Last December, I joined a local gym. I had made a commitment back in June to add weight training to my exercise regiment… something that wasn’t happening on a regular basis, thus the gym membership.
December is a great time in the gym. Everyone who is working out at that time is “hard core” and committed. You don’t have to wait for machines in the off hours and the staff gets to know your name rather quickly. Then, the calendar switches and suddenly… it’s a whole new ball game… for about 3 weeks!
I spent the first week of the year on the opposite coast… but when I returned, I saw a gym filled to overflowing with ‘New Year’s Resolution” people. As a result, I didn’t need to bring my new MP3 playerto the gym… there was PLENTY of entertainment to be had by watching the over zealous newbies throw themselves into achieving their fitness goals.
I watched on gentleman literally flop around on various machines which are lined up in front of the treadmills. As I watched his arms flail loosely, I found myself wondering if he had taken advantage of the two introductory sessions with a personal trainer that every member receives. Surely he hadn’t, or he wouldn’t be flopping around so. I then briefly thought of my acupuncture client and made a mental note to discuss ways my client can reach the gentleman I’m watching who will certainly be sporting SOME sort of soft tissue damage in the near future.
I then began to think of all the people I’ve heard utter the words, “I’ve tried advertising for my business, but it just doesn’t work!” I realize that this gentleman will soon be uttering his own version of that phrase, except his will go, “I’ve tried exercising but all I got was a shoulder/elbow/knee injury.”
Make no mistake, advertising and marketing WORK when done with proper form. When you understand the underlying principles, then it’s actually easy to pull together a marketing campaign.
If you need proof, look no further than the pharmaceutical industry. Thirty years ago, it was UNHEARD OF for a drug company to advertise directly to patients… now, drug manufacturers spend BILLIONS running ads to educate the consumer about the “solutions” offered by a particular medication.
Advertising works best when you tightly target your message and keep the end consumer in mind. Drug companies do a WONDERFUL job of this. Anyone who has watched more than 15 minutes of football can tell you how Cialis differs from Viagra.
Advertising at its worst is accomplished dancers who twirl and spin with the hopes of enticing you to purchase the tires made by the company whose logo appears at the end. They would have been better off giving away $10 bills to everyone who waked into their dealer’s stores nationwide!
If your marketing isn’t working… take a step back and begin with identifying your target customer. If your answer to that question is “everyone”… then I encourage you to pick up a copy of my book, Beyond the Niche. In it, you’ll not only learn why you should tightly target your customer but ways to identify and target those customers.
Most business owners would think you were crazy if you told them to take all of their brochures and lock them into a back room, with the instructions to the staff that the brochures were ONLY to be distributed to people who came in and asked for a brochure. That kind of arrangement kind of DEFEATS the purpose of a brochure! However, that is exactly the style of web site MANY business owners maintain and then wonder why their business web site isn’t doing more to create more business for their business!
In a sense, it’s a billboard erected alongside an isolated dead end road, and at the end of that road is your business. Almost all of the traffic on that road are cars you have personally sent down the road. Your web site is just a way to assure those travelers that they are indeed on the right road…. that your business does lie ahead. If that’s all you want your web site to do, then your web site is doing all it needs to do.