Maximedia marketing refers to the mass-market media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, TV, billboards, and direct mail. The Internet is also part of maximedia marketing, such an important part that it is pivotal to almost every chapter in this book. Mistakes cost dearly in the area of maximedia marketing. The competition may be able to outspend you dramatically. But don't think of maximedia marketing as expensive. That is not the case. Expensive marketing is marketing that does not work. If you spend $10 on one local radio station to run one radio commercial but nobody hears it or acts on it, you have engaged in expensive marketing. But if you shell out $10,000 to run one week's worth of advertising on a large metropolitan area radio station and you realize a profit of $20,000 in that week, you've engaged in inexpensive marketing. Cost has nothing to do with it. Effectiveness does.
A guerrilla marketer who uses the mass media does what is necessary to make them effective and therefore inexpensive. A guerrilla is not intimidated by the mass media. Guerrillas must use the mass media with precision, carefully measure the results, and make the media part of an overall marketing plan. When they use the media, guerrillas must rely on intuition and business acumen. Maximedia marketing is about two things: (1) selling and (2) creating a powerful desire to buy. Also, maximedia marketing enhances the success of minimedia marketing—response rates to simple circulars jump when radio advertising blazes the way for them, and telemarketing results improve when TV spots presell the market. Guerrillas wage and win marketing battles by using mini- and maxiweapons. Maxiweapons make the other marketing weapons work more effectively and are coming down in price.
Since I first wrote this book, a marvelous revolution has taken place: Maximarketing is now more affordable and more sensible for very small companies than ever before. Responding to the growing number of small businesses—which comprise 98 percent of all businesses—the advertising media have bent over backward to attract business, offering far lower prices than ever before. Magazines and newspapers are available in regional and zone editions, and radio stations offer extremely attractive package rates. Postcard decks make direct mail extremely affordable and attractive to right-thinking guerrillas. The maximedia are within your reach and right up your alley because they allow you to advertise the way the big guys do without spending big.
Today, guerrillas compete in all arenas. Guerrillas take on the big players when it comes to attracting the attention—and the disposable income—of the American public. Change favors guerrillas because they use many weapons of marketing rather than a few: Customers are now in many places rather than only a few. In 1982, a TV spot on the top-rated Cosby show would reach one in four households. In 1997, a TV spot on the top-rated show Seinfeld reached only one in seven. In 2005, a TV spot on a top-rated show reached one in nine households.
In 1975, the three major networks attracted 82 percent of the twenty-four-hour viewing audience. In 2005, it had dropped to only 25 percent. And TV isn't the only maximedium facing a shakeup. The hottest magazines of today are titles you hadn't heard of yesterday. And they'll be different still tomorrow. Guerrillas know that the media never stand still and that prospects are moving targets.
Desktop publishing, laser printing, satellite TV, cellular telephones, fax machines, voicemail, and the Internet are now the arsenals of guerrilla marketers. Be aware of these technologies. Embrace them before the big corporations do. You're a guerrilla, lithe and agile. Large businesses may be bright and wealthy, but their marketers must maneuver through the molasses of bureaucracies, and meetings, committees, reams of memos, and layers of decision making make them clumsy.
Enter with confidence the world of the maximedia. There has never been a better time to be a guerrilla. So get 'em while the getting's good.
Whether you use the minimedia, the maximedia, both, or neither, you should be aware of the continual shifts in the U.S. marketplace. Because of the baby boom from 1946 to 1964, the median age in the United States is steadily rising, and people are living longer. In 1900, only 4 percent of Americans were older than eighty-five. Today, 12 percent of Americans are older than eighty-five—about 3.8 million people. According to the U.S. Census, this is the fastest-growing age group in the American population.
The population shift to the Sun Belt—Texas, Florida, Arizona, and California—will continue. Immigrants will account for 25 percent to 33 percent of our population, with Hispanics superseding blacks as the largest minority group. Ten percent of the population will be Hispanic. Minority groups will continue to move from cities to the suburbs. The Asian American population will rapidly increase.
Marketers must be aware of these trends as they begin to consider newspaper advertising and its place in their media mix. In most areas, a large number of newspapers are available. They all reach specific audiences. Which newspapers, which audiences, are best for you? There are metropolitan newspapers, national newspapers, local newspapers, shopper-oriented newspapers, classified-ad newspapers, campus newspapers, business newspapers, ethnic newspapers, and daily, weekly, and monthly newspapers. Your work is cut out for you: Make your selection skillfully.
When selecting your newspaper, you certainly need to know its circulation. When you hear a circulation figure, triple it to learn how many people are reading the paper. When a family has a subscription to the paper and two adults and three kids read each issue, this is counted as only one subscriber.
By far the major marketing method used by small business is newspaper advertising, though online marketing is in the process of eclipsing it. Of course, your type of business may not benefit from newspaper advertising. But if you think it may, pay close attention.
Newspapers offer a high degree of flexibility in that you can decide to run an ad or make changes in it up to a couple of days before the ad is to run. Radio gives you even more flexibility in that regard, allowing you to make changes up to the day your spot is to run. A Web site provides a great deal of flexibility; magazines and television marketing allow you the least leeway.
If you don't have a clear-cut favorite newspaper (defined as best targeted for your market and most appropriate for your ads), there is a test. Remember that there are most likely far more newspapers in your region than you ever imagined. Run an ad in as many of the newspapers in your area as you can—there may be as many as thirty. Use coupons in your ads. Have each coupon make a different offer, such as $5 off or a free book or a 15 percent discount or a free plant. In the ad, request that the customer either bring the coupon when coming to your place of business or mention the coupon when calling or sending you e-mail.
By measuring the responses, you'll soon see which newspapers work, which don't work, and which work best of all. You don't have to run ads in all thirty newspapers to learn which is the best paper. Maybe you'll have to test in only three or five or ten papers. But you are nuts unless you test. And be sure to determine what generated the customer's response: the offer or the newspaper. You can do this by means of a second test. Make a different offer in the most effective paper. If it still pulls well, you've got a horse to ride.
Don't forget, we're talking about advertising in terms of a conservative investment. So don't waste your money advertising in a paper that you happen to read or that your friends happen to recommend or that has a super salesperson selling ad space. The paper you eventually select will be the one in which you advertise consistently. That paper is the one to which you will commit your marketing program, your regularly placed ad, your money, your hopes. Select with the highest care possible. The paper must have proved itself in your coupon test and should be the one read by prospective customers in your marketing area. A monthly paper is not preferable. Use it if you wish, but be sure that your major newspaper is at least a weekly, if not a daily.
Marketing is part science and part art—and the art part is very subjective. The artistic end of marketing is not limited to words and pictures; it involves timing and media selection and ad size.
The importance of your ad's appearance is not to be underestimated. Far more people will see your ad than will see you or your place of business, so their opinion of your business will be shaped by your ad. Don't let the newspaper people design your ad, and don't let them write the copy. If they do, it will look and sound like all the other ads in the paper. Your competition is not simply the others in your business but rather everybody who advertises.
You're vying for the reader's attention with banks, telecommunications companies, airlines, car companies, cigarette companies, soft-drink companies, and who knows what else. You must give your ad a distinct style. Hire a professional art director to establish the look for your ad. Later, you can ask the paper to follow the design guidelines created by that art director. At first, however, you or a talented friend or a gifted art director should make your advertising identity follow your marketing plan—and do so in a unique manner. You won't win customers by boring them into buying. You've got to create a desire, and a good-looking ad helps immeasurably, even measurably, if you do your tracking.
I must caution you that perhaps one in twenty-five newspapers has a first-class art department that can design ads with the best of the expensive graphics companies. Put another way, twenty-four out of twenty-five newspapers have art departments that can help you waste your marketing money by designing ordinary-looking ads. The same goes for copy. Newspapers will help write your copy—because they want you to advertise. Give your marketing money to charity instead. Or spend it on a great ad writer who can make your ad sing, motivate, and cause people to sit up and say, "I want that." If you have a winning ad, your marketing money can be safely invested in newspapers with the expectation of a high return.
Select the type used in your ad on the basis of readability and clarity. Don't use a type size that is smaller than the type used by the paper. (In fact, even type that size is too small.) Make it easy for the reader to read your ad. If you decide to reverse the type (a black background with the type appearing in white), be sure that the black ink doesn't spill over into the white letters, obliterating them. It happens every day. Don't let it happen to you. Newspapers are notorious for running ads that look faint and unreadable (as a result of their particular printing process, though those processes are giving way to digital printing, which gives you more clarity and control over the finished ad). You or your art director should discuss your ad with people in the newspaper's production department to confirm that the ad will print well.
Then there's the matter of size. Of course, a full-page ad is probably best if you want to make an impact. But you won't want to pay for a weekly full-page ad, so you must make do with something smaller. What size can you comfortably afford?
Newspapers charge you by the line or by the inch. There are fourteen lines to the inch. If the newspaper charges, say, $1 per line, you are paying $14 per inch. If you want your ad to be fifteen inches high and three columns wide, you multiply $14 by fifteen, coming out with $210, then multiply that by three, for a total ad cost of $630. If you run an ad that size weekly, it will cost $2,709 per month. (I multiplied the $630 by 4.3 because that's the approximate number of weeks per month.) If the figure is too high, run a smaller ad—one you can afford. Some people can run a weekly ten-inch ad (two columns by five inches) all year every year and enjoy a 25 percent sales increase each year. Others want a greater increase, so they design a larger ad and run it two times a week. A lot depends on the cost of advertising in the particular paper.
Most full-size newspapers are twenty-two inches high. If you can afford it, run an ad that is twelve inches high or higher. That way, you'll be sure that your ad is above the fold. Most full-size newspapers are six columns wide. So you can be certain of dominating the page with an ad four columns by twelve inches high.
That's a great tack, and if you use it, you won't be wasting your money. But you can save a bit of money if you run a smaller ad with a powerful and unique border. An ad does not have to dominate a page to be seen. It merely has to interest the reader, create a desire, and then motivate the reader to do something you want him or her to do.
If you run your ad in a tabloid-size newspaper rather than a full-size newspaper, you can save money by running a smaller ad. A ten-inch ad may appear to be buried in a large newspaper but stands out in a tabloid. Many Sunday newspapers have tabloid-size sections, and you can save money by using them. But don't use them for that reason only—be sure that your prospects read that paper and that section.
Some guidelines will help you decide whether to run large or small ads. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of small ads. Small ads don't
• Impress as much as large ones
• Allow you to include long lists of names or lots of information
• Enable you to use color
• Provide enough space for photos or drawings
• Generate high-volume sales
• Allow you to have the position you want in the newspaper
But small ads do
• Allow you to run several for the cost of one large ad
• Let you feature samples of your selection in each
• Let you run them in several publications for valid test results
• Allow you to offer free brochures, samples, or catalogs
• Enable you to compile a database from the leads you get from inquiries
• Serve as logical places to advertise single items or announce new ones
• Let you run in the middle of the classified section, where the serious shoppers look
• Include your Web site, where potential customers can get a lot more information
What are the best days to run your ads? It differs with different towns and different businesses. Ask your local newspaper's space salesperson for a recommendation. Generally, Sunday is the day that the most people read the paper and spend the most time with it. But can your business succeed by running ads on days your doors are closed? Some businesses can. If yours can, give a nod to Sunday.
Guerrillas favor Sundays because there are more employment-opportunity ads, resulting in a higher readership of the newspaper—especially the classified section. People who are often on the road are usually home on Sundays and have more time to spend with their newspaper.
Monday is a pretty good day if your offering is directed to males, because many males read the Monday papers carefully to learn about the sports events of the preceding weekend. Saturday is also a fairly good day, because many advertisers shy away from it, and you'll have less competition. Some papers make Wednesday or Thursday their food day, so the papers are loaded with food and grocery ads.
You'll have to observe the papers yourself, then ask the person who will be selling the ad space to you. That ad space comes a lot cheaper if you sign a contract for a given number of lines or inches per year. Ask about the discounts you can receive for volume usage. They are quite substantial—a fringe benefit of consistent advertising in the same paper.
It's usually best if your ad appears as far to the front as possible, on a right-hand page, above the fold of the paper. But few, if any, papers will guarantee placement unless you sign a giant contract. The main news section is also considered to be an optimum place for an ad because of high readership by a large cross-section of readers.
