Chapter 5

Creating Marketing Communications That Work

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining your marketing objectives

Generating marketing communications that get results

Figuring out which media channel(s) to tap into

Balancing the reach, frequency, and timing of your ads

Monitoring your ads’ effectiveness

Creative. The very word turns confident people queasy and rational people giddy. It prompts marketers to say such outrageous things as “Let’s dress up like chickens” or such well-intended but pointless things as “Let’s cut through the noise” or “Let’s think outside the box.” Far less often will you hear the conversation turn strategic, with statements like “Let’s talk in terms that matter to our customers” or “Let’s define what we’re trying to accomplish.”

This chapter helps you set communication objectives and steer past the mistakes that shoot too many ad efforts into the great abyss, where wasted dollars languish.

Note: The first three sections of this chapter apply to small business owners doing your own marketing, whether you present your marketing communications in person, online, with print or broadcast ads, or through direct mail. If you place ads in traditional mass media outlets such as newspapers, magazines, and broadcast stations, stick with this chapter to the end for information on scheduling and evaluating your ads. For info on using social media, turn to Book 5, Chapter 6.

Starting with Good Objectives

Copywriters and designers are talented and creative, but they’re rarely telepathic. They can’t create marketing materials that meet specific objectives if their instructions don’t include what they’re expected to accomplish.

So who is supposed to define the objective, set the strategy, and steer the creative process? Well, get ready, because that task falls to the person responsible for marketing, which is probably, well, you.

Defining what you want to accomplish

You can hit your marketing target almost every time if you take careful aim. Consider the following examples of creative instructions and note the differences:

• Example 1: “We need to build sales. Let’s run some ads.”
• Example 2: “We need a campaign to convince teenagers that by shopping after school on weekdays they’ll enjoy our best prices in a club atmosphere because we feature live music, two-for-one cafe specials, and weekday-only student discounts.”

Example 1 forces those creating the ad to guess what message to project — and toward whom. It’ll likely lead to round after round of revisions as the creative team makes best guesses about the target market, promotional offer, and creative approach.

Example 2 tells the ad creators precisely which consumers to target, what message and offer to project, and what action to prompt. It guides the project toward an appropriate concept and media plan — probably on the first try.

As the business owner, it’s your job to give those who produce your marketing communications the information they need to do the job right the first time.

An old saying among marketers concludes that half of all ad dollars are wasted, but no one knows which half. You can move the dividing line between what works and what doesn’t by avoiding three wasteful errors:

• Mistake #1: Producing marketing materials without first defining your marketing objectives, leading to materials that address neither the target prospect nor the marketing objective.
• Mistake #2: Creating messages that are too “hard-sell” — asking for the order without first reeling in the prospect’s attention and interest.
• Mistake #3: Creating self-centered communications that focus more on what your business wants to say about itself than on the benefits that matter to a prospective customer.

A good ad can inform, persuade, sell, or connect with consumers, but it can’t do all those things at once. Nor is it likely to move the right target audience to the desired consumer action if the audience and objective aren’t clearly established before ad creation begins.

Before you undertake any marketing effort, define the audience you aim to influence, the action you’re working to inspire, the message you want to promote, and the way that you’ll measure effectiveness, whether by leads, web or store traffic, inquiries, social media likes or follows, or other actions you can prompt and monitor.

When setting the objective for your marketing communication, use the following template by inserting the appropriate text in the brackets.

This [ad/brochure/sales call/speech/trade booth display] will convince [describe the target market for this communication] that by [describe the action that you intend to prompt] they will [describe the benefit the target audience will realize] because [state the facts that prove your claim, which form the basis of the message you want the communication to convey].

Putting creative directions in writing

Your communication objective defines what you’re trying to accomplish. A creative brief provides the instructions for how you’ll get the job done. Answer the following seven questions, and your briefing instructions will be complete.

Who is your target audience for this communication?

