Have you ever had this reaction to your advertising?
" I tried advertising ideas, and my ad didn't make me any money. I don't think advertising works."
Let's say your local advertising is barely beaking even. You aren't making anyeven a little net profit from your ads, but your ads aren't costing you much money either. What should you do?
How many new customers did your last ad campaign bring in?
Let's say, in our example, that your answer is six new customers.
Did you make any profit? Sure you did, you have six new people that you didn't have before you ran your ad. And you gained these new customers at no cost to you. Your advertising profits covered the cost of gaining these new customers.
You made real money, you just haven't received it yet.
How many times does the average new customer buy from you?
Let's say that your answer is four buying events. A new customer will average four purchases before they move on to another vendor.
What do you have now? You have six new customers that will buy from you an average of three more times. That's eighteen more sales with no further marketing costs at all.
That's not just one way to look at it. It's the one best way to consider it.
Add the referrals each new customer will send your way, and all of the referrals from those new customers, and you can begin to see how you will profit from these sales.
And all of this comes from sales you made from an ad that broke even...or maybe even lost you money on the front end.
Think about this; If someone cast a spell on your town so that magically, everyone was aware of you, how would that affect your business? If everyone in your town suddenly knew you, knew where your business was, knew what you sold, and trusted you to take care of them...how would that affect your business?
You would never have to advertise again. Ever.
That's the goal of advertising. Sure, you want immediate profits. We all do. But the immediate profit from a single ad isn't what grows your business. It's the resulting buzz.
It's everyone talking you up as the guy to see for what you sell. That happens over time. Advertising can greatly speed up that process.
Breaking even on an ad? I'd do that in a heartbeat. Direct mail companies build fortunes on ads that fail to break even. It's called a "back end". There are a series of up-sells, joint ventures with other suppliers, selling your contact information as part of a mailing list, and more. In a supplier-customer relationship, almost all the money is made during the lifetime of that relationship. Almost no business counts on that money from the first sale.
Author Resource:-
Local Small Business and Marketing expert Claude Whitacre is author of the book The Unfair Advantage Small Business Advertising Manual. You can purchase the book for $19.95 at www.claudewhitacre.com. You can also download your Free copy of the complete book at http://local-small-business-advertising-marketing-book.com/
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