Because of the nature of your product, you may want to run your ad in the business section, the sports section, or the entertainment section. Run your ad where competitors run theirs. If you have no competition, run your ad where services or merchandise similar to yours are being offered. Why? Because that's where readers are conditioned to look for offerings such as yours.
Incidentally, readers most likely will read your ad. Study after study reveals that newspaper readers read the ads almost as intensively as they read the stories. And because of the power of graphics, some ads attract more attention than do the news stories. Use graphics in your ad (but go easy!). Generally, more than three or four pictures—whether art or photography —is too many. But that's a rule that is both useful to know and useful to break; I've broken it on purpose and with good cause more than once. I've also run very successful ads that have only one illustration or photo. Lack of an illustration or photo means that the ad will be 27 percent less effective.
Another rule to know in case you want to break it intentionally is that one of the great powers of print advertising is that it easily enables you to repeat your message three times—in the illustration or photo, the headline, and the copy. Illustrations that relate directly to the message work 32 percent better, unless they're a cliché.
Long copy works as well as short copy and better, in many cases, when serious prospects are looking over your ad. Vague headlines reduce the effectiveness of an ad by 11 percent; humor can add 10 percent. Celebrities add another 25 percent to the power of the ad, though it's not guaranteed. Recipes can add 20 percent and coupons 26 percent. If you also use TV, including just one frame from your commercial will boost the power of your newspaper ad by 42 percent. See? There is a lot of cross-over value from one medium to the next.
If you have a truly good ad—one that states all the features and benefits of your offering—consider making multiple reprints. Use the reprints as circulars, customer handouts, mailing pieces, or interior signs. Their true cost was incurred when you originally produced the ad. Remember, you can enlarge the ad and make it a poster.
To increase the number of inquiries you receive through newspaper advertising, always remember to consistently state your name and primary message throughout your ads. In addition, put these ideas into action.
• Mention your offer in your headline.
• Restate your offer in a subhead.
• Emphasize the word free and repeat it when possible.
• Say something to add urgency to your offer. It can be a limited-time offer. It can be a limited-quantities offer. Get those sales now.
• Run a picture of your product or service in action.
• Include testimonials when applicable.
• Do something to differentiate yourself from others who advertise in the newspaper. That means all others—not only your direct competitors.
• Put a border around your ad if it's a small ad. Make the border unique.
• Be sure that your ad contains a word or phrase set in huge type. Even a small ad can "act" big if you do so.
• Always include your address, specific location, phone number, e-mail address, and Web site address. Make it easy for readers to find you or talk with you.
• Create a visual look that you can maintain every time you advertise. This clarifies your identity and increases consumer familiarity.
• Experiment with different ad sizes, shapes, days on which you run the ad, and newspaper sections.
• Consider free-standing inserts in your newspaper. These are increasingly popular and may be less expensive than you imagine.
• Try adding a color to your ad. Red, blue, and brown work well. You can't do this with tiny ads, but it may be worth trying with a large ad.
• Test several types of ads and offers in different publications until you have the optimum ad, offer, and ad size. Then run the ad with confidence. It's very unusual to get everything right the first time.
• Be careful with new newspapers. Wait until they prove themselves. But once they do prove themselves, think of yourself as married to the newspaper—you're in it for the long haul.
• Do everything in your power to get your ad placed in the front section of the paper on a right-hand page above the fold. Merely asking isn't enough. You may have to pay personal visits. Be a squeaky wheel.
• Don't be afraid of using lengthy copy. Although lengthy copy is best suited for magazines, many successful newspaper advertisers use it.
• Run your ad in the financial pages if you have a business offer, in the sports pages if you have a male-oriented offer, in the food pages for food products. The astrology page usually gets the best readership. In general, the best location for ads is the main news section, as far forward as possible.
• Study the ads run by your competitors. Study their offers. Make yours more cogent, concise, sweeter, different, better.
• Keep detailed records of the results of your ads. If you don't keep track of your experiments, you won't learn anything.
• Be sure that your ad is in character with your intended market, product or service, and the newspaper in which you advertise.
• Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs.
• If you distribute a coupon, make sure that your address appears on the coupon and also next to the coupon so that if the coupon gets clipped, your name and address still appear.
• Use photos or illustrations that reproduce faithfully in newspapers.
• Always put the name of your company somewhere at the bottom of your ad. Don't expect people to get the name from the copy, the headline, the picture of the product, or the picture of the storefront. And it's a good idea to put your name in your headline. At least put it in the subhead.
• Include your Web site address at the top of your ad. Place it prominently. Invite people to visit you there.
• Say something timely in your ad. Remember, people read papers for news. So your message should tie in with the news when it can.
• Ask all your customers where they heard about you. If they don't mention the newspaper, ask them directly, "Did you see our newspaper ad?" Customer feedback is invaluable.
• Aim your ad to people who are in the market for your offering right now.
• If you don't plan to use newspapers to support your other marketing efforts, use them weekly or stay away from them altogether. Occasional use doesn't cut it.
These tips, your common sense, the quality of newspapers in your community, the newspaper production department, the newspaper representative calling on your business, and the presence or absence of your competitors in the newspaper should be prime considerations in your decision to advertise in newspapers as part of your guerrilla marketing mix. To many guerrillas around the world, a newspaper looks like a meal ticket!
Whoever heard of a small-time entrepreneur advertising in well-known and respected national magazines? You have now. Magazine advertising has been the linchpin for many a successful small business. Remember, the single most important reason people patronize one business over another is confidence. And magazine advertisements breed confidence by instilling familiarity and giving credibility. A properly produced magazine ad, preferably of the full-page variety, gives a small business more credibility than any other mass-marketing medium.
You will not necessarily gain consumer confidence from a single exposure to your magazine ad. But if you run the ad once, you can use the reprints of that ad forever. One highly successful company ran a single regional ad in a single issue of Time magazine, then used reprints of the ad (reprints are available at a fraction of a cent each) in its window and on its counter for nearly thirty-five years afterward. Reprints were also sent in direct mailings. His mailings in 2006 could even run a reprint that stated, "As seen in Time magazine"—heavy-duty name dropping from an ad run once in 1973. That's getting mileage out of magazine advertising!
The magazine ad that you run in 2007 can bring home the bacon for you in 2027. The investment isn't very high. Several bright entrepreneurs have run an ad one time in a regional edition of a national magazine, then mailed out reprints in all direct mailings—each time gaining the confidence that prospects ordinarily placed in the magazine itself. This is the point of magazine advertising for small business. It gives them a great deal of credibility, which creates confidence, which translates to sales. And profits. If people feel that Time magazine is reliable, credible, trustworthy, and solid, they'll feel the same way about the companies that advertise in Time. So if you wish to gain instant credibility, advertise in magazines that will give it to you.
I'm talking about running your ad in your regional edition only, only one time. Not all magazines have regional editions. But those that do have regional editions can save you a fortune.
The number of publications offering these affordable methods of reaching target audiences is growing quickly. It takes a media-buying service to keep up with the maximedia's efforts to woo budgets from small businesses. That's one reason guerrillas use them.
Most people don't realize that regional editions exist. When they see your full-page (or smaller if you engage in fusion marketing and split the cost of the page with one, two, or three others) ad in Time magazine, they'll be quite impressed that you are advertising in a respected national magazine. And they'll turn that state of being impressed into a state of confidence in your offering. Check your library or the Internet for the latest issue of Consumer Magazine and Agri-Media Rates and Data (published monthly by Standard Rate and Data Service, Inc.—known as SRDS), and you'll learn which magazines have regional editions and how much they charge for advertising in them.
If you run a small display ad for a mail-order venture in a national publication, you should do as much testing as possible. An inexpensive method of testing is to avail yourself of the split runs offered by many magazines. By taking advantage of them, you can test two headlines. Send your two ads to the publication, being certain to code each ad for response so that you'll be able to tell which of the two headlines pulls better, and ask the publication to split-run the ads. One headline will run in half the magazines printed; the other headline will run in the other half.
For example, a manufacturer of exercise equipment once ran a split-run ad with a coupon. One headline said, STRENGTHEN YOUR WRISTS FOR BETTER GOLF! The other said, STRENGTHEN YOUR WRISTS IN ONLY TWO MINUTES A DAY! The coupon in the first ad was addressed to Lion's Head, 7230 Paxton, Dept. G6A, Chicago, IL 60649. The coupon in the second ad was addressed to Lion's Head, 7230 Paxton, Dept. GOB, Chicago, IL 60649.
Although the coupons looked alike, it was easy for the advertiser to tell that the appeal of two minutes a day was stronger than the appeal of better golf, even though the advertiser had guessed that the golf headline would attract the better response. How could the advertiser tell that his guess was wrong? Because the responses to Dept. GOB ran four times higher than those to Dept. G6A. Incidentally, the advertiser could also tell by referring to those responses that they came from Golf magazine (G) in answer to an ad run in June (6). The code indicated three points: the publication, the month in which the ad ran, and which of the two ads drew the better response.
Codes can also tell you the year, ad size, and other information. Some publications allow you to do a triple split-run and not just a double, enabling you to test three headlines rather than two. If you can test three headlines, do it. Let your audience make your judgments for you when possible. After you count the coded responses, you'll know which headline is best, and the cost of the test itself will have been minimal. The magazine's split-run capability will have saved money for you while giving you valuable information. Now you can run the successful ad with boldness and confidence.
Don't count yourself out of advertising in national publications because of the cost. You can cut down on that cost by establishing an in-house advertising agency, purchasing remnant space or space in regional editions, and purchasing a tiny space unit—say, one column by two inches. Or you can advertise in the classified section that is available in many national magazines. Also, many magazines offer enticing discounts to mail-order advertisers. And virtually all magazines offer impressive merchandising materials: easel-back cards, reprints, decals with the name of the magazine (for example, "as seen in Time"), and mailing folders. The magazine's advertising sales representative will be happy to tell you about all the merchandising aids offered. Take advantage of them. They'll be useful at your place of business, on your Web site, in your window (if you have one), and in your other modes of advertising.
Your business will be helped if you simply mention, "You've probably seen our ad in Woman's Day magazine." Put that ad on the front page of your Web site for a month. Milk it for all it's worth, and realize that it has a lot of milk in it. Materials can be used as enclosures in direct mailings and with personal letters; as signs on bulletin boards; as counter cards and display pieces at trade shows, exhibits, or fairs; and in a brochure or a circular. The cost of these powerful guerrilla marketing aids is ridiculously low, sometimes even free. Use them to the fullest extent. Magazines can help you market your offering immediately and in the years ahead. It's the years ahead that will result in profitable business for you.
Magazine advertising offers other attractive advantages. You can target your market better with magazines than with newspapers. Also, you can reach a specific circulation rather than a general circulation. You can reach people who have demonstrated an interest in skiing, gardening, do-it-yourselfing, snowmobiling—you name it. Little waste circulation. Everyone who sees your ad is a prospect. And one of the basic tenets of guerrilla marketing is to talk primarily to prospects and not to browsers.
A good guerrilla marketer also considers advertising in magazines other than consumer magazines. A whole world of trade magazines is out there. Almost every trade and profession has its own publication or, more likely, group of publications. Because you want to focus on prospects, consider advertising in some of these trade publications, because they are subscribed to and read cover to cover by many prospective customers. This is especially true if your product is at all business oriented.
Research your options online or at the library. Visit MediaFinder at mediafinder.com. Most likely, you'll want to subscribe to at least one trade magazine to keep abreast of new developments in your field.
Standard Rate and Data publishes a host of directories that may be of use in your business. If I ran a business school, I'd make it mandatory to spend a day looking through SRDS publications. Success-bound students would petition for more days. If you want to subscribe, write to Standard Rate and Data Service, 5201 Old Orchard Road, Skokie, Illinois 60077, or call 708-256-6067. Naturally, they're online, at srds.com.
Another important advantage of advertising in magazines is that you can use color much more effectively than you can in newspapers. If your offering is oriented to color—if you're marketing fabrics, for instance—consider advertising in magazines to show off the hues and tones.
Magazines are better suited than any other medium, except for Web sites, to lengthy copy. People buy magazines with the idea of spending time with them, unlike newspapers, which are read quickly for news. Magazines involve their readers, and your ads may do the same. Studies reveal that nonprospects screen themselves out voluntarily and that hot prospects read every single word.
