Advertising - Final Tips
An advertising maxim says what cannot be measured cannot be managed. Indeed, without some controls and testing, it can be very difficult to gauge the effect a given advertisement has had on sales. Strategic based “image advertising” is especially difficult to measure and even measuring the impact of more tactically oriented “sales” ads can be a challenge. It is important, however, to attempt to gauge the success of a given ad so that over the course of the campaign you can make adjustments that will improve the success of the series of ad efforts even when a single ad is not as effective as hoped.
One way to track advertising is to place a “promotion” code in the ad copy. When a consumer responds to the ad, they can give your office the prom code and you can ascertain to which advertisement the consumer is responding. In the absence of a prom code, always ask people who call your office how they heard of you. Keep a running tally to determine which have been your most effective marketing efforts.
If advertising in more than one media during the same time period, do not vary too many elements between the different ads. Otherwise, it may be difficult to ascertain whether consumers are responding to the difference in the media or the difference in ad copy or the offer being made.
Advertising can be vastly complex and varied. It can also be simple. Test your advertising with very inexpensive display and banner ads from local retailers or other inexpensive media – local fliers, postings, or low circulation media. For as little as a few dollars, many local yoga studios, spas, clothing boutiques and tanning salons will provide you with a display ad in their newsletter or a banner ad on their web site. The ad can be as simple as replicating your business card – Company Name, Logo, telephone number, personal name and a tag line. This type of advertising often carries with it the implied recommendation of the host, leveraging their close relationship with their own customers. When a concept does not work, determine why. You can learn as much from poor campaigns as from good ones. Often, adjustments can be made that will make an ad more successful, and by testing your efforts first, you can refine your advertising before placing it in what may be the most effective, but more expensive, media.
Remember, too, that the success of any marketing effort is not solely how many leads it generates. In fact, nothing can be quite so discouraging as to have an advertisement or a flier bring in a rush of unqualified leads. The number of “tire-kickers” that will respond to a price-driven cruise advertisement is truly astonishing. The real measure of success is how many qualified leads respond to your efforts. The focus needs to be on profitable revenue, not just a list of prospects of dubious seriousness about travel. There are a few things you can do to ensure success. To begin, examine your creative. What is the focus of the advertisement? Is it on the features of the travel, the quality and the experience? Or, are you driving leads to your door by focusing on the lowest possible price that can be legally advertised? Remember that clients won on the lowest price are lost on the promise of an even lower one. Where are you placing your ad? What is the demographic of its readership? Is it upscale? Is it mass market? Is it in the “Nickel Trader?”
There is nothing wrong with an advertisement generating a lot of bargain seeking prospects – if that is what you intend to do. Many times good clients are found amidst the rough. As a matter of intent, however, ensure that you are directing your advertising to the market that you seek. A good ad will pre-qualify the response. To effectively qualify, appeal to qualities other than low price. Describe the experience, evoke the quality. If you want to address bargains, speak to the price of an outside balcony cabin or a suite. It is highly likely that the response to such an advertisement will self-select.
With a little bit of testing and some efforts at tracking the success of your advertising, you can make adjustments to your campaign that will result in a refined, successful marketing effort.
One way to track advertising is to place a “promotion” code in the ad copy. When a consumer responds to the ad, they can give your office the prom code and you can ascertain to which advertisement the consumer is responding. In the absence of a prom code, always ask people who call your office how they heard of you. Keep a running tally to determine which have been your most effective marketing efforts.
If advertising in more than one media during the same time period, do not vary too many elements between the different ads. Otherwise, it may be difficult to ascertain whether consumers are responding to the difference in the media or the difference in ad copy or the offer being made.
Advertising can be vastly complex and varied. It can also be simple. Test your advertising with very inexpensive display and banner ads from local retailers or other inexpensive media – local fliers, postings, or low circulation media. For as little as a few dollars, many local yoga studios, spas, clothing boutiques and tanning salons will provide you with a display ad in their newsletter or a banner ad on their web site. The ad can be as simple as replicating your business card – Company Name, Logo, telephone number, personal name and a tag line. This type of advertising often carries with it the implied recommendation of the host, leveraging their close relationship with their own customers. When a concept does not work, determine why. You can learn as much from poor campaigns as from good ones. Often, adjustments can be made that will make an ad more successful, and by testing your efforts first, you can refine your advertising before placing it in what may be the most effective, but more expensive, media.
