Leffler Blog: June 2010 Archives

7 Ways to KILL Your Advertising Campaign

As easy as marketing and advertising appears on the surface, we often see executives making the same mistakes over and over when it comes to planning, implementing and managing a successful advertising campaign. So without further a due, here are the Top 7 ways to kill your advertising campaign.

1. Give your campaign a chance. Knee jerk changes and cancellations to a campaign is dangerous. It takes time for a campaign to build. A consumer usually needs to see your ad several times before they will act.

2. If your campaign is successful - don't mess with it. Many times people see something going well, and they want to change it, "just because". The old saying, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" fits here.

3. Don't get sold. Advertising sales people will often come to you with packages that better benefit their company's financial goals than yours.

4. Don't mix advertising messages. Keep each message simple so you're not bombarding the customer with too many calls to action or overwhelming laundry lists.

5. Don't overcrowd your ads. Too many small words on a page or billboard causes the reader to gloss over the ad, thus ignoring it.

6. Don't spread yourself too thin. Unless you have a bottomless advertising budget, it doesn't make sense to advertise in every single small publication. As long as you're using a mixture of media outlets (TV, radio, web, print, outdoor) and targeting your audience, your message will get to the people you want it to get to.

7. Don't think your sales reps are all your friends. Some actually are friends, but at the end of the day everyone is working for their own paycheck and often times sales reps have monthly goals or contests they must participate in. Never lose sight of your own goals and needs.

7 Ways to Improve Your Advertising Success

Let's face it, moving the sales needle in today's market landscape is hard enough. Here are seven Leffler Agency strategies that you can employ that can help you succeed.

1. Make sure your campaign is made up of a media mix. (TV, radio, interactive, print, out-of-home, mobile). In today's world, there are so many mediums that it's almost overwhelming. Now, more than ever, you have to make sure you advertise in different areas to reach the most amount people.

2. Keep your campaign image consistent. Do not revamp your look too often. The more a consumer recognizes your product, the better chance they have of remembering it and making a purchase.

3. Practice the art of repetition. The customer needs to see or hear your product name a minimum of 3 times before it's ingrained in their memories.

4. Make sure you properly research your target market. You do not want to waste precious advertising dollars reaching the wrong people.

5. Remember who your target customer is and try to speak to their needs rather than alienate them by trying something too newfangled. Change is good but change for the sake of change could end up costing your company/product more than money.

6. Get your product/company involved in community events. Involvement shows people you care about your/their community and leads to word of mouth advertising because of your great reputation.

7. Include social media in your campaigns! Blogging, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are powerful tools that can spread the word about your product, event or service to create invaluable two-way communication directly to your customers.

2010 Birdland Express

Below are photos from the 2010 version of Birdland Express. The 2009 version won a Baltimore Addy Award.