Use subheads. Figure on using three of them for an ad in which 33 percent to 50 percent of the total space is devoted to text. If it's less than that, one or two subheads will do the trick. Write your subheads in upper- and lowercase letters and boldface type. Keep them short—people read them before they read your copy.
It is primarily because of guerrilla marketers that magazines now publish so many regional editions. Now that you know this, look through your local issue of Time, TV Guide, Sports Illustrated, or Better Homes and Gardens. How many regional advertisers are using those media? How many use color to show off their products? How many run long-copy ads? Which ones share the cost of a full-page ad even though they run different half-page ads? Most important, remember that in all likelihood, these advertisers could never afford a national ad in the same magazine. But the growth of the entrepreneurial spirit in America has necessitated an increase in regional editions. Advertisers in these regional editions know that by advertising in a major magazine, they are putting themselves in the big leagues. Their ad might run on the page next to an ad for Bank of America or Rolls-Royce or IBM. Not bad company for a guerrilla, no? Guerrilla marketing lets you play in the big leagues without first struggling in the minors.
Many major magazines have been available to minor advertisers for longer than forty years. Guerrillas avail themselves of major magazine opportunities and of their merchandising aids as a key to successful marketing. This gives you credibility within your community, and it gives you respect in the minds of your sales staff, suppliers, and even competitors.
If you're a thinking entrepreneur, you'll use magazines in several ways. You'll advertise regularly in a magazine that hits your target audience right on the nose. You'll advertise only one time in a prestige magazine, so as to use its merchandising aids. You'll use the classified sections of national magazines if you are in the mail-order business. And you'll use the display sections of national magazines if what you sell is too big for the classified sections or if your chosen magazine doesn't run classified ads.
It may be that you want to advertise in a national magazine because of the status, huge circulation, and easily identifiable audience but don't have the money for a large ad. No problem.
Go little instead of large. If you're practicing guerrilla marketing to the hilt, you will mention your national magazine advertisements in the other media you use: on the radio, in your direct-mail advertisements, on your signs, in your yellow pages ads, in your personal letters, in your telemarketing, at your Web site, in your e-mail signature—wherever you can. "As seen in Fortune" carries a lot of prestige. Size really doesn't matter in this scenario.
If you come up with a winning magazine ad, you may be able to run it in a multitude of magazines. The result can be a multitude of profits. You can run your proven money maker for years and years in a wide selection of publications. To a guerrilla, few marketing situations are as delightful.
But the prime reason for using magazines is the lasting value of the ad. I recall placing a full-page ad in Newsweek for a client. After the ad was run, the client asked each customer where he or she had heard of his company. At the end of one week, only five people claimed to have seen his ad in Newsweek, where it had run only one time. At the end of one month, that number had climbed—to eighteen people. And after a full year, a total of sixty-three customers had said they had first heard of the company through its ad in Newsweek. And that's not even the impressive part! The really significant aspect of this story is that the entrepreneur blew up a reprint of the ad to the size of an enormous poster—five feet high—then mounted it and placed it outside his place of business. Thousands of customers patronized his business because of that poster.
Newsweek turned out to be his most effective advertising medium that year—and yet he placed but one ad there. To make matters more wonderful, the Newsweek page was purchased at less than half the going rate, because it was remnant space. The magazine had sold three full-page ads to regional advertisers and had one page left over—a remnant. So my client was able to buy the space for a fraction of its original price.
If you're interested in advertising in any particular magazine, call the local representative of the magazine and say that you are definitely a candidate for any remnant space and that you should be phoned when it is available. You may wait a bit, but it will be well worth the wait. Do Coca-Cola and AT&T practice this tactic? No. Do successful guerrilla marketing people practice it? You bet their bank balance they do!
Most small-business owners never even consider advertising in magazines. That's because they don't know about regional editions, remnant space, in-house agency discounts, the power of a tiny ad, and valuable merchandising aids. Now that you do know about these lovely aspects of magazine advertising, give serious consideration to the medium.
Unless you have a good friend who owns a radio station, most of your radio marketing will be of the paid, rather than free, variety, though remember that in 2005, more than 50 percent of all media was obtained via barter, according to the head of one of the nation's largest media-buying services. It is possible to have stories or interviews about your product or service on the radio, and it may be that those will cost you nary a cent. Free and valuable publicity is not that difficult to come by on the radio. But as far as this chapter is concerned, you'll have to pay or trade for your radio marketing. For purposes of simplicity, let's talk paying.
Although newspapers are the primary marketing medium for most small businesses and direct mail has taken over second place, with online marketing coming up slowly on the rail, radio still does come in a strong third. Radio advertising can be used effectively by a company with a limited budget. And radio can help improve your aim when you're trying to reach your target consumers. Radio helps you establish a close relationship with your prospects. Consider this: Because of its intimate nature, radio brings you even closer than newspapers do. The sound of an announcer's voice, the type of musical background, the sound effects you use to punctuate and enhance your message—all these are ammunition in your radio-marketing arsenal. All can help win customers and sales for you.
Although it's true that you can, if you try, pay $1,500 or more for the airtime for a single thirty-second radio commercial on a large commercial radio station, you can also, if you try, pay $5 for a single radio commercial on a smaller, less popular station. You'll certainly talk to more people with the $1,500 spot, but you will reach more than a few people with your $5 commercial.
Don't think, however, that you can spend $5 and be involved in radio marketing. But if you spend $5 for five spots per day ($25) and you run your spots four days a week ($100) three weeks out of four, you may say that for $300 a month, you are adequately covering the listener profile in the community that the particular radio station covers.
Because radio listeners often change stations, you should run radio spots on more than one station. This is a rule to know and to break. But know it. One station does not a radio campaign make.
How many stations do you need? Well, you may need only one. But you'll probably need three or four or five. It may also be that you have the type of offering that lends itself so well to radio that you'll need no other ad media and can dive headlong into advertising on ten stations. Some of my clients have. One of the advantages to being on so many stations is that by carefully tracking your audience response—that is, learning which stations are bringing in the business—you can eliminate the losers and narrow your radio marketing down to proven winners. You can also use the coupon-type testing we explored in Chapter 9. That means you pick, say, five stations and run commercials on all five. In each commercial, make a different offer—a discount, a free gift, a 50 percent reduction—and ask listeners to mention the offer when they contact you. By keeping assiduous track of the offers mentioned by your customers, you'll know which stations to drop (maybe all of them) and which to continue with (maybe all of them).
Unless you really keep track of all your media responses, you are not a guerrilla. If you run your ads and keep selecting media on blind faith, you are closer to a lemming. You've got to make your marketing as scientific as possible. This is one of those rare instances in which you can measure the effectiveness of your media scientifically. Avail yourself of it.
If you have salespeople, ask them to track responses. If you're the person taking orders from customers, you must track responses. Ask the customers, "Where did you hear of us first?" If they say radio, ask "Which station?" If they name a station that you don't use, ask, "Which stations do you ordinarily listen to?" If that doesn't net a solid response, prompt the customer, naming a few stations (one of which you do use). It's a drag to do this, but it's a bigger drag to waste marketing money and bankrupt a business. Do everything you can to learn which stations are pulling in customers and which are not. After you've been marketing seriously for a year or three, you can cut down on your media tracking, though I don't suggest that you do. If you start learning for sure which stations pull best, you may feel that you need no longer ask. But until you're certain, you must ask. Because stations and people change, keep track consistently.
There are many types of radio stations: rock and roll, rap, hip-hop, middle of the road, country, public, all news, talk show, drama, Spanish language, religious, black, top 40, bubblegum rock, jazz, oldies, intellectual, avant-garde, local interest, farm oriented, progressive rock, reggae. Public radio and community radio do not run commercials, but they do make public service announcements for free. Which stations do your prospective customers listen to? Although it's possible to divide radio stations into twenty-three categories, as I've just done, it's advisable to divide them into two categories: background stations and foreground stations.
Some radio stations play background programming, playing music that is generally a background sound. People talk, converse, work, play, iron, cook, and do myriad other things with background radio sounds. The music does not get in the way, command attention, distract. Unfortunately, because people are not actively listening, the commercials also are in the background. Sure, when a person is driving home with the radio on, all alone, the commercials—and the music—move up from the background. But in general, all-music stations are background radio stations. And many music and knowledge lovers have CD players or cassette decks in their cars, not to mention their homes.
Sports, religion, all-news, and talk stations are foreground radio stations. They are in the foreground of people's consciousness. They command attention. They are poor stations to have on when conversing, working, or concentrating. As a result, the commercials that these stations broadcast are likely to attract more active listeners. These people pay closer attention to commercials because they are actively listening to the radio. This is not to say that foreground radio is better than background radio for advertising. But be aware of the difference.
There are other differences as well. Talk radio is hosted by personalities. Disc jockeys at music radio stations tell what music has just been aired and what music is about to air. Sometimes, this is on tape. Talk radio involves listener rapport, more informal utter, and more personal asides.
Here's a guerrilla tactic that works gloriously well on foreground stations when it is appropriate. Suppose that you have a new company that sells, say, computer instruction. Invite a talk radio personality to take a few lessons. Then buy time on that personality's station. Rather than provide a sixty- or thirty-second script for your commercial, which you might ordinarily do, provide an outline and invite the personality to ad-lib. The result is usually a sincere commercial, far longer than the commercial for which you have contracted, that has loads of credibility. If your product or service is worth raving about, you can count on most personalities to give it their all. You have to pay for only a sixty-second spot, but you may end up with a three-minute spot at no extra cost.
That is about the only instance in which I'd advise you to put your message into the hands of the radio station. In virtually all other instances, I suggest that you provide recorded commercials, which you can tape at an independent facility or at the station itself. Do not furnish scripts to the station. Although some of their announcers may read them well, other announcers may make mincemeat out of them, may read them with no conviction and no enthusiasm. Murphy's law has a way of asserting itself at radio stations: If the commercial can be messed up, it will be. Protect yourself by supplying finished tapes only—unless you can get a personality to breathe true life into your script.
Just as it is bad business to let a newspaper write your newspaper ad copy, it is also a grave error to let a radio station write your radio ad copy. Most stations will be all too willing to volunteer. Don't let them. If you do, your commercial will sound just like everyone else's commercials. One of the most asinine methods of saving money is to let the station write your advertising.
If the station offers to produce your spot, that's a different story. Check out the equipment. It's probably all right. Listen to the station's announcers. If you trust the equipment—as measured by the sound of finished commercials produced on it—and you like one or more of the announcers, allow the station to voice and produce the commercial on tape for you. Generally, there is no charge or a low charge for this service. In most, but not all, cases, it's worth the price.
Whichever format you select as the home base for your radio marketing program, should you run thirty-second spots or sixty-second spots? A thirty-second spot is usually far more than 50 percent of the cost of a sixty-second spot. In most instances, what you can say in sixty seconds can also be expressed in thirty seconds. So go with the shorter spots even though they are not great values. In the long run, they'll give you more bang for your budget. If, however, you have a complex product or service, you'll have to run a full sixty-second spot. Some advertisers achieve superb results with two-minute commercials. Take as long as you must to state your message, but make it thirty seconds in length, if possible.
A long-time radio pro once told me that if he had to cut 33 percent of his radio advertising budget but could spend that 33 percent on a music track for his commercials, he'd gladly do it. He believes that the presence of music lends a powerful emotional overtone to the commercial. I agree. Music can convey what words frequently cannot, and music can be obtained inexpensively. You can rent it from the station's rights-free music library. You can have a music track made by hungry musicians who will record a track for very little money, appreciating the exposure they will receive. Or you can purchase an expensive music track—made expressly for you or taken from a hot record—and use it so much that the amortized cost is mere peanuts.
I know an entrepreneur who made a deal with a composer who had recently released a record album. The entrepreneur, on learning that the particular music he liked would cost $3,000, said that he'd pay the composer $100 per month for a full year. If, at the end of that period, he was still in business and wanted the music, he would then pay $3,000 in addition to the rental fees he had paid. If he hadn't been successful, he would be out merely the rental fees, and the composer would still have the music. It sounded like a fair deal for both parties, so the composer agreed. At the end of one year, the composer did receive $3,000 in addition to the $1,200 he earned for renting his music. His total gain was $4,200. The entrepreneur, who at the time could barely afford the $100 rental, could later easily afford the $3,000. Everyone came out a winner.
