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Congratulations!
By deciding to investigate the benefits of television advertising, you are taking the first step to more sales and faster profits. More businesses owners than ever are turning to television as a powerful tool to grow their profits. And it's not the traditional "deep pockets" crowd either. Small and medium sized businesses are flocking to television advertising like never before. Some are coming away battered and bruised. But many are smiling ear to ear because they have unlocked the secrets to television advertising success - on a print or radio budget.
The Golden Rule?
Don't let the tail wag the dog. You need to take control of your journey into television advertising so that it pays off.
Does that mean you have to be an expert?
No. But you do need to know how the industry and the medium work in order to end up with a cost-effective television advertising campaign.
Which is exactly why we prepared "An Insider Guide To Crossing Over To TV Advertising... On A Print Or Radio Budget..And Making Plenty Of Profit!"
It's your GPS to an affordable and profitable TV Advertising experience.
Now is the best time in history for small business owners to use television advertising to explode their sales! Airtime and commercial and television production rates are the most affordable they've ever been! Specialty channels let you laser target your ideal sales prospect.
Television adds a level of credibility to you and your business like no other medium can do.
There's a reason you're seeing video pop up just about everywhere as more and more business owners come to the realization that the more senses you can appeal to, the more likely it is that you can gain a foothold in the most crowded place anywhere - your prospect's mind.
Need any proof? Just look at the absolute astounding success of You Tube. People are attracted to watching video.
Isn't it time you jumped on board and gave it a try?
The 5 secrets revealed below will help you leverage the power of television advertising in your business.
Secret #1 Have A Clear Unique Selling Message
This applies to all your marketing but is especially true when it comes to TV advertising.
You need to provide your prospects with a compelling reason to want to learn more about your product or service.
And, if you're using a 30 or 60 second commercial to achieve this objective, you need to make sure your message is equipped to get your prospect to take the next step in your sales process.
That's why you must have a very clear message.
What is the main benefit, promise or solution you want your prospect to walk away with?
Or, put another way, what is your unique selling proposition (USP)?
It's important to have one otherwise you will have trouble differentiating your offer from those of your competitors.
Not sure how to boil it down to a simple clear message?
You can start by asking and answering the following questions:
Why do people buy from you? Why do people NOT buy from you? Really give this some thought and make a list.
What benefits do clients gain from doing business with you? People buy to gain benefits. What does your product or services DO for them.
What emotional appeal does your product or service have? Does it provide a sense of relief? Make your clients feel a sense of pride? Television provides the perfect forum for hitting your prospect's emotional hot buttons.
What problem do you solve or what need do you fulfill?
Another way to gather ideas for your USP is to survey your current clients.
Ask them WHY they bought from you. Find out what problem you solved for them why did they pick you over the competition? You may be surprised by the answers. People buy for different reasons.
In developing your USP, what you want to do is figure out the most common reason people decided to buy your product or service and then use that insight to create a powerful selling message that makes you stand out.
Don't forget to check out your competitors. Many times what is obvious to you and your competitors, isn't obvious to your potential clients.
And you can use that differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack. Here's an example... Years ago, Folgers coffee decided they needed to increase sales. Competition was everywhere. So what did they do?
They started promoting the fact that Folger's was mountain grown and stamped "Mountain Grown" on their coffee cans. Sales exploded. After all, coffee grown on a mountain simply had to be special. Right?
What the average coffee drinker was unaware of is that fact that MOST coffee is mountain grown. Folger's simply used this little known fact to make itself stand out. The more finely tuned your USP is, the more effective your television campaign will be - and all of your marketing for that matter.
Secret #2 Know Your Ideal Client
Your ability to generate sales leads from your television ad campaign will be greatly enhanced if you have a clear understanding of who your best prospects are and why they buy from you.
Otherwise it's virtually impossible to create an effective television commercial.
This vital knowledge allows you to create a script that speaks to the specific needs of the people most likely to buy your offering and present your unique selling proposition in a compelling way.
Your message resonates and creates a natural attraction. But let's say you're not exactly sure who your ideal client is? Or why they buy? How do you go about finding out?
Well, a quick effective way to do it is to take a look at your current clients. Especially those you really enjoy working with. What do they have in common? Do they share a number of similar characteristics? You may already have a target market and just don't realize it.