Remember, too, that the success of any marketing effort is not solely how many leads it generates. In fact, nothing can be quite so discouraging as to have an advertisement or a flier bring in a rush of unqualified leads. The number of “tire-kickers” that will respond to a price-driven cruise advertisement is truly astonishing. The real measure of success is how many qualified leads respond to your efforts. The focus needs to be on profitable revenue, not just a list of prospects of dubious seriousness about travel. There are a few things you can do to ensure success. To begin, examine your creative. What is the focus of the advertisement? Is it on the features of the travel, the quality and the experience? Or, are you driving leads to your door by focusing on the lowest possible price that can be legally advertised? Remember that clients won on the lowest price are lost on the promise of an even lower one. Where are you placing your ad? What is the demographic of its readership? Is it upscale? Is it mass market? Is it in the “Nickel Trader?”
There is nothing wrong with an advertisement generating a lot of bargain seeking prospects – if that is what you intend to do. Many times good clients are found amidst the rough. As a matter of intent, however, ensure that you are directing your advertising to the market that you seek. A good ad will pre-qualify the response. To effectively qualify, appeal to qualities other than low price. Describe the experience, evoke the quality. If you want to address bargains, speak to the price of an outside balcony cabin or a suite. It is highly likely that the response to such an advertisement will self-select.
With a little bit of testing and some efforts at tracking the success of your advertising, you can make adjustments to your campaign that will result in a refined, successful marketing effort.
We want to bring together a few final considerations and tips that will place your advertising program on solid footing.
Advertising is only one tactic in a well-rounded marketing strategy. Public relations, word of mouth marketing, your blog and website, newsletters and all of the other topics we discuss here daily work in tandem with your advertising to condition the market to be receptive to your efforts. Seek to coordinate all of your marketing tactics to work in unison.
Advertising is highly visible when it works well – so make sure it represents your travel agency in total alignment with your company’s brand and mission statement. Your ads carry your company’s mission into the living rooms of people who may not know you in any other way than through that ad. Make sure it represents you fairly and well.
Some advertising is meant to raise the profile of a company’s image. Such “strategic” advertising seeks to reinforce the brand in the mind of the consumer. Other ads are more “tactical” in their message. Tactical ads have an immediate call to action. For most small business owners, tactical ads have a higher immediate return on investment, but the value of long term strategic brand building is high. Tactical ads work best when preceded by long-term and consistent strategic brand building.
Advertising does not have to be “clever”. Yes, we all love the ad that becomes a cultural icon, and goes viral. It is more important, however, that your ad speaks to the viewer directly on the emotional level of benefits: explain in a few short words the benefit of acting as you want the consumer to act.
When designing your marketing efforts, remember the principle of frequency: a potential client typically needs to hear your message more than once before responding. Too many marketing efforts look like bursts of activity rather than well-designed campaigns. In order to gain mindshare, your marketing and advertising efforts need to have a consistent look and feel and be repeated often on a regular, continuing, and ongoing basis. Naturally, “repeated often” is different from being repetitious. Vary up aspects of your promotions to keep them fresh, but keep enough common elements to brand your efforts. You want clients to immediately recognize your logo and distinctive branding.
Plan your advertising as a campaign rather than as sporadic placements. A single ad has very little impact. Whatever your marketing effort, plan your marketing budget to reflect your commitment to repeated placement in your venues of choice to gain the necessary mindshare of the audience.
Develop a visual statement for your company that is reflected in your advertising. A visual statement is a combination of elements in your creative that signal to the viewer that immediately identifies your company. Typically, this is a combination of your logo, color palette, font, and choice of images. Establish clear and steady guidelines in your selection of these elements so that you develop brand consistency in all of your advertising. Over time, viewers will come to recognize your visual statement and clearly associate it with travel. This is where professional assistance in design is particularly important. You are making a long-term investment in the way the public will perceive the personality of your company and well worth the expense of a professional graphic artist and designer. Appoint someone in the company to keep the visual statement front and center in your marketing efforts to ensure that the various marketing efforts in which you engage all incorporate the same visual elements.