If you have to use announcers and musicians who are members of the various unions (Screen Actors' Guild and/or American Federation of Television and Radio Actors), be wary. Union costs and paperwork are overwhelming, and you might be better off to avoid unions. I work with unions only when I absolutely must, and when I do, I see that all the paperwork is handled by an independent party. Unions and guerrillas mix like gasoline and Gatorade.
As music adds new dimensions to your selling message, so do sound effects. Use them when you can; radio stations (and most production facilities) have libraries of them and rent them at nominal costs. Just be careful that you don't get carried away with their use.
You have but three seconds to catch and hold the attention of the listener. Be interesting during those first three seconds and say what you have to say, lest the listener's attention stray. Be sure to use "ear" words rather than "eye" words. Whatever you do, repeat your main selling point. Also, repeat your company name as many times as you possibly can.
A good idea for a radio commercial: Put the president of the company into a recording booth and interview him or her. The interview should last for thirty minutes or longer. Then use small sections of the interview as ingredients—sound bites—in future commercials. Sound bites are ideas expressed simply and briefly. The concept was spawned for the political process by public relations pros, who are called "spin doctors" by the media, based on their ability to give the proper "spin," or public perception, to the activities of the firms they represent. Spin doctors can create the perception that an oil company is a group of ardent environmentalists. The 1998 movie Wag the Dog was an accurate if exaggerated demonstration of the power and skill of spin doctors as they manipulate public opinion from Washington. But our government isn't the only one to employ spin doctors. They have long been functioning in the capitals of nations around the world.
As a guerrilla, you can be your own spin doctor. Select your own sound bites from the interview for your marketing. But you never want to be perceived as a spin doctor; you want to put the right "spin" only on your marketing.
Although most announcers can easily fit seventy words into a thirty-second spot, studies indicate that people listen more attentively if the announcer talks faster and crams more words into a short space. Columbia University conducted the study, which gave speed-talk a shot in the arm. Here are a few radio hints for guerrillas.
• Concentrate your spots during a few days of the week, such as Wednesday through Sunday.
• Try to run radio advertising during afternoon drive time, when people are heading home. They're in more of a buying mood than in the morning, when work is on their minds.
• When listening to the radio commercials you've produced, listen to them on a car-radio-type speaker, not on a fancy high-fidelity speaker like the ones production studios use. Many an advertiser, dazzled after hearing his or her commercial on an expensive speaker system, has become depressed when hearing what the commercials sound like on a typical car stereo system.
• Consider radio rate cards to be pure fiction. They are highly negotiable.
• Study the audiences of all the radio stations in your marketing area. Then match your typical prospect with the appropriate stations. It's not difficult.
• If you want to reach teenagers, advertise on the radio, not in the newspaper.
• Mention your Web site in your radio commercial. You have only a minute or less to convince listeners to buy from you on the radio, but you have unlimited time online.
One of radio's surprises is its power as a direct-response medium. Many companies spend twenty-five seconds delivering their sales pitch and five seconds providing their toll-free number. Because companies are advertising on radio and realize that people can't write the number on a piece of paper, they spell a word with their phone number. Response rates are equivalent to those on TV, and the cost is usually much lower. The influx of car phones can't be a hindrance to the use of radio for direct marketing. But please don't make a call while you're heading in my direction on the highway.
If you plan to use radio for your direct-response offer, repeat your phone number at least three times. Use a high-quality voice. Take advantage of the intimacy of radio. Air your spot on weekends and during evenings, and figure on receiving responses within three to four days. Change your copy immediately if you get a poor response, and change your product if new and improved copy doesn't help. Before you change your product, however, be absolutely certain that your offering matches the tastes of the listening audience.
Unless you simply cannot see your way to using radio, do give it a try. You'll appreciate its flexibility, ability to allow you to make last-minute changes, and the opportunity to home in on your prospects on the basis of station format, time of day, and day of the week. I have a very successful client who owns a furniture store. Although he uses many marketing media—newspapers, yellow pages, billboards, point-of-purchase signs, and direct mail—he spends 90 percent of his marketing money on radio advertising. With such a high concentration of dollars in only one medium, does he qualify as a true guerrilla? He sure does! He has learned through the years that radio reaches his exact audience and motivates them to come into his store. He runs his commercials on anywhere from six to ten stations, and he often runs the same commercial fifteen times in a day. What's more, he's never off the radio, using it fifty-two weeks per year. Because he learned to use this medium to the benefit of his bottom line, he is a true guerrilla marketer. After experimenting with all kinds of marketing mixes, he finally decided that radio was the medium for him. He uses it with music. He uses it consistently. And he makes so much money that he lives a luxurious life in Hawaii while his business, located in the Midwest, continues to flourish. Although many factors are responsible for his success, he gives most of the credit to radio advertising. He is living proof that you can prosper in style as a one-medium guerrilla.
Television is the most effective of all marketing vehicles, the undisputed heavyweight champion and the American Idol, though online marketing is becoming a contender for the title and should hold it before long. But television is also the most elusive and easiest to misuse. It's elusive because it's not as simple as it seems, because it requires many talents, is not normally associated with small businesspeople, and is dominated by giants that give entrepreneurs a mistaken impression of how it should be used. You cannot use TV as Nike, Coca-Cola, Ford, and McDonald's use it unless you have their money.
Television is easy to misuse because it does seem straightforward, affordable for almost anyone to run one or two television commercials, and readily available. It has more options than ever, is the medium that strokes the entrepreneur's ego the most tantalizingly, and requires a whole new discipline. Television is not, as some believe, radio with pictures.
Americans watched more TV in 2005 than in any other year since Nielsen Media Research started tracking it in the 1950s. The average American household watched 8 hours and 11 minutes of TV per day, up 2.7 percent from the year before and 12.5 percent from ten years ago, according to data released recently by Nielsen Media Research. Individual viewing habits were about half that, with the average American TV viewer watching 4 hours and 32 minutes daily, the highest in fifteen years, according to Nielsen. There were also slightly higher viewing levels during summer 2005 than in summer 2004 and in the first week of the new TV season.
Television has changed in many ways, all of them favoring guerrillas. Advertising costs have plummeted to the point that a thirty-second prime-time commercial costs $20 or less, even in major markets (this is for cable, not for network programming).
Targeting ability has improved: You can run commercials in specific city neighborhoods, selected suburbs, your community. You can run them in affluent zip codes that may not even be in your community—if you offer things that affluent people want. Also, satellite and cable TV allow you to pick TV channels that hit your prospects smack-dab in the middle of their viewing patterns. With a dish called an uplink, satellite TV is broadcast upward to one of thirty communication satellites. The satellite then sends the TV signals back to Earth, where they are picked up by people who have conventional home satellite dishes and those who subscribe to direct broadcast satellite services. Add to that the many cable stations that transmit satellite broadcasts to umpteen million more homes. You probably know that many communities today receive more than seventy TV channels. Oh, some now receive more than seven hundred? Better read fast before my updated information becomes outdated.
Whether your interest is education, international news, movies, adult programming, network TV, kids, business, animals, game shows, romance, history, crime, science, information, shopping, religion, sports, travel, or weather, chances are that it's on satellite. Because satellite dishes are sold in different sizes, the cost of ownership is quite low, attracting more viewers and making the television medium more enticing to guerrillas. One of the fastest growth areas is in home shopping channels.
As TV technology, cable systems, satellites in orbit, and videocassette/ DVR ownership—now above 90 percent—have changed, so too have viewing patterns. Of the ten prime uses of TV sets, three do not allow commercials: rented tapes/DVDs, video games, and the TV as a monitor for a computer. PBS, the third most popular use of TV, may be a good station on which to market, and you shouldn't overlook it if your target market watches it. If you sponsor a PBS program, you'll create as much awareness as you would with a commercial on CBS. But you'll get a heck of a lot more credibility.
When you were a kid, network TV ruled the roost. Today, it's hanging in there but is not enjoying a growth spurt. Cable and satellite TV are growing at a much healthier rate.
Another new option is the increasingly ad-friendly Public Broadcasting System. Many local affiliates now accept sponsorships that look and feel—and sell—much like standard TV commercials. One guerrilla, Jerry Baker, who calls himself America's Master Gardener, participates in PBS fund-raisers by giving gardening advice during pledge breaks. The stations then offer his books and videos as premiums for donations. His success on PBS has been translated to QVC, one of the shopping channels, where he sells thousands of videos each time he appears. If you can't give gardening advice, perhaps you can give your local PBS station something that it can auction at a fundraising drive.
The TV market is becoming fragmented, just as is happening with all media. The Internet seems to be the only place where all the fragments can and do come together.
TV viewers are now more sophisticated than ever. They've been around the block when it comes to TV advertising spots and have opinions that you should know about the spots: 31 percent find TV advertising spots to be misleading; 24.3 percent, offensive; 17 percent, informative; 15.9 percent, entertaining.
If you're planning to test TV for advertising to your market, give cable serious consideration. Cable TV is growing and is becoming more and more affordable. But don't be deceived by the low cost. For the tiny sum of money it costs, expect it to deliver a tiny audience. Experts say that it's best suited for marketers with small trading areas where other media alternatives charge you for a lot of waste coverage—meaning that they reach people not in your trading area.
Nonetheless, small-business owners can now advertise on TV, on any satellite-delivered cable show, for prices even the smallest can afford. The twenty-dollar figure I mentioned was on the high side for cable. Most slots are considerably less than that. Think single digits. You can advertise on prime time; cherry-pick the subscriber neighborhoods and suburbs in which your spots appear; pick such stations as CNN, ESPN, MTV, the Nashville Network, Arts and Entertainment, the Discovery Channel, Court TV, Animal Planet, and loads more— for not much more than the cost of a radio commercial. Never before has TV been more available and desirable to owners of small businesses. Guerrillas in droves are, at this very moment, discovering the awesome power of TV, and I suggest that you do the very same.
Television is effective only if you use it enough. And enough is a lot. Enough is expensive. How much is enough? Many experts say that you can measure how much enough is by understanding rating points. A GRP (gross rating point) is calculated on the basis of 1 percent of the TV households in the TV marketing area. If 1 million TV sets are in the area, one rating point equals 10,000 TV households. The cost of TV advertising is determined by the size of each GRP in the marketing area, and advertisers pay for a given number of GRPs when they buy advertising time. The experts advise, and I agree, that you should not consider TV advertising unless you can afford to pay for 150 GRPs per month. Those can come in the form of 75 GRPs per week every other week or 50 GRPs for three weeks out of four, or even 150 GRPs for one week per month. How much a single rating point costs in your area depends on the size of the area, the competitive situation, and the time of year. Points tend to cost more around Christmas shopping time—October through late December—and less during the summer, when reruns are being shown. Rating points in small towns cost far less than in big cities. The price ranges from about $4 per GRP in a small city, such as Helena, Montana, to about $2,000 per GRP in a big city, such as New York or Los Angeles.
Can you start small in TV and then build up? Only if you start out by buying 150 GRPs for one month and have the funds and emotional endurance to tough it out for a minimum of three months. If you can't do that, don't fool around with TV. If you can afford to pay for the proper number of rating points—and you can if you live in a low-cost TV marketing area, such as those found in many rural sections of the United States, or if you are well funded—you'll find that TV can do many things the other media cannot. Television allows you to demonstrate, act, dance, sing, put on playlets, show cause and effect, create a lively identity, be dramatic, reach large numbers of people, zero in on your specific audience, prove your points visually and verbally—all at the same time. You can not only provide your Web site address but also show your Web site. No other medium provides so many advantages to the advertiser at one time.
Of the various times you can advertise on the tube, steer clear of prime time—8:00 P.M. to 11:00 P.M. (unless you're going to economize by advertising on cable channels). You can realize better values—more viewers per dollar—by using fringe time (the time before and after prime time), especially on local affiliates of the big networks. You might also look into daytime TV, which attracts many women viewers. The audience size is smaller and so is the cost. The time period past midnight, when few people are watching, is very inexpensive and can prove a springboard to success. Some shows have ratings so low that they are unmeasurable. This means, happily, that air time is inexpensive. If you truly want to advertise on television, learn which shows your prospects watch, then run commercials on those shows.