Here are just a few "target market" criteria you can use to define your niche.
Age - try to narrow the age group range of your best prospects
Gender - who makes the decision to purchase your products or services? Who might influence it? This is important to know so you can make the right appeal.
Marital status (single, married, divorced)
Household Income. Do your best to estimate the income of your target customer.
Occupation - are your best prospects white collar construction, sales people, entrepreneurs, retired • Geographical region. (ex: Toronto, warm climate, people who live near water)
Lifestyle (professional, conservative, risk-takers)
Company size (self-employed professionals, Fortune 500, companies with $10 Million + in sales)
Industry specific (a marketing consultant who focuses on solo-professionals)
Leisure Time Activities - what do your customers do to relax and have fun? Hobbies? Pastimes? Once you complete your research - combining the information you have about your existing clients along with additional characteristics - you will be able to build your ideal target customer profile. This will give you will have a clearer understanding of the language and tone you should use in your script and what type of information your target market will be looking for.
And it will help pinpoint the type of audience your television commercial should be presented to in order to produce maximum sales results.
Secret #3 Be Involved In the Process
Many small and medium sized companies that shy away from television advertising quickly latch on to the "perceived" high cost (more about this in Secret #5) as a reason they have been reluctant to give it a try.
But there's often another factor lurking in the background that keeps many businesses from enjoying the success a professionally created television commercial can create.
Simply put: for some, making the leap to the world of television advertising can be intimidating.
In print, you write your ad and the publication runs it. In radio, you record your commercial and the station plays it.
With television, there are a lot pieces that need to be pulled together to produce a successful advertising campaign and for those who haven't been through the process before, it can be a real leap of faith.
You need to be a kind of project manager for your television advertising experience. Do you need to be an expert? No. But you do need a sense of what the process involves so you can add to the experience where applicable.
To help you understand the elements that provide the foundation for a successful TV advertising campaign, here is a checklist:
Budget - Many small and medium sized businesses don't realize that the money they are currently investing in radio or print ad campaigns could be used to create an effective television advertising campaign - provided you know the secret (we reveal it in Secret#5) to avoiding one of the major hidden costs TV advertising. Production costs and airtime will be the two main components of your budget.
Script - The script is your ad in words. This is your core selling message. The script dictates who says what, the tone and expressions used, what is seen on screen, who moves when and where. A script will be necessary for your commercial.
Talent - This includes on-camera talent and voiceover talent. The more well-known and in-demand the talent, the more you pay. For many advertisers, local and regional talent will produce a professional result.
Production Elements - You need to decide what kind of graphics, audio, or music you want - along with any other special effects..
Length - Typically, TV commercial spots run 30 seconds. You can also run in 15-second and 60-second increments. An "infomercial" often runs 30 - 60 minutes and costs more to produce and to run.
At the end of the process, your TV commercial should answer one very important question for the viewer:
'What's in it for me?'
The way to answer that question so that both you and your prospect end up with a positive outcome is to make sure your commercial is focused on how the viewer can benefit from your product or service.
No one can sell your offering better than you.
You must use every bit of selling information you can to gain favorable attention immediately with the viewer! Otherwise the viewer will click away and your investment will be wasted.
And last, but definitely not least...
Tell the viewer what you want him/her to do next!
It's incredible how many new TV advertisers (and some longtime veterans) fail to ask the viewer to take the next step in their selling process make this mistake. Do you want them to visit your web site? Pick up a phone and call? Come into your store? You need to lead them to where you want them to go next. Now, let's move on to one of the costliest mistakes television advertisers make along with tips on how you can avoid it.
Secret #4 Be "Marketing Ready" For Your Prospect
Most businesses today use advertising and marketing as a way of initiating a relationship with a prospect. The same is true of television advertising.
After all, a 30 second spot on TV isn't going to answer every question.
If your commercial has done its job, the next step is to invite your prospect to learn more about you can benefit him/her.
This could involve an invitation to visit your web site, pick up a phone and call you or drop by your location.
It's critical to make sure that whatever you ask your prospect to do that you're equipped to keep your prospect moving toward a sale.
This is where many TV advertisers drop the ball and end up wasting their valuable marketing dollars..
