Break through the noise and create engaging advertisements

Increase your advertising ROI

Advertising your business is a must.

When you’re new you want to tell everyone why they should check you out. I can’t blame you there!

Maybe sales are sluggish and need you more clients.

Perhaps you have a sale or product you want everyone to know about.

No matter the reason you have to get the word out. Advertising does just that.

Sure I think internet marketing is great but advertising can be effective.

But the cookie cutter “Here’s my business and contact information, please call us” advertising doesn’t work anymore.

Let me explain.

Advertising needs to engage

 
It’s a fact that I dislike 95% of advertising. Almost all advertisements lack creativity and can be ignored. Actually all advertisments can be ignored except website pop ups! I’ll save that for another day however.

I’m sure my feelings on advertising are shared by many others.

How often do you say to yourself after seeing an ad “Yeah, I want to start doing business there” or “I must find out more” and call that business or visit their website? I bet I’ve been on more dates in the last year which for the record has been a measly two.

As a society we ignore advertising. It’s been jammed down our thoughts for far too long. How often do you even take the time to look at ads anymore?

So how you can break through the noise and engage people with your advertising? What does it take to get some serious return on investment from any advertisement you run?

I’ll show you a great example in a second so read on!

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Introducing Meaningful Advertising

 
Once in a while I flip through my local paper to see if anything catches my eye. A month back I found this advertisement.

advertising that connects

Let’s be clear, it’s goods but it can be better. I’ll explain why later but it’s a step in the right direction.

So what makes this ad meaningful and better than the majority of ads?

  • It educates
  • It never tries to push
  • It opens the sales funnel

It educates

Meaningful marketers are always willing to educate potential clients. They’re thinking about their clients and what questions they have. In this case it’s something as common as using eye drops.

People are generally looking for information on your product or service before buying. Often times they’ll do research on the internet. The best way to get in front of them and answer any questions is by blogging for business.

This ad is essentially what a blog post would look like. It’s meaningful because it educates someone and improves their life. After all no one would engage with this ad if they didn’t know how to use eye drops since that’s the title!

It never tries to push

Since the begin on advertising companies have been pushing their products on us. That has to change if you want to engage more people.

During the advertisement not once do you see “See us for all your eye care needs” do you? The concept is certainly there but it’s subtle.

This is the same thing done by Victoria Transmission Auto care with their car safety classes for young drivers.

Dr. Taylor could have easily peppered this ad with more pushing. But he didn’t.

At the bottom of the ad his clinics contact details are listed. That’s the only time. He didn’t even offer a call to action which is very passive. Too passive though.

He’s simply educating people. If the reader wants to know more, perhaps they’ll visit his clinics website or call him next time for an eye care appointment.

It opens the sales funnel

Too much focus is put in closing the sale now a days. I know it’s all about sales but if you’re too pushy, people will shy away.

When people come to a website or see an ad, they want more.

Can they see photos of your products? Can they read or listen to what satisfied clients have to say? How about learning more about your particular area of expertise?

By letting people see those things you are opening the sales funnel. You’re inviting them to learn more.

Without doing those things it will be tough to open the sales funnel. Chances are they’ll flip past your advertisement and leave your website within 10 seconds.

When you open the sales funnel your ROI greatly increases. People will read your ad and stay on your website longer. This is taking advantage of every person who engages with your marketing.

An Opportunity Missed

I did say this ad was a step in the right direction towards meaning. There is something missing here.

The odds of someone needing an eye care appointment at the time of this ad are slim. That doesn’t mean they won’t think of his clinic when they do. But how could he make sure they don’t forget about him?

Drive them to his website for more education. Since the chances of someone remembering his phone number are low he needs the reader to take action and visit his website for more education on eye care. This will also help build trust and credibility with the new visitor.

The next step after awareness in the sales funnel is turning someone into a lead.

Here’s what Dr. Taylor could do to increase his leads.

Call to action

Dr. Taylor and the Mayfair Optometric Clinic need a better call to action to start with. Something simple could be “Visit our website for more eye care and health tips”. No matter what you want to get people back to your website.

Blog

If he is putting in the effort to write an article for an ad, why isn’t he blogging? Someone who actually reads this ad all the way through is engaged. What do you do in this position? Give them more! By inviting those readers back to his site for more articles on eye care and health.

Email opt in forms

Email opt in forms offer a person to get updates from your site. It’s a simple way of lead capturing but very overlooked. If he is utilizing an email newsletter they could grow their email list. This obviously gives them the ability to market to that engaged person for a lifetime and hopefully turn them into a lifetime client.

Hopefully you’ve learnt a lot on how to increase advertising ROI. It takes more to stand out from your competition. By creating advertisements like this example, you’ll be well on your way to more meaning and more sales!

What kind of offline advertising do you do?

Do you see a good amount of ROI from it?

If you’ve made it this far you should get my Meaningful Marketing manifesto. It’s somewhat of a bible that will guide you to marketing with meaning. Simply enter your email address below to instantly receive that and all my updates.