Many of the shows are available on cable. For example, when the solar energy industry was in its infancy, aggressive marketing people soon learned that the same people who watch Star Trek tend to buy solar energy units and that men who watch science-fiction movies, not sports, have a proclivity toward solar power. Some solar energy companies went to the bank as a result of that fascinating information. Even though Star Trek was in its tenth series of reruns, it still proved to be a marvelous and inexpensive vehicle for solar heating marketers. Talk shows, which frequently attract an older audience, were determined to be poison for solar energy sellers. Their product simply did not appeal to seniors—at least it didn't at first. Today, solar energy is more acceptable as an alternative source of power, and media coverage of solar applications is generous, appealing to the increasing number of environmentally aware citizens. Is that your electric car I hear (barely) pulling into my driveway?
To get the most out of TV, keep in mind that TV rate cards, like radio rate cards, are established as the basis for negotiation and are not to be taken as gospel. In fact, if you're going to go on television, you should consider retaining a media-buying service to make your plans and buys for you. The service will charge about 7.5 percent of the total but will save you more than that. Many small businesspeople make their own buys, thinking that they are getting good deals. But the media-buying services, which purchase millions of dollars' worth of TV time monthly, get bargains that would shock the small businessperson.
Another warning about buying your TV directly: TV salespeople have a powerful way of putting the egos of their commercial clients to work for them. Some convince an advertiser that he or she would be a terrific spokesperson. The advertiser, enjoying the strokes to his or her ego, then goes on TV and presents the commercial in person. Sometimes, but rarely, this is effective. Generally, the advertiser loses as many sales as he or she gains. Frequently, the advertiser becomes a laughingstock but continues to present the ads because his or her TV salespeople wouldn't dream of risking their sales by telling the truth. Don't let your ego get in the way of your TV marketing when it comes to buying the time or presenting the information. If you've watched enough TV, I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm saying.
A guerrilla I know used to offer to buy any unsold TV time from 6 A.M. through midnight from a TV channel. He purchased the time at far below market rates. You can afford prime time on a network affiliate if that station is willing to sell the prime-time slots at the same cost per rating point as after-midnight time slots.
Guerrillas never fail to check into cable TV and satellite TV. It just may be that you can afford to market your offerings on television because of the new cable availabilities. Instead of going on TV and reaching the 90 percent of the audience that is out of your marketing area, you can telecast only to people within your marketing area. As cable and satellite TV are making television advertising more and more affordable to more small businesses, the networks are losing their shirts to cable—billions of dollars each year. And TV is still in a state of flux—all favoring the guerrilla. So be one! And get yourself onto the tube.
Test TV for yourself. Put an offer into your commercial so that you can track the results. Perhaps you'll offer a free brochure. Maybe a special discount for people mentioning the commercial. Possibly a sweepstakes. Run your spots on different stations, cable and broadcast, and use a different phone number for each channel, enabling you to track easily. You might hire a seven-day, twenty-four-hour telemarketing service to take your phone calls and report the results for each station.
Also, DVR sales are skyrocketing—more than 90 percent of Americans have access to one, letting audiences view postmidnight programming anytime the next day.
Many guerrillas have discovered the joys of direct-response television, allowing people to order immediately after viewing the commercial. They do this because you furnish a toll-free number and accept most credit cards. Products that move well with direct-response TV are cooking and kitchen appliances, books and videos covering a wide range of topics, health and beauty aids, cosmetics, exercise equipment, and CDs and tapes. I'm sure that many items can be added to that list. Once, I ordered a buckwheat husk-filled pillow because of a direct-response TV spot that caught my fancy just when I was contemplating the purchase of a new pillow. I'm always floored when guerrilla marketing works on me. But it does!
A soul-satisfying aspect of direct-response TV is the brief wait before knowing whether you have a hit or a miss. Usually, you can tell within a week whether you've got a winner, and then you begin narrowing down the factors as to what channels work best, what time slots, what days of the week, how often, what times of the year, and how long it will continue serving as a cash cow. You might run it six months and wait two months.
The yardstick by which you measure your success or failure is your CPO (cost per order). If you can gain $2 in sales for every $1 invested in TV, your cost per order is $1, and I'm hoping that your profit is healthy. If you earn $2,000 in sales for an investment of $1,000 in TV time, don't forget your investments in producing the commercial and the cost of your product. The money left over after those are deducted is your profit. If you don't have money left over, you need a lower CPO, often possible by changing your pricing.
One of the most lovable parts of direct-response TV is the low cost of failure and the high payoff for success. If your venture fails on cable TV in Olympia, Washington, it won't hurt you too much. But if it succeeds, many cable stations out there will want to run your spot. If you can make an offer that makes a profit for you, try making it on television.
Some direct-response advertisers avoid cable like the plague unless they can buy their spots on a per inquiry or per sale basis, which means that they pay nothing up front and pay based only on how many inquiries or sales they make as a result of the TV spot.
If you do decide to invest in television marketing, there are many methods by which you can cut down drastically on the cost of producing TV commercials, which in 2005 ran over $210,000 for a thirty-second spot. Truth is, you can turn out a very good thirty-second spot for about $1,000. And even that figure can be reduced as you increase your TV savvy.
First of all, let your TV station provide all the production assistance. Not the writing. Let it put up the equipment and furnish the camera people, lighting experts, director, and all-important editor. Don't let the station write the spot. If you do, it will look like all the station's other homegrown TV commercials. Instead, either you or a talented individual you coerce, barter with, or hire should write a tight script. The left side of the sheet of paper on which the script is written is reserved for video instructions. There, describe every single action, numbering each one, the viewers will see. The right side of the script paper is for the audio portion. These are the sounds the viewers will hear. Again, number each audio section, matching it with the appropriate video section so that the audio and video make a team.
If necessary, and it usually is not necessary, make a storyboard, or pictorial representation of your script. A storyboard consists of perhaps ten frames, or pictures. Each frame contains a picture of what the viewers will see, a description of what will be happening, and the message that will be heard while the action is taking place. Storyboards tend to be taken too literally, however, and do not allow you the leeway to make changes during production. Those little changes are often the difference between an ordinary commercial and an extraordinary one. Most (but not all) people have the imagination to understand a commercial from a script alone. If the people you are working with don't, you may have to resort to a storyboard. Artists charge from $10 to $500 per frame, so you can see how storyboards make costs rise.
While working in major ad agencies, I had to prepare a storyboard for every commercial I wrote. And I know that I wrote more than a thousand. Many art directors enjoyed gainful employment because of my active typewriter and the traditions of advertising agencies, which called for storyboards. Since I've been working on my own, I have written well over another thousand commercials. Only five required storyboards. Yet the commercials were no less successful than those I made using storyboards.
You can also save money by scheduling preproduction meetings with all who will be involved in the production of your commercial. Meet with the actors, actresses, director, lighting person, prop person, and anyone else involved. Make sure that everyone knows what is expected and understands the script. Make sure that the timing is on the button. Leave not one detail unexplored. Then hold at least one tightly timed rehearsal. Have the people involved go through the motions before the cameras are running. By doing so, you can produce two commercials in the time usually necessary to produce one. You'll even be able to fit three commercials into the same production time, if you're good enough. When you are paying $1,000 per day for equipment and crew, that comes to $333.33 per commercial when you do three commercials at once. A far cry from the average cost of $210,000. That $333.33 figure was true in the 1980s and remains true today. All it takes is shopping around plus the attitude of a guerrilla.
To keep the cost down, which is one characteristic of a guerrilla, avoid expensive union talent and crew whenever possible (in some union cities, such as Los Angeles and San Francisco, this is not easily done). Get everything right by planning rehearsals and preproduction meetings, and plan the editing when you plan the spot. Editing videotape can be very expensive, so plan your shooting so that little editing will be necessary. Experts say that the commercial is really made in the editing room. So make it a point to be there watching—and commenting—when the editing takes place. It's an important process of guerrilla learning.
The use of film or tape or digital recording usually won't make a great difference in your final cost. Film allows you to use more special effects, has more of a magical quality because it has less "presence" than tape, and allows for less expensive editing. But with film, you have no instant feedback. If someone goofed, you won't know it until the film is processed. With digital, you can replay what you have shot immediately, and if anything is wrong, you can redo it. No processing is necessary. As to which is better, there is no correct answer. Both can be ideal, depending on the circumstances. But if you are planning to have the station help with production, better plan on digital. Stations don't usually film for you. That's OK; guerrillas seem to opt for digital.
What makes a great TV commercial? Well, Procter & Gamble, one of the most sophisticated advertisers in the United States, frequently uses "slice of life" commercials, which are little playlets, the type that seem boring and commonplace. But with the big bucks P&G puts behind them, they work extremely well. And many companies have made a bundle copying this format. So don't knock them if you are considering TV as a marketing vehicle. You can learn plenty from P&G. I certainly did. Here are some other guidelines that will help you, regardless of the type of commercial you wish to produce.
Remember that television is a visual medium with audio enhancement. Many ill-informed advertisers look on it as the opposite. A guerrilla marketer knows that a great TV commercial starts with a great idea. Try to express that idea visually, then add the words, music, and sound effects to make it clearer and stronger. Try viewing your commercial with no sound. If it's a winner, it will make its point with pictures only.
Again, go with thirty-second spots rather than sixty-second spots. If you are using TV for direct response, such as for ordering by toll-free number, try two-minute spots. They're very effective. Say that phone number at least three times, and show it as much as you can.
Keep in mind that, as with radio, you have three seconds to attract the viewers' attention. If you haven't hooked them right up front, you've probably lost them. So say what you have to say in a captivating manner at the outset. Say it again, in different words, in the middle of your spot. Say it a final time, again in different words (or maybe even in the same words), at the end. Don't fall into the trap of making your commercial more interesting than your product. Don't allow anyone to remember your commercial without remembering your name. There are bushels of sob stories about commercials that won all sorts of awards while the products they were promoting died horrible deaths. You want sales—not awards, praise, or laughs.
To my mind, many TV commercials these days are created by people who hate advertising and are ashamed of it. This explains why many TV spots are visually dazzling but give no clue as to who is advertising. You've got to pay close attention to see who you should purchase from, and guerrillas know that people don't pay close attention to TV commercials. My wife calls this the "by the way" school of advertising, as in, "Let us entertain you and amuse you, enthrall you, and delight you. By the way, we're also hoping you'll buy our beer."
When you can, show your product or service in action. People's memories improve 68 percent when they have a visual element to recall. So say what you have to say verbally and visually, especially visually.
The following thirty-second commercial won first prize at the Venice TV Film Festival. The advertiser then had to withdraw it from the air because he could not keep up with the demand for his product. The idea conveyed in the commercial is that this particular cookie, known as "Sports" and manufactured by a company called Carr's, has more chocolate on it than any similar cookie. Simple enough? Here's the script:
Video | Audio |
1. Open with two slapstick characters facing the camera. One is tall and one is short. Tall one speaks: | 1. (Tall man) Good evening. Sidney and I would like to prove that Carr's Sports have the most chocolate—by showing you two ways to make chocolate cookies. |
2. Short man smiles when his name is mentioned, but loses the smile when he hears that he is a cookie. | 2. Imagine Sidney here is a cookie. |
3. Tall man lifts huge container marked "chocolate" and pours real chocolate fluid onto short man. | 3. Now take your cookie. Cover it with chocolate. |
4. Camera tilts down to show pool of chocolate at short man's feet. | 4. Effective, but not much stays on. Carr's makes Sports a better way. |
5. Cut to the two men. Tall man now carries short man, holds him above a tub marked chocolate. Tall man then drops short man into the tub. | 5. Pop the cookie in chocolate. |
6. Cut to short man's head surfacing from the chocolate. As it surfaces, more chocolate is poured on it. | 6. Top it up, and when it is set... |
7. Dissolve to short man, now encased in chocolate. He is lying down. Tall man stands proudly above him. | 7. You have your cookie with all your chocolate on it. |
8. Tall man molds out a Carr's Sports package as camera zooms to closeup of it. | 8. That's how Carr's makes Sports. |
Because so many people have remote controls with both their TV sets and their DVRs, there's a great chance (estimated at 70 percent) that your commercial will get zapped—fast-forwarded or muted. Does this steer guerrillas away from television? No.
Instead, guerrillas take heed of this ugly reality by working with it, not against it. They mute-proof their TV commercials by telling their stories visually, using words and music, but not really requiring them, because their pictures make their point. They show their names—often throughout the commercials—by superimposing them in the lower corner of the screen, à la CNN. Notice how many networks have climbed aboard that particular bandwagon, finally realizing the visuality of their medium.