Start with everything you know about your prospective customers and then boil down your knowledge into a one-sentence definition that encapsulates the geographic location, the lifestyle facts, and the purchasing motivators of those you want to reach.

Here’s an example:

The target audience is comprised of Montana residents, age 40+, married with children living at home, with professional careers, upper-level income, and an affinity for travel, outdoor recreation, status brands, and high levels of service.

What does your target audience currently know or think about your business and offering?

Use research findings (if available), your own instincts, and input from your staff and colleagues to answer the following questions:

• Have prospects heard of your business?
• Do they know what products or services you offer?
• Do they know where you’re located or how to reach you?
• Do they see you as a major player? If they were asked to name three suppliers of your product or service, would you be among the responses?
• How do they rate your service, quality, pricing, accessibility, range of products, and reputation?
• Do you have a clear brand and market position or a mistaken identity in their minds?

Be candid with your answers. Only by acknowledging your real or perceived shortcomings can you begin to address them through your marketing efforts. If your prospects haven’t heard of your business, you need to develop awareness. If they’re clueless about your offerings, you need to present meaningful facts. If they hold inaccurate impressions, you need to persuade them to think differently.

Here’s an example:

The majority of those in our target audience aren’t aware of our existence, but among those familiar with our name, we’re known to provide an experience competitive with the best contenders in our field. We need to reinforce the opinions of our acquaintances while also developing awareness and credibility with prospective customers and especially with opinion leaders whose recommendations are most valued by our affluent and socially connected target market.

What do you want your target audience to think and do?

Don’t get greedy. In each communication, present one clear idea and chances are good that you’ll convey one clear idea. If you try to present two or three messages, you’ll likely communicate nothing at all.

Four out of five consumers read only your headline, absorb no more than seven words off of a billboard, and take only one idea away from a broadcast ad — provided they don’t tune out or skip over the ad altogether.

What single idea do you want prospects to take away from this particular marketing effort? As you answer, follow this process:

1. Step out of your own shoes and stand in those of your prospect.
2. Think about what your prospect wants or needs to know.
3. Develop a single sentence describing what you want people to think and what motivating idea you want them to take away from this communication.

Here’s the desired outcome for a computer retailer targeting senior citizens:

We want senior citizens to know that they’re invited to our Computer 101 open houses every Wednesday afternoon this month, where they can watch computer and Internet demonstrations, receive hands-on training, and learn about our special, first-time computer owner packages.

Be careful what you ask for. Be sure that you’re prepared for the outcome you say you desire. If you aren’t geared up to handle the online traffic, answer the phone, manage the foot traffic, or fulfill the buying demand that your ad generates, you’ll fail strategically even though you succeeded — wildly — on the advertising front.

Consider this example: A one-man painting company decides to rev up business by placing a series of clever, small-space newspaper ads touting impeccable service, outstanding quality, affordable estimates, and prompt response. The ads win attention, action, and advertising awards. The problem is, the painter can’t keep up with the phone calls, the estimates, or the orders. Prospects — who had been inspired by the great ads — end up signing contracts with the painter’s competitors instead.

The moral of the story is to expect a miracle from good advertising and to be prepared to get what you ask for.

Why should people believe you and take the proposed action?

To be believable, your marketing materials need to make and support a claim. They can do so in either an easy way or an effective way:

• The easy way is to list features: the oldest moving company in the East, under new management, the only manufacturer featuring the X2000 widget, the winner of the industry’s top award, yada yada yada.
• The effective way is to turn those features into benefits that you promise to your customers. The difference between features and benefits is that features are facts and benefits are personal outcomes.

Table 5-1 shows you exactly what this crucial difference means.

