Hazen Christensen

We about got into a fight to the death with an ad rep for a client a few days ago. Why? Because ad reps are not marketers and they attempt to give you unwanted bad advertising advice. NO offense to any ad rep that does know what they are actually doing, but many know absolutely nothing about marketing. Many have never studied, created or done ANY advertising themselves. They have not been knee deep in the trenches of entrepreneurship like we have. They do not know what it is like to struggle and risk everything for a dream. They haven’t had to put their OWN money on the table for advertising because they are employees.

This is incredible to me because these are the same people who are advising countless small – large business owners on their “marketing strategies”. Many are just salespeople that “do the ads for marketing or graphic design work.” They have done zero marketing themselves and are not required to know tactics, strategies, case studies, response rates, industry data and research (the list goes on for days…) before they give advertising advice. They couldn’t tell you which fonts increase readership, they can’t show you ANY proof for what they are selling / telling you. They just give their opinion without any reason whatsoever and many people follow along blindly.  WHY? Because most aren’t experts either! That’s why they are seeking out ad space and marketing advice in the first place.  It’s truly the blind leading the blind.

Remember the ad rep for a popular local magazine I was talking about earlier? This is no joke, she tried to tell me to take out my offer, copy, coupon, testimonials, headline and other marketing tactics and to just leave a logo, website and address for a two page ad because she said “those tactics don’t work.” (PLEASE NOTE: I DIDN’T ASK FOR HER ADVICE IN THE FIRST PLACE). This ad rep was advising me to take away the very PROVEN GUTS that convince people to come into the business! These tactics have been proven to work for 200 years and this ad rep thinks they don’t work? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW SCARY IS THIS? This is a lady that is advising numerous local businesses on their marketing!!! The truth is that most ad reps simply do not know any better. They do not know what it takes to get a customer to drive to your PLACE of business and walk in the door and slap down their credit card.  WHY AGAIN?  Because they have NO SKIN IN THE GAME.  They can’t track results and they DON’T want you to either!!!

99% of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything. — David Ogilvy (Founder Of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency.)

I want you to stop for a moment and ask yourself: What is the REAL reason you advertise?

The bottom line reason you advertise is to get people to act. To make money. It’s not to be pretty, modern, funny or entertaining. It’s not to get people to say “Wow, great ad.” It’s simply to make money and get more business. You want your advertising to persuade people to whip out their credit cards and slap it on the counter right then. Branding, being funny, creating buzz and being creative is great and all, but the red line is that you simply want customers to pay for your stuff as quickly as possible. That’s what matters isn’t it? You can have all the buzz in the world but if it doesn’t produce any money in return then it’s completely worthless!

Focus your advertising on getting a direct response. Remember the purpose of your marketing and advertising: TO GET PAYING CUSTOMERS not getting “buzz” or to win awards. You want to be able to say, because of this ad, it brought X amount in return, If you can’t do this with your forms of advertising, then don’t do it and PLEASE dedicate the resources necessary to a marketing firm that can actually HELP YOU!  And for your sake, when dealing with ad reps: ask freaking questions. Ask them why they are advising you to do something. Ask for proof. Ask for more than demographics and how many people they are reaching….

Don’t just take their word for it because “they have found that —– (insert crap here)—– to be true. Make em’ prove it with real examples and better yet – NUMBERS.