TV guerrillas show their commercials enough times to their target audiences that they begin to see the results of this powerful guerrilla marketing tactic after a few months. A few months? Why not instantly? Because TV, as high potency as it is, does not bring about instant results unless you are having a limited-time sale, making a limited-time offer, or using TV as a direct-response medium, providing viewers with a toll-free number and enough information to make the decision to buy from you.
You're going to be a happy guerrilla if you lower your expectations for TV in the short run. Over time, TV will work its miracles for you. Only they won't be miracles. They'll be the result of your patience combined with your knowledge that no medium does as much to sell your offering as television. Don't think that you can make TV prove itself to you with limited funds. As low-cost as a spot may be, you still must have a decent-size war chest to use it. One expert for whom I have a lot of respect counsels his clients that if they can't stand to lose their TV investment, they should try something else. But if you can test it and make it work for you, you'll be one very happy guerrilla.
A goodly number of small-business owners shy away from the tube for several reasons, foremost of which is that it's too expensive to afford a thirty-second spot, let alone one hundred thirty-second spots. What then? Well, if you've ever watched Survivor, you've seen the clever placement of soft drinks under the palms or the use of cars as prizes. If you've seen American Idol, you've seen Ford cars and Coca-Cola integrated into the shows—not as commercials but as what is termed product placement. An early example of product placement in movies is the 1949 film Love Happy, in which Harpo Marx cavorts on a rooftop among various billboards and at one point escapes from the villains on the old Mobil meme, the "Flying Red Horse." Clorox didn't get all that camera time in Million Dollar Baby by accident. And box after box of Kleenex adorning the set of The Aviator was no coincidence. And let's not forget AOL as the technostar of You've Got Mail or Reese's Pieces as a star of E.T. It's happening. Get to know it.
If you're going to give it a try, keep in mind that the best product placement in a film or a TV show incorporates the product or service into the film so that it is central to the plot and not obvious commercialism. Speaking of that topic, Ford was the king of the road in 2005, with its vehicles being showcased in nineteen films. But the king of product placement seems to be Gatorade, which seems to love show biz and sports biz.
Product placement seems to be a clever way to bypass TIVOing and taping and other forms of commercial avoidance. As those forms proliferate, you'll be seeing more product placement—to the point that eventually, you'll become immune to seeing it. To some marketers, that means disaster; to others, that their product is now part of the cultural landscape.
Do keep in mind that you must have a great product or service for TV to do its job for you. This century appears to be shaping up as one that responds most to the basics. The hot buttons will be the functionally elegant, plain and simple, healthy and sensible, politically correct, environmentally responsible, what is good for America, and what is solidly positioned as midprice.
Once you have offerings that live up to these consumer demands, TV can be most effective for you, the guerrilla. That's when to use and not to abuse TV.
Outdoor advertising consists of billboards, bus ads, taxi signs, painted walls, and outdoor signs. I guess it also includes skywriting, since that never occurs indoors. Still, let's deal with billboards first. Rare is the entrepreneur who can survive on billboard advertising alone—although it can be done. Billboard advertising—and to use the term advertising is somewhat of an overstatement—is really reminder advertising for the most part. It works best when combined with advertising through other media.
Each year, a Des Moines, Iowa, entrepreneur runs a month-long, one-cent-sale promotion on the radio and in newspapers. He also supports the radio and newspaper advertising for a month each year with billboards. His sales rise an average of 18 percent. With billboards alone, this would never happen. But the billboards add an important ingredient to his marketing mix. He uses them only once a year to promote his furniture business. They work wonderfully.
Billboard advertising doesn't have to be strictly reminder advertising. In some instances, it can lead directly to sales. In regard to this, let me tell you the two most important words you can use on a billboard. They aren't at all like the high-motivation words discussed earlier—not that obvious. The two magic words that can spell instant success for you if used on a billboard are next exit. If you can use them on your billboard, they may do a great job of marketing for you. For example, a new store in the San Francisco Bay Area could afford only one billboard. That billboard, fortunately, was able to display the words next exit. Success came rapidly and overwhelmingly. Of course, the store had to do everything else right to succeed, and it did. But the billboard gets the prime credit. If you can't use these two words, these three also work well: two miles ahead.
Most of the time, you cannot lease only one billboard. You will usually have to rent ten or twenty billboards at once. Some are in winning locations; some are sure-fire losing locations. You must take the bad with the good. However, through cogent arguing or a loophole in the billboard firm's policies, you may be able to lease just one beautifully located billboard. If ever you can, do it. Otherwise, be careful. Consider using billboards if you have a restaurant, tourist attraction, garage, gas station, motel, or hotel. Be wary of billboard advertising if your business doesn't have instant appeal to motorists. If you have a car wash that is at the next exit, a billboard might just be the ticket. If you own a computer-education firm, forget it. A billboard can, however, help you maintain your identity if your identity is established.
McDonald's maintains its golden arches identity with billboards. Words aren't even necessary. If you're thinking about using billboards simply as reminders and haven't invested a lot in your identity, as McDonald's has, scratch the idea from your marketing plan.
To ascertain whether a billboard might work for you, find out how many cars pass the billboard site each day. This is known in the business as the traffic count. Billboard firms have the data at their fingertips. What type of traffic passes by? Trucks won't be able to patronize your car wash. On the other hand, homeward-bound affluent suburbanites may be interested in your take-home restaurant.
When planning a billboard, keep the rules for outdoor signs in mind. Rarely use more than six words. Remember that people are probably driving around fifty-five miles per hour or are negotiating in traffic when they glance, if they glance at all, at your billboard. Keep it simple for them. Give them one large graphic on which they can concentrate. Be sure that the type is clear and large. If the traffic count remains more or less the same at night, be sure that your board is illuminated. That costs more than a non-illuminated board but may be worth the extra bucks.
Billboard companies are open to price negotiation, although they may not appreciate my putting that in print. They are also amenable to location negotiation. Once I wanted a specific location and was told that in order to get it, I'd have to rent nine other billboards—all in dismal locations. I said I wasn't interested.
A couple of weeks later, I was offered the billboard along with only four other locations, also dismal. Again, I said no. Finally, the sales rep called me to say that I could have the one location I wanted but that the price would be significantly higher than originally quoted. It would have been a good deal, and I wished I could have said yes. But by this time, my client's monies had been committed. So we all lost out. Too bad the rep hadn't made me the same offer in the beginning. I could have used "next exit" on the billboard and had one more success story to report here.
Billboards can do more than attract direct sales on occasion. Billboards also help when you are new to an area and want to make your presence known and when you want to tie in with a unique advertising campaign or promotion.
One of the more attractive aspects of billboard advertising is that if you supply the design, the billboard company will produce the billboard for you, blowing the artwork up to a size that will fit on the billboard. Billboard sizes are measured in sheets. The usual size is a twenty-four-sheet, with one sheet approximating the size of a large poster.
Whatever you do, make sure that your billboard fits in with the rest of your advertising campaign. The Iowa man was able to present his message in six words on his immensely successful billboard only because the message had been explained more fully elsewhere. A guerrilla uses billboards like darts. A guerrilla says "next exit," "two miles," or "five minutes ahead"; ties his or her billboard in directly with a strong campaign; or uses a single billboard with surgical precision. No guerrilla uses a "next exit" billboard for the usual one month or three months. After testing the merits of a billboard, a guerrilla signs a one-, three-, or five-year contract for such a board. A guerrilla contracts with a billboard company to erect a billboard in a place where "next exit" can be used, if one does not yet exist there. And a guerrilla still realizes that a great billboard isn't much more than a great reminder.
I suggest that you avoid the use of billboards unless there is a compelling reason to use them. Drive around your community and carefully note the local companies that use billboards. Then talk to the owners of those companies and find out whether the billboards work. Unless you are in a business that competes with theirs, you'll probably get a straight answer.
Call the billboard representatives in your area and listen to their sales pitches. Perhaps they can enlighten you as to special opportunities, new boards to be erected, or chances to go in on billboards with other companies. Maybe you won't be persuaded to use even a small billboard in your marketing plan. But you've nothing to lose by talking with them. So do it. Better yet, listen to them. If you have a well-known theme, billboards might be for you. As with many other marketing media, it may be worth your while to test their efficacy. Different towns respond in different ways to billboards. Maybe you live in a town that gets motivated by billboards. Los Angeles seems to be the billboard capital of the universe, with a multitude of ornate moving billboards in high-traffic locations—all heralding movies, stars, shows—but never Preparation H. Maybe you are located near a street that is ideal for a billboard. If that's the case, I recommend testing. If you test a billboard for a month or two and nothing happens, you're not out all that much money. But if you never give it a try, and then your biggest competitor tries billboards and goes to glory with them, you'll kick yourself from now till Sunday.
Billboard marketing is, almost without exception, share-of-mind advertising. This type of advertising attempts to win sales down the road by implanting a thought or establishing an identity. It tries to win for you a continually increasing share of the minds of the people in your marketing area. It does not normally prove effective in a hurry, cannot be translated into results, and is profitable only in the long run, if ever.
Share-of-market advertising, on the other hand, attempts to win instant sales. It tries to win for you a continually increasing share of whatever market your offering belongs to. Share-of-market advertising is the most effective, the most instantly translated into results, and the most profitable in the short run. Most entrepreneurs are a bit too concerned with cash to worry about shares of minds. They want increased shares of markets, and they want them right now. So consider using billboards, but don't expect to attract highly motivated prospects through them.
You can expect about the same, perhaps a little more, from bus signs, both interior and exterior, and interior or exterior taxi signs. Such signs may be used as part of a marketing plan that calls for the use of signs in targeted urban areas. These moving signs are seen by many people, many of whom may be serious prospects. Taxi signs are seen by people throughout the metropolitan area. Bus signs are usually seen by the same people—bus riders and people who live along the route. Of course, taxis don't always travel the same routes buses do. But this should be kept in mind if you're thinking about using both bus signs and taxi signs.
A client of mine enjoyed a great deal of success attracting temporary office workers with signs placed inside buses. The client was an agency that supplied these workers for large employers, and the signs were designed to appeal to both the workers and the employers. If your product or service is located near a bus line, you should consider placing signs on that particular bus line—on the exterior of the buses. Such signs will not serve as a complete marketing plan, but they can be an effective part of one.
We have already chronicled the successes of Harold's Club, Wall Drugs, and Burma-Shave, enterprises that used outdoor signs. What makes a good outdoor sign? Readability. Warmth. Good location. Uniqueness. An identity that matches that of your business. Clarity from afar, from moving vehicles, on dark nights. Good colors. Clear and unmistakable connection with your other marketing.
Make certain that your sign communicates what your business is all about. For instance, "Moore's" tells us a lot less than "Moore's Stationery." To gain community acceptance, try to have your sign designed so that it fits in with the character of the community. Garish signs may be dandy in some locations and horrid in others. A large neon sign, like one you'd see in Las Vegas, would win nothing but enemies for the advertiser in my community. Conservative signs may be just the ticket on some streets but a ticket to doom on others. Be sensitive to the tastes of your community.
What makes a bad outdoor sign? Lack of clarity. Lack of uniqueness. Fancy lettering. Bland colors. Tiny words. Improper placement. Little connection with your other marketing.
Don't allow yourself to be hemmed in by a small imagination. But remember that advertising seen by speeding motorists has less impact than advertising seen by relaxed prospects—the type that might take the time to read a direct mailing from you.
Attention all guerrillas! Direct marketing is where it's at. Direct marketing is the name of your game. Direct marketing has a built-in mirror that reflects the true effectiveness of your advertising message. All other forms of marketing have much to be said for them, but direct marketing has more. All other forms of marketing can help you immensely, but direct marketing can help you more.
Direct marketing refers to direct-mail, e-mail, Web site, mail-order, or coupon advertising, as well as to telephone marketing, direct-response TV, postcard decks, door-to-door salespeople, home shopping TV shows, or any method of marketing that attempts to make a sale right then and there. Direct marketing doesn't require a middleman. It doesn't require a store. Because direct marketing requires only a seller and a buyer, much unnecessary game playing is removed from the marketing process, leaving only accountable results. Let me repeat that word: accountable. When you run a radio commercial or a newspaper ad, you do all in your power to make sure that it works, but you don't really know whether it does. But when you engage in direct-mail advertising, you'll know clearly whether your mailing worked. If it worked, you'll know how well it worked. And if it failed, you'll know how dismally it failed.