TABLE 5-1 Features versus Benefits

Product	Feature	Benefit	Emotional Outcome
Diet soda	One calorie	Lose weight	Look and feel great
Flower arrangements	Daily exotic imports	Send unique floral presentations	Satisfaction that your gift stands out and draws attention
Automobile	Best crash rating	Reduce risk of harm in accidents	Security that your family is safe
Miniature microwave	1.5 cubic feet in size	Save dorm room space	Make room for the floor’s only big-screen TV

Every time you describe a feature of your product or service, you’re talking to yourself. Every time you describe the benefit that your product or service delivers, you’re talking to your prospect. Consumers don’t buy the feature — they buy what the feature does for them. Here are some examples:

• Consumers don’t buy V-8 engines. They buy speed.
• They don’t buy shock-absorbing shoes. They buy walking comfort.
• They don’t buy the lightest tablet computer. They buy the freedom to get online wherever they want.

Follow these steps to translate features into benefits:

1. State your product or business feature.
2. Add the phrase “which means.”
3. Complete the sentence by stating the benefit.

For example, a car has the highest safety rating (that’s the feature), which means you breathe a little easier as you hand the keys over to your teenager (that’s the benefit).

What information must your communication convey?

Be clear about your must-haves. Those who create ads, websites, mailers, and other communications call it “death by a thousand cuts” when marketers respond to every creative presentation with, “Yes, but we also have to include….”

If you know that you need to feature a certain look, specific information, or artwork, say so upfront — not after you see the first creative presentation. And keep the list of requirements as short as possible. Here are some guidelines:

• Must-have #1: Every communication has to advance your brand image (refer to Book 5, Chapter 4 for help with defining your brand). Provide your image style guide whenever you assign a staff person or outside professional to help with the development of marketing materials.

• Must-have #2: Be sparing with all other “musts.” Every time you start to say, “We have to include …” check yourself with this self-test:

  • Is this element necessary to protect our brand?
  • Is it necessary to protect our legal standing?
  • Is it necessary to prompt the marketing action we want to achieve?
  • Is it necessary to motivate the prospect?

  Let necessity — not history — guide your answers. Any ad designer will tell you that less is more. The more stuff you try to jam into an ad, the less consumer attention it draws. Include no more information than is necessary to arouse interest and lead people to the next step in the buying process.

How will you measure success?

Small business leaders are critical of their marketing efforts — after the fact. Instead, before creating any marketing communication, set your expectations and define your measurement standard in your creative brief.

After an ad has run its course, you’ll hear such criticism as, “That ad didn’t work, it didn’t make the phone ring, and it sure didn’t create foot traffic.” Yet if you examine the ad, you’ll often find that it includes no reason to call, no special offer, a phone number that requires a magnifying glass, and no address whatsoever.

What’s your time frame and budget?

Know the specifications of your job before you start producing it, especially if you assign the production task to others. Here are some guidelines:

• Set and be frank about your budget. Small business owners often worry that if they divulge their budgets, the creative team will spend it all — whether it needs to or not. But the never-reveal-the-budget strategy usually backfires. If suppliers don’t know the budget, they will spend it all — and then some — simply because no one gave them a not-to-exceed figure to work within. The solution is to hire suppliers you trust, share your budget with them (along with instructions that they can’t exceed the budget without your prior approval), and count on them to be partners in providing a cost-effective solution.
• Know and share deadlines and material requirements. If you’ve already committed to a media buy, attach a media rate card to your creative brief so your designer can obtain the specifications directly rather than through your translation.
• Define the parameters of nonmedia communication projects. For example, if you ask for speechwriting assistance, know the length of time allocated for your speech. If you request materials for a sales presentation, know the audio-visual equipment availability and the number of handouts you want to distribute.

What the creative team doesn’t know can cost you dearly in enthusiasm and cost overruns if you have to retrofit creative solutions to fit production realities. Communicate in advance for the best outcome.

