Think for a moment some day and consider kind of advertising you see in your post box, on TV, on your computer, on radio, etc. Then ask yourself this question, "Would I buy this or not?" If you say "No," then ask yourself why. If you say "Yes," then ask yourself why.

Consider what is it that makes this advert attractive or what is it that this person’s offer is deemed to be unattractive. By carrying out this exercise regularly you will be surprising yourself with what you will notice about advertising.

Most advertising you see today is written poorly. It confuses potential customer, it does not paint a desired picture in their mind, it does not give him or her a good reason to order product now and, it focuses on features rather than benefits of products/services. Many businesses failures can be tracked back to poor advertising although it should be mentioned that there are many other reasons for failure.

If you want to stay in business, you must learn how to advertise effectively and how to produce orders NOW! The aim of this article is to help whoever operates a business to improve his or her advertising technique.

No matter what business you do whether it is as: a shopkeeper, a sandwich bar operator, a business consultant, a window cleaner, or a mail order business, you must learn to create advertising that gets results. If you don’t, your business will be painful and short-lived. Exposure: First of all, let us look at one main reason for advertising. This reason is called exposure. Most television commercials and many newspaper and magazine adverts are made for this purpose. The advertiser wants their name exposed to public and for potential customer to think of them next time they are ready to make a purchase. Large companies are ones who will do this kind of advertising. They have an advertising budget for purpose of constantly exposing their name to public and wait for their orders to come as people become more used to them and their advertising. Typical examples of this type of adverts are those by Coca Cola and Nescafe. Direct response advertising: The type of advertising man/woman in street is interested in is completely different. It is called direct response advertising. In other words, we are advertising and are motivating our readers to order now, to call an order telephone number and order, to mail a coupon (though this is not so common in Cyprus) and order, or to fax in an order.

We advertise a product and service and seek for people to make purchases now. As a small business, a quick way not to succeed is to place full page adverts costing hundreds of pounds without asking for an order NOW! You must cause person to order today if you want to stay in business in any type of display advertising or direct mail.

Classifieds adverts are of a little different nature, but they work on same premise. You don’t ask for a sale right from classified (Which would be a large mistake because there just isn’t enough room in a classified to make sales).

Even asking for one pound in a classified advert reduces your response greatly. You will have them call your telephone number or your e-mail address in which they will receive an offer and a chance to order NOW! In all advertising it is important to ask for order NOW.

Many people have contacted me and said, "I know that I have a wonderful product, but I just can’t figure out why I am not getting any orders." You may be same way. The simple reality is that it does not matter how fantastic your product line is. What matters is if your advertising for product causes people to see themselves using it and that it will benefit them significantly.

Your advertising, not your product in many cases, will determine success or failure of your business. Whilst it is true that your product needs to be very effective (or else you will experience a large number of returns and a short-lived business) your advertising will make or break your business.

Before we spend too much time detailing why you should create effective adverts, one can simplify process by assuming that you want your business to make money. Hence one must write money-grabbing adverts!

Yet, for those of us who still employ offline promotions and advertising methods, we must consider various ways in which we can effectively track our results in old-world media.

TRACKING RESULTS BEFORE THE INTERNET AGE

How long has it been? Ten Years? Believe it or not, it has been less than ten years since Internet went mainstream.

Companies still utilize same methods to track results as they did before we laid our hopes on Digital Superhighway.

TV advertisers ask you to call extension X. Radio advertisers offer you additional savings if you tell them you heard it on XYZ radio station. In newspapers and magazines, advertisers suggest you clip attached coupons.

Why do you think advertisers employ these tactics?

Simple. They need to know what advertising is bringing customers in front door and to their cash register.

By understanding what advertisers are bringing them customers and dollars, they have a better understanding of where to spend their next wave of advertising dollars. Additionally, they can do a side-by-side comparison of their Advertising Return on Investment (ROI) to determine which method brings them most percentage of return per dollar spent.

UNDERSTANDING HOW WE SHOULD MEASURE

The truth is that we really do need to know how people are deciding to visit and buy from our business establishment.

Some consider this idea silly or even a waste of their valuable time. Far too many people, who think of tracking in this fashion, end up searching for a job at some point in their future. Unless pure dumb luck is on side of business owner, a business simply cannot survive if it does not track effectiveness of its advertising.

Somehow, some way, a business owner or his marketing staff must look at their advertising and promotion budgets, and look at their advertising mediums and find a way to know which is doing job for them and which is not.

DISCOVERING WHAT MOTIVATES OUR CUSTOMERS

Somehow, we must get our customers to tell us how they found us and what ad motivated them to come in and purchase our product or service.

Everyday, businesses motivate their customers to tell them how they learned of them by having customer call a certain extension, offer them an additional discount to tell them which advertisement they had heard, or to offer them a coupon to use.

Others motivate their customers to tell them how they had learned of their business by offering a very specific product in their advertising. They know that if someone shows up at their business to buy a certain product, then they will know how person had heard of their business.