Direct mail doesn't always make the sale all by itself, but it obtains crucial leads that result in sales. A huge 89 percent of marketing directors use it to generate leads; 48 percent use it to generate sales.
Along with its all-important accountability, direct marketing has some other advantages over other advertising media.
1. You can achieve more accurately measured results.
2. You can be as expansive or as concise as you wish.
3. You can zero in on almost any target audience.
4. You can personalize your marketing like crazy.
5. You can expect the highest of all response rates.
6. You can use unlimited opportunities for testing.
7. You can enjoy repeat sales to proven customers.
8. You can compete with, even beat, the giants.
Along with those eight advantages come eight rules of thumb.
1. Concentrate on the most important element: the right list.
2. Make it easy for the recipient to take action.
3. Keep in mind that letters almost always outpull mailing packages with no letters.
4. Understand that the best buyers are those who have bought by mail before, a rapidly growing number.
5. Do anything to get your envelope opened.
6. Make sure to keep good records.
7. To improve your response rate, use testimonials.
8. Remember that nothing is as simple as it seems.
In true guerrilla fashion, I also offer you seven tips for gaining the response rate you want with direct mail.
1. The headline of your brochure should ask for the order.
2. The copy should always tell the person what to do next.
3. Blue is a dandy second color, but red with black is generally the best-pulling direct-mail combination.
4. Red can be overused; use it primarily for highlights.
5. Experts say that the four most important elements in direct mail are the list, the offer, the copy, and the graphics. Guerrillas pay close attention to each.
6. The fastest-growing segment of the direct-mail industry is nontraditional mailers—those who haven't used direct mail in the past.
7. Direct-mail success comes with the cumulative effect of repeat mailings. Make them repetitive yet different from one another.
Guerrillas realize that when it comes to determining the normal percentage of return on direct mail, there is none. You'll have to determine your own, then go about improving it—the name of the game in direct mail.
Keep in mind that with postal rates rising, amateurs are being forced away from direct mail and opting for e-mail, leaving a lush new universe for guerrillas.
To a guerrilla, marketing is part art and part science. Direct mail is more science than art. This is not to downplay the art of creating a successful direct-mail package. But let's focus on the science, the things we already know. For instance, we know that the three most important things to do if you are to succeed at direct marketing are to test, test, and test. If you know that and do that, you are on the right road. If you play it by ear, you will probably fall on your ear. With a mailing, you have a good chance of getting through to people. Studies reveal that 60 percent of people say of direct mail, "I usually read or scan it"; 31 percent say, "I read some of it, don't read some of it"; 9 percent say, "I don't read any of it." The bottom line: You have a shot at reaching 91 percent of your audience. That's a healthy number.
Current estimates say that people get twenty direct mailings each day and that only 50 percent of direct mail gets through to the boss; the other 50 percent is handled by assistants—the gatekeepers of industry. Guerrillas know how gatekeepers make their decisions. Those protectors of the boss's time want to know whether (1) it's a credible offer from a credible firm, (2) the subject matter is relevant to the boss and the company, and (3) the mailing is personal or business.
Guerrillas know to shorten their copy when writing to high-level executives (two or three paragraphs maximum). Guerrillas also make sure that a high-level executive signs any letters directed to other top execs. The title "account executive" really doesn't cut it anymore. Sometimes, guerrillas send a mailing in a box because it is just too tempting to ignore. And when they absolutely positively want their mailing to get through to the recipient, they pop for the cost of Federal Express, UPS, or DHL.
More on the science of direct mail is embodied in the 60-30-10 rule. Sixty percent of your direct-mail program depends on your using the right list of people; 30 percent depends on your making the right offer; 10 percent depends on your creative package. You can make it creative if you take to heart these three tips.
1. Brightly colored envelopes grab attention. Although red and blue are time-honored direct-mail colors, the twenty-first century is proving that silver, gold, mauve, yellow, orange, and pink merit consideration, too. But white is always a safe, good bet.
2. Oversized addressing stimulates the unconscious pleasure people gain from seeing their name in print. The larger, the better.
3. A white #10 (business-size) envelope with a first-class stamp and no return address is especially intriguing and gets rave notices when it comes to response rates. Look into it (that's a guerrilla hint to test it).
There are many reasons to do a direct mailing. And when you think of mailing, don't always think of mass mailing. As a guerrilla, you write letters to
• Follow up on a salesperson's call
• Set up an appointment
• Apologize for something you may have done wrong
• Compliment someone for something
• Recognize an anniversary of almost anything
• Celebrate holidays—Christmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, Passover, and Easter, for instance
• Solidify telephone contact
• Thank someone for seeing your demo or hearing your presentation
• Thank someone for making a purchase
• Thank someone for his or her time, even if the person turned down your offer
• Thank someone for giving you a referral
• Applaud someone for a job well done
• Reiterate how much you've enjoyed working with someone
• Congratulate someone on a promotion or a new job
• Mention that you saw the person in the news (enclose the clipping)
• Congratulate someone on a special achievement
• Thank a person for doing a favor
• Thank someone for exceptional service
• Let a person know that you appreciate his or her product or service
• Thank a person for his or her time or effort
• Express regrets if they are merited
• Thank someone for inviting you to something
• Tell somebody you hope that he or she gets well
• Express condolences
• Congratulate someone on a new baby, marriage, or new home
• Recognize a person's birthday
• Announce a new product or service
• Give advance notice of a discount
• Sell something
If you send a letter about these topics, this letter will be more warmly received.
The complete honesty that results from direct-mail marketing is invaluable. Because it is so accountable, it lets you know whether you have done a good job making your offer, pricing your merchandise, constructing your mailing package, writing your copy, timing your mailing, or selecting your mailing list. Soon after you have accomplished your mailing, you learn whether it worked or failed. That's what I mean by accountability.
Before studying the secrets imparted in these pages, you must honestly ask yourself whether your product or service lends itself to direct marketing. Only after you are satisfied that you ought to proceed into the world of direct marketing should you take the next step—understanding the relationship of direct-response advertising to non-direct-response advertising.
If you don't know about direct-response marketing, you don't know about marketing. According to technical experts in the field, direct marketing is not a fancy term for mail order but rather is an interactive system of marketing that uses one or more advertising media to effect a measurable response and/or transaction at any location. We have the magazine Direct Marketing to thank for this definition.
The same publication reminds us that marketing is all the activities involved in moving goods and services from seller to buyer. Then Direct Marketing makes a crucial distinction. It says that direct marketing has the same broad function as standard marketing but also requires the maintenance of a database. This database records the names of customers, prospects, and former customers. It serves as a vehicle for storing, then measuring, the results of direct-response advertising. The database also provides a way to store, then measure, purchasing performance. And finally, the database is a way to continue direct communication by mail and/or telephone.
Risk-wary advertisers are shying away from the mass-market media, choosing instead to target their prospects directly. These advertisers might have invested $0.50 a person to reach a general audience in the past, but in the first decade of the twenty-first century, they're putting up $1 or more for someone whose demographic and economic profile indicates predisposition to making a purchase. Literally hundreds of millions of people watch Home Shopping Network, Cable Value Network, QVC Network, and a host of others. And those numbers are growing, along with the mailing lists compiled by the home shopping networks.
If you have the soul of a guerrilla, you will have been compiling your own mailing list from the day your business began. The list should naturally start with your own customers. From there, expand it to include people who have recently moved into your area and those who have recently been married or divorced or become parents. Eliminate people who have moved away—a full 25 percent of Americans, nearly one in four, moved in 2005.
You might engage in a simple direct mailing of postcards to customers, informing them of a sale you'll have the next week. They will appreciate the early notification and might show their gratitude by purchasing from you. You might also engage in a full-scale direct mailing, using what is known as the "classic package," which consists of an outer envelope, a direct-mail letter, a brochure, an order form, a return envelope (maybe postpaid, maybe not), and other marketing materials.
In the interest of making direct mail a money maker for your company, I offer these insights.
• Print your most important sentences in a second color to increase sales enough to warrant the extra money. Be sure to choose a bright, pleasing color.
• Restate your main offer on your response form. The repetition will motivate the reader.
• Use illustrations or photos in your letter to improve your response rate. Just be sure that the graphic element adds to the offer or the promise.
• Avoid the worst months for direct mail: March, May, and June; the best months are January, February, and October. The period January through March is best for business direct mail.
• Juice up your offers—and response rates—with free gifts for ordering, a photo of the free gift on the envelope, or a free trial of their product or service. Something free always aids in marketing.
• Update your mailing list. If it hasn't been updated in two years, you've got to figure that 20 percent of it is probably decayed or out of date. Assume that 10 percent of addresses go bad every year.
• Always do a few intensive hours of research before you write even the first word of your letter. Ask some current customers what they like about doing business with you, and begin your letter with those benefits.
• Find a new and appealing way to bundle your products or services. Offer special payment terms or a unique guarantee. One guerrilla offers a five-year guarantee in a field where others offer a one-year guarantee. It pays off handsomely in his response rates and doesn't come back to haunt him.
• Think short. Use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs. Author James Michener, among others, said that the job of the writer is to use ordinary words to convey extraordinary ideas. People won't read a letter that is not easy to read. Life is tough enough without your letter contributing to the complexity.
• Count the number of yous and yours in the letter. It should have at least twice as many yous and yours than I's and me's. A ratio of four to one is even better.
• In your letter, write about your customers' dreams and problems. List the solutions you can provide to those problems and benefits that you offer.
• Don't mail your letter right after you write it. Let it sit a day or two. Then rewrite it. Make it shorter, simpler, more clear, and more compelling. Show it to customers. If they say, "Wonderful letter," thank them politely. If they say, "Where can I get one of these?" you know you've got a winner.
• Be brutally honest with yourself in determining whether you vividly state what it is you are offering and how a reader can accept your offer. Some guerrillas show their letters to a child because kids can often see the obvious before adults can.
• Send a test mailing and measure the results. A few dozen or a few hundred letters will give you a good feeling for the response you can expect. You'll get it—or not get it—in a hurry. If the mailing earned more profits for you than you would have earned if you had spent your time and money in other ways, smile widely and accept my congratulations.
In the old days, a direct-mail campaign meant a letter. Today, it means a letter, two or three or five follow-up letters, two more e-mails, perhaps a follow-up phone call or two, and finally, one more direct-mail letter. Many entrepreneurs engage in weekly or monthly direct mailings.
You have a multitude of decisions to make when you embark on a mailing, so it is crucial that you know the right questions to ask. In addition to deciding about your mailing list, offer, and financial projections, you'll have to decide whether to mail first class or third class. Will you personalize your mailing? Will you have a toll-free number available for ordering? Which credit cards will you accept? Will you need to alter your pricing because you'll be selling direct? This seemingly simple subject becomes more complex as you learn more about it.
The envelope for a direct mailing merits a chapter of its own. Executives should not be sent envelopes with address labels. For maximum response, their names must be typed on the envelope. And for selling stationery, feminine products, or political candidates or causes, a handwritten envelope provides a wonderfully personal tone. Envelopes can be standard size (#10) or oversize (6 inches by 9 inches), manila, covered with gorgeous art, foil-lined, or window-type. They can have a return address, or, to pique curiosity, omit the return address.
One of the best devices you can use on an envelope is a teaser —a copy line that compels the recipient to open the envelope. Examples of successful teasers are:
FREE! A microcalculator for you.
Want to get your hands on $10,000 extra cash?
The most astonishing offer of the year. Details inside.
As you can see, there are myriad ways to get a person to open an envelope. And that is the purpose of the envelope: to interest the recipient so that he or she will open it and read the contents.
Guerrillas know that people read the addressee name first, then they look at the teaser copy, and finally they read to see who sent it. Was it the Office of the President? The Awards Committee? The IRS? If it has the name of the person's bank, it usually gets opened. No teaser is needed. I doubt that the IRS needs one, either.
When planning your envelope, determine the needs and wants of your target audience. Remember that you can use the back of the envelope; 75 percent of the people holding it will read it. Figure that you have three seconds to get them to open it. Say something enticing to motivate that action, such as
• Free gift enclosed
• Money-saving offer inside
• Wealth-building secrets for the new millennium
• Private information for your eyes only
• Did you know you can double your profits?
• What every business like yours needs to know...
• How to add new profits for only six cents a day
• See inside for exciting details on [virtually anything]
• Read what's in store for you—this week only!