Let's use a visit to your web site as an example. We'll assume your prospect has watched your commercial and is shown your web site URL on the screen as it finishes.
Your commercial piqued his curiosity and made him want to know more about you and your offering.
Congratulations. You're past the first hurdle - getting the prospect to take the next step in your selling process.
But that's all you've accomplished at this point.
Now you're moving on to the all-important "conversion" part of the sales process. Tons of visitors to your site won't feed your family, pay your mortgage or let you lie around on the beach in Cabo San Lucas.
For that, you need to convert your prospects initial interest into a sale.
And a web site that doesn't clearly pick up where your television commercial left off by immediately reminding your visitor 'what's in it for him' and presenting your sales story in a compelling way is going to bring a selling opportunity to a grinding halt.
What's the point of tempting a bunch of hungry prospects only to have them arrive and you've nothing to feed them?
Same thing holds true if you want them to call you. Every member of your team who has public contact must be ready to keep the momentum going.
The job of your TV commercial is to attract the fish. The rest of the job - hooking the prospect (in an ethical way, of course) and getting him into the boat and converting him into a lifelong profitable client is the job of your marketing.
You need to make sure your marketing message is consistent throughout ALL your marketing. Otherwise you won't get the ROI you should.
Secret #5 Don't Let Tail Wag The Dog
Television advertising can be rewarding, but you need an experienced hand guiding you past the pitfalls so you can produce a profitable result. So far, we've armed you with the knowledge you need to make sure your television advertising efforts position you for a successful outcome. Now it's time to introduce the key thread that ties it all together. Making sure you partner with an industry professional who knows the ropes. The first place many small and medium size businesses turn for assistance is an advertising agency. A very expensive mistake.
Here's why: Many ad agencies focus on "institutional" type or branding type messaging. They are image builders. While having a professional image is important, most of the businesses flocking to TV advertising these days need sales. You're probably the same. You want viewers to watch your commercial and take the next step in your selling process. Maybe a visit to your web site or a phone call. For that, you need direct response television advertising. And many advertising agencies simply aren't equipped for that. Nor do they know how to "convert" an interested prospect into a profitable lifetime client.
But here's the dirty little secret they hope you won't find out about: Many don't have in-house resources to write your script. Or television production facilities so they can shoot your commercial. Or an editing booth where they can edit your footage. Here's what that means to you... If the ad agencies don't have the resources themselves, they have to go outside, cobble together a team of industry professionals who can and pay them. Guess who gets stuck with all the middleman mark-ups? But this 'don't worry, the client will pay for it' old school mentality doesn't stop there. Once your commercial is ready to air, you need a TV program to run it on. For looking in a book and phoning up to schedule your spots, the ad agency will charge you 15% of your media budget. Is that how you want to spend your valuable media dollars? Having someone round up a bunch of people who can and charge you for doing it? Thought so. Here's an alternative... Creative Bube Tube is a full-service, one source expert at producing direct response television advertising and corporate videos. We work with small and medium size business to help them generate profitable sales. Many of our clients are newbies. But we've opened the eyes of more than a few savvy veterans along the way.
Here are four pillars we've built our business model on:
One Source - Every aspect of your television advertising is handled in-house by our team. This means you avoid the unnecessary added cost mark ups, delays and finger-pointing caused by too many fingers in the pie.
Expertise - We are television advertising experts. Period. It's all we do. And we know how to sell. To you, that means campaigns that not only look professional, they send you a steady stream of qualified prospects.
Cost Efficient - Because we know our craft, we understand how and where to use your budget efficiently - without having to grease the palm of a number of disconnected middlemen. That way, every dollar you invest is working to increase your sales. The media relationships we have built through the years provide you with red carpet access to your target market - for a fraction of the cost you would pay otherwise - with no hidden fees.
Process - The key to effective affordable television advertising is sales driven creative, efficient production, proper planning and organization. That requires precise communication. Everything we do is in-house. We don't outsource your creative to a production company that has no marketing background. Then send the footage after filming to a post-production house. Then hire a media buyer who has likely never even seen any of the creative. Then sit back and watch the confusion, as your budget gets chewed up in a sea of disorganization and chaos. Everyone on our team intimately is involved in your project - from beginning to end.