Whether you’re creating an ad, writing a speech, making a sales presentation, planning a brochure, posting on an online network, or composing an important business letter, start by running through the questions on the creative brief to focus your thinking. For all major projects — or for any project that you plan to assign to a staff member, freelance professional, vendor, or advertising agency — take the time to put your answers in writing. Pass them along so they can serve as a valuable navigational aid. Then monitor success by counting inquiries, click-throughs to landing pages, coupon redemptions, or other measurable actions prompted by your communications — and share your findings so your creative team can benefit from the knowledge of what worked well.

Developing Effective Marketing Communications

Whether delivered in person, through promotions, or via traditional media, direct mail, or email, all marketing communications need to accomplish the same tasks:

• Grab attention.
• Impart information the prospect wants to know.
• Present offers that are sensitive to how and when the prospect wants to take action.
• Affirm why the prospect would want to take action.
• Offer a reason to take action.
• Launch a relationship, which increasingly means fostering interaction and two-way communication between you and your customer.

Good communications convince prospects and nudge them into action without any apparent effort. They meld the verbiage with the visual and the message with the messenger so the consumer receives a single, inspiring idea.

Creative types will tell you that making marketing communications look easy takes a lot of time and talent, and they’re right. If you’re spending more than $10,000 on an advertising effort or developing a major marketing vehicle such as a website, ad campaign, or product package, bring in pros to help you out.

Steering the creative process toward a “big idea”

After you establish your objectives and prepare your creative brief (see the earlier section “Putting creative directions in writing”), it’s time to develop your creative message.

No matter which target audience you’re reaching out to, the people in that audience are busy and distracted by an onslaught of competing messages. That’s why great communicators know that they need to project big ideas to be heard over the marketplace din.

The big idea is to advertising what the brake, gas pedal, and steering wheel are to driving. (See why they call it big?) Here’s what the big idea does:

• It stops the prospect.
• It fuels interest.
• It inspires prospects to take the desired action.

Advertising textbooks point to Volkswagen’s “Think Small” ad campaign as a historic example of a big idea. Volkswagen used it to stun a market into attention at a time when big-finned, lane-hogging gas guzzlers ruled the highways. “Think Small” — two words accompanied by a picture of a squat, round Volkswagen Beetle miniaturized on a full page — stopped consumers, changed attitudes, and made the Bug chic.

In addition, “Got Milk?” was a big idea that juiced up milk sales, and “Smell like a Man, Man” worked like magic for Old Spice.

But big ideas aren’t just for big advertisers. In Portland, Oregon, quirky Voodoo Doughnut’s big idea that “The magic is in the hole” has gained international appeal for an eight-outlet (though expanding) enterprise.

Big ideas are

• Appealing to your target market
• Attention-getting
• Capable of conveying the benefit you promise
• Compelling
• Memorable
• Persuasive

An idea qualifies as a big idea only if it meets all the preceding qualifications. Many advertisers quit when they hit on an attention-getting and memorable idea. Think of it this way: A slammed door is attention-getting and memorable, but it’s far from appealing, beneficial, compelling, or persuasive.

Brainstorming ideas

Brainstorming is an anything-goes group process for generating ideas through free association and imaginative thinking with no grandstanding, no idea ownership, no evaluation, and definitely no criticism.

The point of brainstorming is to put the mind on automatic pilot and see where it leads. You can improve your brainstorming sessions by doing some research in advance:

• Study websites and magazines for inspiration. Pick up copies of Advertising Age, Adweek, or Communication Arts (available at newsstands and in most libraries) for a look at the latest in ad trends. Also include fashion magazines, which are a showcase for big ideas and image advertising.
• Check out competitors’ ads and ads for businesses that target similar audiences to yours. If you sell luxury goods, look at ads for high-end cars, jewelry, or designer clothes. If you compete on price, study ads by Target and Walmart.
• Look at your own past ads.
• Think of how you can turn the most unusual attributes of your product or service into unique benefits.
• Doodle. Ultimately, great marketing messages combine words and visuals. See where your pencil leads your mind.
• Widen your perspective by inviting a customer or a front-line staff person to participate in the brainstorming session.

