Greg Stuart, author of What Sticks kicked off the conference with call to action to all marketers – please hold yourself accountable for your advertising campaigns. In the advertising world, our mantra goes something like “Half of all marketing budgets is wasted – we just don’t know which half.” That must change. Generating publicity isn’t enough.
How can advertisers test the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns? Contrary to Stephen Colbert’s advice, the worst thing you can do is “go with your gut.” Given all the potential ad variations out there, how could you possibly know which resonates best with your target audience without testing? We all like to think we can produce great marketing materials, but the best marketers at Fortune 500 companies are routinely getting it wrong. What does that say for us small business marketers?
Stuart explained the three factors involved in getting the best ROI.
1 -Understand your customers’ motivations.
You must make sure your pitch means something to your audience. In order to do that, you must know why customers buy your brand. Stuart gave a case study using ING. Years ago, ING ran an ad campaign stressing that their approach to financial services was “innovative” and “fresh thinking.” Not surprisingly, the campaign flopped. Why? Because the vast majority of people don’t buy advertising based on “innovation.”
It took ING four years to realize this message wasn’t working and they wasted a lot of money in the process. After extensive research, they uncovered what did resonate with their audience – that their service provided a way to “simply the complex financial world.”
2 – Provide a compelling message.
You must tell the message in a way so that your audience gets it in about 2 seconds. As in the ING case, once they knew their customers weren’t interested in “innovative” financial services, they changed their message to focus around simplifying financial transactions. Their ads are remarkably different now that they are focusing on “simplicity.”
3 – Reach customers through the right media.
It’s important to know the bottom line numbers – if you spend $1 in print advertising, how much is that compared to $1 in pay-per-click advertising, or $1 advertising on various websites? In other words, of all the places you advertise, which is the most cost effective in terms of dollars spent for each interested consumer?
Stuart used McDonalds as an example. The ads they ran around lunch time (and to a lesser extent, dinner) were far more effective than ads they ran at any other time. Why not solely focus their ad budget on displaying ads solely in those time periods?
He advised that when planning your ad campaign, don’t through caution to the wind. Instead, take a scientific approach using split testing to determine which factors are effective. Then, once you know what works, allocate your budget in the 70-20-10 way technology companies do: 70% should go to what you know words. 20% to innovate what you know works. 10% to brand new ideas.
Or, as Stuart summarized, when advertising works, it can be extremely powerful. But unless you test your campaigns’ effectiveness, you’ll never know what factors work and what don’t.
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