Great copywriting is one thing. But, what do you do with
ad after you've finished it?For a lot of us it's go to first ad co-operative we can find and place our ad in several different ezines at once and hope for best. But, is that a productive way to advertise?
I don't believe it is.
I remember my first BB Gun. I was eleven years old and my father had bought it for my birthday. You can imagine how excited I was. Now I was one of guys. My friends all had BB Guns. They all had great, and at times very explicit, tales of squirrel hunting. I could have my own great stories now!
Know what my first story was? How my father took it away from me day after he gave it to me. See, my father was a pretty good shot. He has been hunting all his life, was in Marines, and tried to keep his shooting skills with target practice. That first day he took me in back yard, put up a paper target, and started to show me correct stance, how to breathe and aim, how to put slight pressure on trigger, relax my body, and shoot.
It was great. I hit target, even center a few times, more than I missed and I could just see those squirrels falling when I got to hit woods with my friends.
But, I wasn't a good listener. My father gave a very stern warning. "Make sure you know what you're aiming at. And never point your rifle at something if you're not going to shoot."
The next day I went out in backyard for some more target practice and, being a boy, I quickly started shooting other things. One being side of house.
It was an accident, but I failed to listen to my father's warning. I aimed at something on side of house, never really intending to shoot, forgot safety was off, and put a small hole through living room window. Whoops.
Needless to say, I lost my BB Gun for rest of year. And it's a lesson I never forgot.
Advertising Is All About Selective Targeting
Targeting. Don't fire unless you know what you're shooting at. Don't aim at anything unless you intend to shoot.
Words to live by for gun safety and productive advertising.
One of biggest mistakes I find people doing is trying to "force feed" their ads onto anybody and everybody. Every product has an audience and there is an audience for every product.
You need to be selective in your advertising. Advertising is not a carpet bombing campaign. It's all about precision.
So, how do we find that audience?
I remember first time my three year old daughter, Kaitlynn, ordered ice cream herself. She strode very confidently up to Dairy Bar, looked attendant in eye and said, "I want a chocolate ice cream in a bowl, with a spoon, and one napkin please."
She knew exactly what she wanted and would not settle for less.
Advertising in ezines takes that same kind of confidence. You do not go to just any ezine and place an ad. Even if it is to over 200,000 subscribers in several different ezines. You need to know two things;
Who needs your product?
What ezine, or website, has that audience? By going to a "co-op" website and submitting your ad to several different ezines at once you'll probably get some visits, but you severly limit amount of targeted visitors that will buy from you.
She sacrificed other flavors for what she really wanted.
Or, in other words, desired result (wanting chocolate instead of strawberry) was a lot better than settling for a less desirable result.
