain because of ineffective advertising campaigns?

The best kept secret in the world of advertising is that most business advertising does not work. However, don't expect anyone who sells ad space to tell you that. Because most businesses don't monitor how well or badly any particular advertising campaign is doing, very few are aware of this fact.

Recently, a client of mine insisted on doing radio advertising to promote a website. I advice the client to make press ad instead, because I feel majority of their target market will read Tuesday Guardian before listening to the radio. They insisted they wanted a radio, so we did radio. At the end of the day, I got a very upset client, who claimed the advertising was not working. Who get blamed for this?

Just because you have advertising budget doesn't mean you have to spend it without knowing what return you are getting. There are a multitude of sins committed when it comes to publicity but here are three key elements that you absolutely must get right every time if you are to avoid profit depletion.
Always Test and Measure
It is paramount that you test and measure any advertising. This applies to all forms of promotion, TV, radio, newspaper, magazine and any other medium you use. It would seem like an obvious thing to do but very few businesses actually do it. A focused plan has to be in place so that you know, with absolute certainty that the ad you are running is worthwhile and producing a return on investment. If it is not stop it!
Again this would seem obvious and logical but it doesn't always happen. Some companies will run ads for weeks and months, spending millions of hard earned Naira with absolutely no idea if the ad is producing a profitable outcome.
Watch Your Headline
Your headline is the most important part of any ad. If the headline does not catch the readers attention, your ad will not get read, period. I see ads all the time, where the headline is the company name and logo. The truth is nobody cares about your company name or if you've been established for 125 years. The headline must always appeal to your targeted audience and where possible include a benefit. Which headline is more likely to attract your attention?
The moral of the story is, take care with headlines. They can make or break your return on investment. Getting your headline right can increase your response rate by as much as 50% to 100%.
Use Media Trackers Services
Most business owners always make mistake to assume their campaign is running, just because they’ve paid for it. The work of an ad agency is to represent you, advice and guide you in making the right decision in your advertising campaign. After agencies have made media buying for you, they assume you are tracking your own campaign. They also assume your campaign is running because they already paid the media. It is your duty to ensure the campaign you paid for is running. This is really common with most media in Nigeria especially Billboards, Radio and TV. Most times, you will know if your press ad is running or not. However, some of the billboards you have seen pictures and approved has stopped running after a month or two, whereas you paid for six month. It is the duty of the media trackers to ensure all your billboards are still standing. That your radio spots runs at the right time scheduled and that the number of spots you paid for what is what is played. Same goes for TV campaign. Don’t just keep spending money and wondering why you are not seeing the effect of your advertising campaign, your campaigns are probably not running any more.
In conclusion, before you embark on your next advertising venture think about this. "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" - Albert Einstein
Thinking of advertising in Nigeria, contact Victor today, his number is at the contact Victor page of this blog.

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