The idea of teaser copy is not to be cute, clever, or fancy. The job is to be provocative, to entice the recipient into opening the envelope. Yes, it's only an envelope, but guerrillas know that it's often the key to a successful or a failed mailing.
Naturally, people are quick to open priority and express mail. But it costs a lot to send—unless you're a guerrilla. Envelopes that look like priority and express envelopes and that are approved by the U.S. Postal Service are available to be sent first class or bulk rate. To get a free sample, call Response Mail Express at 800-795-2773. If it's important to you to get your envelope opened, you'll call that number.
Some guerrillas call attention to their mailings by printing them on pieces of wood, jewelry boxes, CD cases, brown bags, greeting cards, pieces of plastic, or paint cans. Others include something bulky in their envelopes: an audiotape, a coin, a piece of gum, a magnetic business card, a balloon. However, when all is said, done, and mailed, you must get the order with the letter you've written when your envelope is opened.
Include a P.S. in your letter. The P.S. is read with regularity (more often than is body copy). Many direct mailings now include what are known as lift letters —little notes that might say something like, "Read this only if you have decided not to respond to this offer." Inside is one more attempt to make the sale, probably a handwritten message, called a buck slip, signed by the company president.
Adding a P.S. can be used in these seven ways.
1. Motivate the prospect to take action. Do all you can to overcome procrastination and get the person to order this very moment.
2. Reinforce your offer. Make the same offer you made in your letter, but do it more cogently and urgently. If you have a solid offer, this is the safest use of a P.S.
3. Emphasize or introduce a premium or bonus. This might get folks off the fence and right onto your customer list. People love freebies.
4. Emphasize the price or terms of your offer. If your price or payment plans are the heart of your offer, dramatize them in your P.S.
5. Introduce a surprise benefit. This might be just the ticket to move people from apathy to enthusiasm. It's also a place to restate the primary benefit you offer and why it's so darned important.
6. Stress the tax deductibility of the purchase. Everybody loves a good deduction, so if your product or service cost is honestly deductible, say so in the P.S.
7. Highlight your guarantee. Don't take it for granted, but instead, present it with excitement and enthusiasm.
Guarantee what you are selling, because you are not as in touch with customers as you would be with a store-sold product or service, and they will want the reassurance of a guarantee. You've got to do all you can to remove any possible perception of risk.
The most effective direct-mail efforts allow people to buy with credit cards. "Bill me" also works well as a rule. An element of urgency, such as "offer expires in one week," increases the response even more. Guerrillas always put a time limit on their direct-mail offers.
Whatever you do, make your offer clear, repeat it several times, keep your message as short as possible, and ask for the order. Don't pussyfoot around. Ask people to do exactly what you wish them to do. Then ask them again.
I also recommend listing toll-free phone numbers, which can triple the response rate or even better. Every day, three-quarters of a million Americans order $225 million worth of merchandise by phone!
When you create a direct-mail ad with a coupon, make it a miniature version of your ad, complete with headline, benefit, and offer. In short, make it a brief summary of the advertisement. Some direct-mail pros write their coupons or response devices before they write their ads. This is called working backward, and guerrillas see the wisdom in it. Working backward helps you immensely when you write the letter or brochure, because it helps you remember what you want the recipient to do.
If you're up and running with direct mail, you know the importance of delivering orders within one week of receiving the order (and less time than that for phone, fax, and online orders).
Answer all customer inquiries within one week (again, faster if they used a speedy technology; autoresponders let you respond within seconds to Internet orders). Guerrillas never offer merchandise that isn't in stock and on hand for instant delivery. They want profits, not enemies. And they also have on hand the information that customers need. Every order is treated like a rush order. Most guerrillas are able to handle calls without putting people on hold. I recently received a postcard informing me of a special rate if I resubscribed to a magazine. I called the 800 number to sign up and was put on hold. I tossed the postcard and hung up the phone.
Where should your mail-order ad appear in a publication? The best place, although relatively expensive, is the back page of a newspaper or magazine—where response can be as much as 150 percent greater than from the same ad inside the publication.
When you consider direct marketing, always consider including an insert with your bill. People certainly open bills, so they'll probably see your insert. And you'll get a free ride, because the bill is paying the postage for the insert. Another type of insert is the freestanding type that often appears in newspapers or magazines. These are known to be effective. Check with your newspaper or magazine rep to find out about their services with regard to inserts.
What's even more effective than a direct-mail letter? A direct-mail postcard—because people don't get to decide whether to open the envelope and because you can make the offer so concise that they don't get to decide whether to read the copy. Guerrillas also like postcard mailings because they cost nearly one-third less than letter mailings and because their computers can churn them out in a manner some people find akin to printing money. Postcards are great for saying thank you, reminding customers of their next appointment, and announcing a killer discount, new product, or valuable service. Consider using oversized (6 inches by 9 inches) postcards as well as high-impact full-color postcards. They should convey your identity and your attitude. Psssst: Do yourself a favor. Look into audiopostcards, talking postcards sent via e-mail. They're enticingly described and demonstrated at audiogenerator.com.
Dare I add tips to help you succeed? Of course I dare. Take heed of these pointers, and see the difference in your response rate.
• Decide exactly to whom you should be mailing. Do this first and do it right; if you do it wrong, nothing else will go as you wish.
• Decide which specific action you want your recipient to take.
• Create an outer envelope that will get opened.
• Come up with an offer your prospects can't possibly ignore.
• Write a first line and a P.S. that compel your prospect to read your letter.
• Describe your offer in the most enticing terms possible.
• Explain the results your offer will deliver, focusing on the main benefit.
• Explain why your offer makes so much sense to your prospect.
• Give your prospect other key benefits of accepting your offer.
• Show that you know who your prospect is.
• Describe the key features of what you are offering.
• Make it irresistible to take action right now.
• Tell your prospects the exact steps to take.
• Set measurable goals for yourself.
• Make a plan for your follow-up—by either mail or phone.
• Track your results precisely.
• Improve your results by increasing what's working and eliminating what's not.
• Consider bolstering your mailing with an e-mail or fax or with overnight mail.
• Identify new markets that you can tap.
• Increase your sales and profits by improving all your copy.
I'm certainly not suggesting that you give your prospects your home phone number. I do know a guerrilla who includes hers on her business cards—and she encloses a card in every piece of mail she sends. She sends a personal letter to 25 customers each week and a warm and friendly form letter to 1,500 customers each month.
Catalogs are a different ballgame—part of direct mail, to be sure, but a very different part. As your business grows, you may want to send a catalog to spur your direct marketing. When you do decide to market with a catalog, be absolutely certain that it has the right positioning, the right merchandise selection, the right kind of merchandise, the right graphics, the right use of color, the right size (thirty-two pages is considered optimum), the right headlines, the right subheads, the right copy, the right sales stimulators, and the right order forms. Formulate your projections correctly. Other than this, direct marketing with catalogs is a piece of cake.
Direct mail via catalogs does mean higher costs for both paper and postage. Be sure to factor in all the numbers when you decide to publish and distribute a catalog.
If you run a mail-order business, your catalog will be the heart of your business—it will be a mighty contributor to your bottom line. The success of your mail-order catalog will depend on customers with whom you've already had one or more satisfactory transactions. Those customers, when they receive your catalog, will trust you and will have confidence in your offerings.
Be prepared to invest in your catalog. A friend of mine who ran a successful mail-order company ($2 million in sales, with $500,000 in marketing expenses) spent 50 percent of his marketing money on direct mail, 30 percent on catalogs, and 20 percent on mail-order ads. Did he believe in catalogs? You bet! He changed his marketing budget so as to spend 15 percent of his marketing money on mail-order ads, 20 percent on direct mail, and 65 percent on catalogs. He learned that his catalogs were the most important selling tools he had. In fact, he used to say that he was in the catalog business rather than the mail-order business. My friend became a millionaire in the business, so take heed.
Think of your catalog as a specialized form of direct mail. It's a store on paper—a complete presentation of your merchandise. The items in your catalog should reflect the interests of your audience and should be similar in nature.
To print a catalog, you should have about 25,000 customers. That's a lot. But if you want to earn a whale of a lot of money, you'll have to start developing a customer list that long. The big money—the truly large sums—will come to you when you send those customers your catalog. What if you don't have 25,000 customers? Create an inexpensive catalog, perhaps a minicatalog of eight pages with black-and-white photos.
Once designed, a catalog can be printed for 5,000 customers or 5 million customers. However, the amount of work required to prepare the catalog for the printer makes it cost-ineffective unless you print 25,000 copies. It's only a rule of thumb, but it's a good one.
If you purchase outside lists, even exceptional ones, don't figure on a return that is more than 85 percent of that realized from your own list. Test other lists carefully before plunging in. And whatever you do, mail your catalog before Christmas. People want to buy at that time, and you've blown an important opportunity if you don't mail then. Everybody mails their catalogs at that time, but they do so because people are buying before the holidays. The infamous bank robber Willie Sutton said, when asked why he robbed banks, "Because that's where the money is." Holiday time is when the money is.
Your copy should be simple, straightforward, and concise. Provide the facts and the benefits. Describe the features. It's better to answer any questions that may come rather than to be too brief. If you can write the copy yourself, do so.
What do people like about catalogs?
• Convenience (36 percent)
• More variety (19 percent)
• Low prices (17 percent)
• High quality offered (6 percent)
• "Other" or nothing listed (22 percent)
After the 78 percent who have good things to say about catalogs finish reading or ordering from them, what do they do with them? Forty-two percent save them; 41 percent toss them; 10 percent pass them on; 7 percent say "it depends."
If you're thinking of mailing a catalog, follow these guerrilla guidelines.
• Set specific objectives on what the catalog should do for your business.
• Define your audience so that you know who will receive your catalog; that helps in creating and producing it.
• Preplan all the elements of your catalog before going into production: products, prices, fulfillment, and more.
• Make all the hard decisions up front: which products to include, which to exclude, how production will be handled.
• If possible, group your offerings into clearly defined categories so that the catalog is not a hodgepodge.
• Make a rough outline of the contents of your catalog, including everything you wish to have in it—everything.
• Determine the exact format you want: size, typeface, color or black and white, paper stock, binding.
• Make a layout that is organized, logical, and pleasing to the eye of your target audience. Think of their eyes only.
• Plan, write, and perfect the copy. Then set up a timetable and stick with it.
As you can tell, the business of producing and mailing catalogs is complex. But after the first year, it is exceptionally profitable—if you do it right. If you think that you might ever offer a catalog, start putting your name on as many catalog mailing lists as possible. Then you can expect your mailbox to be filled with five examples every day but Sunday.
Keep in mind that the number of Americans ordering at least one thing from a catalog is fast approaching 97 percent, and the percentage continues to grow. There must be a reason.
American catalog companies are now being counseled that if their catalogs draw 1 percent or 2 percent in the United States, they can draw between 10 percent and 20 percent in new markets where competing catalogs aren't around and catalog glut is no problem. If this helps you think more globally or give more serious consideration to putting a catalog up on the Internet, you're thinking like a guerrilla. You can also inexpensively create a catalog on your Web site.
Even if it isn't practical for you to use catalogs, I hope that you will try direct mail if it is at all feasible for your business. Try a small number of mailings first. Test always. Learn from each test. In truth, if you break even while testing, you are doing fine. The goal is to come up with a formula that can be repeated and expanded. If you ever obtain a publicity story about your business, consider enclosing reprints of it in a mailing.
In my own experience as an entrepreneur and as a direct-response specialist, I have found that envelopes with teaser lines get a better response than those without. I have found that short letters work better than long letters, that long brochures work better than short brochures, that postcards often make superb mailers all by themselves. I have learned that it is worth the time to check out many lists before selecting one and that one's own customer list is a gold mine when it comes to direct mail. I know that a single mailing isn't nearly as effective as a mailing with one, two, or more follow-ups and that a mailing with a phone follow-up is frequently best of all.
A guerrilla will either realize that direct marketing is not the way for his or her business to proceed or will use direct marketing with intelligence, reading books about it, talking with direct-marketing pros, and making it his or her most cost-effective marketing method. Strange as it may seem, the majority of people like to receive mailings from businesses; don't feel self-conscious, and put the U.S. Postal Service to work for you.
If you've got this feeling that all direct marketing is going to be changed by the Internet, you're thinking the right way. In fact, to alert you to more valuable information about direct mail, I call your attention to Direct Mail News on the Internet at dmnews.com. Then, I rest my case.