A few days ago, I heard an advertisement for bail bonds on the radio. While I am not sure what radio station I was listening to at the time, I would expect that only a very small percent of people listening were in need of bail bonds or would be at some point in the near future.
When choosing to advertise, the single most important thing to figure out is where to find your target market. The most brilliant message and offer is worthless if no one you are reaching is even a candidate for your product or service.
The next thing to consider is how expensive it is to reach each person who could become a customer. While the bail company may have reached some people who needed bail bonds, I strongly suspect that they were not getting a good return on ad spend for their radio commercials. A billboard near the jail is much more likely to reach their target market at a reasonable cost per prospect.
If you are thinking about advertising in order to generate more leads and new business, the most important question to ask yourself is: “Where can I find the right prospects?” And, if you cannot reach them at a reasonable cost, there is no way that your campaign will be a success.
Once you are sure you can reach the right prospects at a reasonable cost, then you can figure out the right message and offer. Otherwise, it is just a waste of time and money. I recently ran into that challenge when talking to a company that helps class reunion organizers find their classmates and put on a well-attended reunion. They wanted to use Facebook to find more clients. However, we could not get the targeting right for it to make economic sense. So, I recommended that they invest more on their Google Adwords advertising.
Who are you trying to reach? There are a lot more options now for targeting your ideal customer using Facebook and Google Adwords than traditional advertising. Let me know if you would like to talk about your options. Contact us to schedule a time.