If you’re turning your marketing project over to a staff member or to outside professionals, you may or may not decide to participate in the brainstorming session. If you do attend, note that a brainstorming session has no boss, and every idea is a good idea. Bite your tongue each time you want to say, “Yes, but …” or, “We tried that once and …” or, “Get real, that idea is just plain dumb.”

At the end of the brainstorm, gather up and evaluate the ideas:

• Which ideas address the target audience and support the objectives outlined in your creative brief?
• Which ones best present the consumer benefit?
• Which ones can you implement with strength and within the budget?

Any idea that wins on all counts is a candidate for implementation.

Following simple advertising rules

The following rules apply to all ads, regardless of the medium, the message, the mood, or the creative direction:

• Know your objective and stay on strategy.
• Be honest.
• Be specific.
• Be original.
• Be clear and concise.
• Don’t overpromise or exaggerate.
• Don’t be self-centered or, worse, arrogant.
• Don’t hard-sell.
• Don’t insult, discriminate, or offend.
• Don’t turn the task of ad creation over to a committee.

Committees are great for brainstorming, but when it comes to developing headlines, they round the edges off of strong ideas. They eliminate any nuance that any committee member finds questionable, and they crowd messages with details that matter more to the marketers than to the market. An old cartoon popular in ad agencies is captioned, “A camel is a horse designed by committee.”

Making Media Selections

Even back in the day when advertisers chose from among three TV networks, a couple of local-market AM radio stations, and a single hometown newspaper, deciding where to place ads was a nail-biting proposition.

Now add in cable TV channels, dozens of radio stations in even the smallest market areas, thousands of consumer and online magazines, countless alternative newspapers, and constantly emerging online advertising options, and you can see why placing ads sometimes feels like a roll of the dice.

The upcoming two sections help tip the odds in your favor with an overview of today’s advertising channels and advice about how to select the best vehicles for your advertising messages.

Selecting from the media menu

Marketing communications are delivered in one of two ways:

• Mass media channels, which reach many people simultaneously
• One-to-one marketing tools, which reach people individually, usually through direct mail or email

When people talk about media, it’s usually mass media they’re talking about, which traditionally has been divided into three categories, with a fourth category later added:

• Print media: Includes newspapers, magazines, and print directories.
• Broadcast media: Includes TV and radio.
• Outdoor media: Includes billboards, transit signs, murals, and signage.
• Digital media: Back in the day, the digital-media category was usually called “new media,” but it’s not new anymore, and its usage, popularity, and effectiveness increase almost by the moment. Exactly as its name implies, digital media includes any media that’s reduced to digital data that can be communicated electronically. That means Internet advertising, webcasts, web pages, mobile and text ads, and interactive media, including social media networks.

Each mass-media channel comes with its own set of attributes and considerations, which are summarized in Table 5-2.

TABLE 5-2 Mass Media Comparisons

Media Channel	Advantages	Considerations
Newspapers, which reach a broad, geographically targeted market	Involve short timelines and low-cost ad production	You pay to reach the total circulation, even if only a portion fits your prospect profile
Magazines, which reach target markets that share characteristics and interests	Good for developing awareness and credibility through strong visual presentations	Require long advance planning and costly production; ads are viewed over long periods of time
Directories, which reach people at the time of purchase decisions	Increasingly available for free in digital versions; good for prompting selection over unlisted competitors	Print versions are impossible to update between editions and increasingly eclipsed by digital directories
Radio, which reaches targeted local audiences (if they’re tuned in)	Cost is often negotiable; good for building immediate interest and response	You must air ads repeatedly to reach listeners; airtime is most expensive when most people are tuned in
TV, which reaches broad audiences of targeted viewers (if they’re tuned in)	Well-produced ads engage viewer emotions while building awareness and credibility	Ad production is costly; reaching large audiences is expensive; ads must be aired repeatedly; options such as DVRs and streaming services erode effectiveness
Digital media, which reaches people on-demand via any digital device	Allows two-way communication with customers; allows convergence of content by linking among digital sources; low cash investment	Requires targeting of customers and keywords and a significant time investment to create, monitor, and evaluate online visibility and interaction

Deciding which media vehicles to use and when

Face it: Sorting through pitches from local newspapers, local radio stations, daily-deal coupon sites, and industry-specific publications can consume entire days if you let it. Plus there’s the elephant in the room — social media (see Book 5, Chapter 6).