With that said, however, remember that every display advertisement, whether in print or online, runs the risk of becoming invisible. Too often, we place an ad and then let it run unchanged for months. Little by little the response tails off, and we blame the media. Instead, we need to occasionally do some makeover on our creative. There is a balance to be achieved. Enough elements of the ad need to be consistent to build your brand. However, too much consistency will fail to stimulate a viewer to respond. After all, why look at the same ad twice? Periodically, shake up your advertising. Mix up your ads a bit by changing the graphics and the layout. You do not want the ad to appear stale and to become “invisible”. By the same token, however, leave in enough common elements, logo, font, company name, tag line, to allow your visible statement to make your brand instantly recognizable. This combination of frequency in a venue with a mix of new and old elements in your ad layout will help to insure that you get noticed and receive an appropriate return on your advertising dollars. Shift the position of the ad from top of page to bottom. Move from a vertical ad to a horizontal one, from a black and white to color and back again. Adding a little variety to your display advertising will make an invisible ad visible again.
Advertising does not have to be a black art if you manage it well and learn to measure its impact, making adjustments along the way. The travel agency that successfully integrates advertising in a solid mix of other marketing tactics will have a real competitive advantage.
Advertising is only one tactic in a well-rounded marketing strategy. Public relations, word of mouth marketing, your blog and website, newsletters and all of the other topics we discuss here daily work in tandem with your advertising to condition the market to be receptive to your efforts. Seek to coordinate all of your marketing tactics to work in unison.
Advertising is highly visible when it works well – so make sure it represents your travel agency in total alignment with your company’s brand and mission statement. Your ads carry your company’s mission into the living rooms of people who may not know you in any other way than through that ad. Make sure it represents you fairly and well.
Some advertising is meant to raise the profile of a company’s image. Such “strategic” advertising seeks to reinforce the brand in the mind of the consumer. Other ads are more “tactical” in their message. Tactical ads have an immediate call to action. For most small business owners, tactical ads have a higher immediate return on investment, but the value of long term strategic brand building is high. Tactical ads work best when preceded by long-term and consistent strategic brand building.
Advertising does not have to be “clever”. Yes, we all love the ad that becomes a cultural icon, and goes viral. It is more important, however, that your ad speaks to the viewer directly on the emotional level of benefits: explain in a few short words the benefit of acting as you want the consumer to act.
When designing your marketing efforts, remember the principle of frequency: a potential client typically needs to hear your message more than once before responding. Too many marketing efforts look like bursts of activity rather than well-designed campaigns. In order to gain mindshare, your marketing and advertising efforts need to have a consistent look and feel and be repeated often on a regular, continuing, and ongoing basis. Naturally, “repeated often” is different from being repetitious. Vary up aspects of your promotions to keep them fresh, but keep enough common elements to brand your efforts. You want clients to immediately recognize your logo and distinctive branding.
Plan your advertising as a campaign rather than as sporadic placements. A single ad has very little impact. Whatever your marketing effort, plan your marketing budget to reflect your commitment to repeated placement in your venues of choice to gain the necessary mindshare of the audience.
Develop a visual statement for your company that is reflected in your advertising. A visual statement is a combination of elements in your creative that signal to the viewer that immediately identifies your company. Typically, this is a combination of your logo, color palette, font, and choice of images. Establish clear and steady guidelines in your selection of these elements so that you develop brand consistency in all of your advertising. Over time, viewers will come to recognize your visual statement and clearly associate it with travel. This is where professional assistance in design is particularly important. You are making a long-term investment in the way the public will perceive the personality of your company and well worth the expense of a professional graphic artist and designer. Appoint someone in the company to keep the visual statement front and center in your marketing efforts to ensure that the various marketing efforts in which you engage all incorporate the same visual elements.
With that said, however, remember that every display advertisement, whether in print or online, runs the risk of becoming invisible. Too often, we place an ad and then let it run unchanged for months. Little by little the response tails off, and we blame the media. Instead, we need to occasionally do some makeover on our creative. There is a balance to be achieved. Enough elements of the ad need to be consistent to build your brand. However, too much consistency will fail to stimulate a viewer to respond. After all, why look at the same ad twice? Periodically, shake up your advertising. Mix up your ads a bit by changing the graphics and the layout. You do not want the ad to appear stale and to become “invisible”. By the same token, however, leave in enough common elements, logo, font, company name, tag line, to allow your visible statement to make your brand instantly recognizable. This combination of frequency in a venue with a mix of new and old elements in your ad layout will help to insure that you get noticed and receive an appropriate return on your advertising dollars. Shift the position of the ad from top of page to bottom. Move from a vertical ad to a horizontal one, from a black and white to color and back again. Adding a little variety to your display advertising will make an invisible ad visible again.
Advertising does not have to be a black art if you manage it well and learn to measure its impact, making adjustments along the way. The travel agency that successfully integrates advertising in a solid mix of other marketing tactics will have a real competitive advantage.