Your media options are seemingly infinite, but your time and budget aren’t. So before considering media proposals for any given communication or campaign, answer the following questions:

• What do you want this marketing effort to accomplish?

  If you want to develop general, far-reaching awareness and interest, use mass-media channels that reach a broad and general market. If you want to talk one-to-one with targeted prospective customers, bypass mass media in favor of targeted online communications and direct mail or other one-to-one communication tools.

• Where do the people you want to reach turn for information?

  When it comes to purchasing ad space and time, trying to be all-inclusive is a bankrupting proposition. The more precisely you can define your prospect, the more precisely you can determine which media that person uses and, therefore, which media channels you should consider for your marketing program.

  When in doubt, ask customers how they like to be reached with marketing messages. Ask whether they read the local newspaper, tune in to local broadcast stations, or notice transit or outdoor ads. Ask whether they use social media networks and which ones. Ask whether they like or dislike marketing messages sent by text message or email. Talking directly with customers is your great advantage as a small business. Ask directly if you can or use the free survey tools available through sites like SurveyMonkey (www.surveymonkey.com) to poll customers.

  By finding out the media habits of your established customers, you get a good idea of the media habits of your prospective customers because they likely fit a very similar customer profile. After you’re clear about who your customers are and how they use media, you’ll know which media channels to target.

• What information do you want to convey and when do you want to convey it?

  Be clear about your message urgency and content, and then refer to Table 5-2 to match your objectives with media channels. For example:

  • If you’re promoting an offer with a close deadline, such as a one-week special event, you obviously want to steer away from monthly magazines that are in circulation long after your offer is history.
  • If you want to show your product in action, you want to feature video in TV ads or on your website or YouTube channel, to which you can lead customers by including the link in your promotional materials, ads, and social media posts.

• How much money is in your media budget?

  Set your budget before planning your media buy. Doing so forces you to be realistic with your media choices and saves you an enormous amount of time because you don’t have to listen to media sales pitches for approaches that are outside your budget range.

The Making of a Mass Media Schedule

When advertising on all mass media except digital media, the amount of money you spend and how you spend it depends on how you balance three scheduling considerations: reach, frequency, and timing.

Balancing reach and frequency

Your ad schedule needs to achieve enough reach (that is, your message needs to get into the heads of enough readers or viewers) to generate a sufficient number of prospects to meet your sales objective. It also needs to achieve enough frequency to adequately impress your message into those minds — and that rarely happens with a single ad exposure.

• Reach is the number of individuals or homes exposed to your ad. In print media, reach is measured by circulation counts. In broadcast media, reach is measured by gross rating points.
• Frequency is the number of times that an average person is exposed to your message.

If you have to choose between frequency and reach — and nearly every small business works with a budget that forces that choice — limit your reach to carefully selected target markets and then spend as much as you can on achieving frequency within that area.

The case for frequency

Ad recall studies prove that people remember ad messages in direct proportion to the number of times they encounter them. Here are some facts about frequency:

• One-shot ads don’t work, unless you opt to spend more than five million dollars to air a 30-second ad during the Super Bowl. Even then, part of the audience will be away from the tube, replenishing the guacamole dish or grabbing a beer from the refrigerator.

• On most broadcast channels, you need to place an ad as many as nine times to reach a prospect even once. That means you need to place it as many as 27 times in order to make contact three times — the number of exposures it takes before most ad messages sink in. If your ad airs during a program that people tune into with regular conviction, the placement requirement decreases, but especially in the case of radio ads, the 27-time schedule generally holds true.

  Why? Because each time your ad airs, a predictably large percentage of prospects aren’t present. They’re either tuned out or distracted, or maybe your creative approach or offer failed to grab their attention.

• Multiple exposures to your ad results in higher advertising effectiveness. By achieving frequency, you increase the number of people who see your ad, resulting in increased recognition for your brand, increased consumer reaction to your message, and increased responsiveness to your call to action.

Reach creates awareness, but frequency changes minds.

The case for limiting reach by using only a few media channels

Frequency and limited-reach, concentrated ad campaigns go hand in hand. A concentrated campaign gains exposure using only a few media outlets.

Instead of running an ad one time in each of six magazines that reach your target market, a concentrated campaign schedules your ad three times each in two of the publications. Or instead of running a light radio schedule and a light newspaper schedule, a concentrated campaign bets the full budget on a strong schedule that builds frequency through one medium or the other.

A concentrated ad campaign offers several benefits:

• It allows you to take advantage of media volume discounts.
• It can give you dominance in a single medium, which achieves a perception of strength and clout in the prospect’s mind.
• It allows you to limit ad production costs.
• It ensures a higher level of frequency.

Timing your ads

No small business has enough money to sustain media exposure 52 weeks a year, 24/7. Instead, consider the following mass media scheduling concepts:

• Flighting: Create and sustain awareness by running ads for a short period, then go dormant before reappearing with another flight of ads.
• Front-loading: Announce openings, promote new products, and jump-start sales by running a heavy schedule of ads before pulling back to a more economical schedule that aims to maintain awareness.
• Heavy-up scheduling: Synchronize ad schedules with seasonal business or market activity using schedules that include heavy buys several times a year during what’s called ad blitzes.
• Pulsing: Maintain visibility with an on-and-off schedule that keeps your ad in media channels on an intermittent basis with no variations.

After setting your schedule, leverage your buy by using email and social media to alert customers to watch for your ads, or post the ad on your website and pages to make your investment go further.

Evaluating Your Efforts

Armchair quarterbacking is a popular and pointless after-the-ad-runs activity. Instead, set objectives and plan your evaluation methods early on — not after the play has taken place.

The quickest way to monitor ad effectiveness is to test a couple of great headlines online and measure the clicks they generate. The next-easiest way to monitor ad effectiveness is to produce ads that generate responses and then track how well they do, following this advice:

• Give your target audience a time-sensitive invitation to take action, a reason to respond, and clear, easy instructions to follow. For example, if you’re measuring phone calls, make your phone number large in your ad and be ready for call volume; if you’re measuring website visits, present an easy-to-enter site address that leads to a landing page tied to your ad message.
• Measure media effectiveness by assessing the volume of responses that each media channel generates compared to the investment you made in that channel. Also measure ad effectiveness by tracking the volume of responses to various ad headlines.

• Produce your ads to make tracking possible by including a key, which is a code used to differentiate which ads produce an inquiry or order. Here are ways to key your ads:

  • Direct calls to a unique phone extension keyed to indicate each medium or ad concept. Train those who answer the phone to record the responses to each extension so you can monitor media and ad effectiveness.
  • Add a key to coupons that you include in print ads and direct mailers. For direct mailers, the key might indicate the mailing list from which the inquiry was generated. For print ads, the code could match up with the publication name and issue date. For example, BG0214 might be the key for an ad that runs on Valentine’s Day in The Boston Globe.
  • Feature different post office box numbers or email addresses on ads running in various media channels. When receiving responses, attach the source as you enter names in your database so you can monitor not only the number of responses per medium but also the effectiveness of each medium in delivering prospects who convert to customers.
• Test headline or ad concepts by placing several ads that present an identical offer. Track responses to measure which ads perform best.
• Compare the cost effectiveness of various media buys by measuring the number of responses against the cost of the placement.