Attract more customers

Customers searching for your product or service online have a plethora of choice. 

So how will you make your business standout?

Whatever it is that you are selling, there is always someone else who is offering pretty much the same. Often at a lower price, as they attempt to break into the market. The typical reaction is to lower your prices. This leads to a race to the bottom, until one or the other goes out of business. Either way it is likely to be a pyrrhic victory, as it is  difficult to raise prices once they have been reduced.

The simple answer is to give the customer what they want at a price that they will pay. 
But what is it that they want and just how much will they pay for it? Most businesses assumes that that they know what their customers want. True, yet it is not their customers they need to look to for new business. It is someone else's customers they need to attract.

So before you commissioning  a new advertising and marketing campaign. Ask how will you find out what your potential customers want? 
You should have established this before you started your business. But times change and customer expectations change with them.  It is wise to commission market research on a regular basis. Especially before you start planning your next advertising or marketing campaign. That is real research, not a quick poll around family and friends, or a gut felling that the market is right for...

Market research tells you what you need to know. 
To help you make, your choice of product or service. Good research can also tell you how much demand there could be. What it is often difficult to find out is how your competitors are attracting new business.

Unfortunately far to many businesses leave it to late. 
They only come to commercial agencies once their marketing has failed. Even then they have a tendency to disagree with the results. As these often challenge cherished working practices. Major change maybe needed to get their business back on track.

Don't leave it to late to seek professional advice. 
Do so before you embark on any advertising or marketing campaign. It is not that expensive. It can save you a lot of money in the long run. It could even save your business.

Another factor to keep in mind. Banks and other sources of funding are more likely to favor an application for funds. If the businesses applying, has a viable advertising campaign planned.

- Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+

Nobody is buying!

You have an innovative product, fantastic service and an award winning business.

The crowds should be all over you, clamouring to buy. Yet you are not attracting enough business to even cover your costs. 

Why?

A lot of businesses think a good product alone is all that is needed. How many times have you heard, 'Build it and they will come'? Well, this is a line from popular entertainment, not the sage business advice that it is thought to be.

What you have to do is 'sell your business'. If your potential customers do not know who you are, what you do or where they can find you, how do you expect them to buy from you.

In short if you are not doing anything to advertise your business, how do you expect to be in business? Passing trade, word of mouth etc., are all largely redundant in this day and age. For passing trade, you have to place yourself where someone is likely to pass. You have to have an enticing display to attract the potential customer who is outside to come inside. These days this is your Webverts and SEO. The videos and images on your website have become your shop front and store.

Word of mouth and recommendations do not take place over the garden fence any more. They happen in social media. If you do not have an online presence and do something to justify this, how can your satisfied customers refer their social circle to you?

The art of advertising has not changed, only the media we use and the pace at which we work has. It is still all about attracting customers to buy from you and not from someone else. To do that we have to give them the reasons they need to make that choice.

We have to change, 

an interest into a like
, 
a like into a desire
, 
the desire into a want
 
and the want into a need.

An example

At one time hand made axes were the low end of the market. The logging industry needed high volumes of a consistent quality that the small hand forges could not produce, so they moved to axes made industrially.

Today that situation has changed there is no real need for axes anymore. The logging industry has been mechanised and loggers work from the comfort of an air-conditioned cab.

Yet today, axes are selling at premium prices! Not just any axe but hand made axes from the small forges that a few decades ago were forced to find other product lines because they could not compete.
 Industrially produced axes are now retailing for around $20 -$60 hand made axes $200 to $600 each!

So what changed?

Making logging and axe skills into a sport generated the interest, rebranding small axes and hatchets as camping and outdoor survival tools took care of the rest.

This is called associative or aspirational advertising. In this case the foundries associated their axes with a life style to which people could aspire. Even if you could not give it all up and go live in the high woods. That axe becomes a promise to yourself, that one day, even if only for a few weeks, you could live your dream of a simpler life.



Tricky? No, just an understanding of human nature and how purchasing decisions are made. That is what advertising is, letting people know what you have for sale. Then giving them the reasons why they should buy from you rather than from another.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+ Advertising

Getting it right

Getting it wrong could cost you more than just money.

Creating commercial advertising requires creative skills that will set the advert apart from surrounding content. 

Thinking outside the box to create advertisements that are true to the brand, as well as selling a product. Yet different enough to stand out is one thing. To remain within the law and the codes of practice are another. What seems such a good idea in the pub or the closed environment of the office, often falls flat when it reaches a dispassionate audience.

A recent advert, a very clever spoof of a popular TV program, Animal Hospital. Received no less than 250 complaints about the association of a commercial product with animal cruelty. While the advert was legal in all aspects, it still caused offence. These errors in judgement could become obvious if it is test marketed before release. The footage could then possibly be reused with a slight change of emphasis or re-editied to change the offending scenes. 

Regrettably this is a stage often overlooked or dismissed as an unnecessary expense by far to many advertisers. The cost of testing is often far less than the costs associated with having your adverts withdrawn. 

The advantages of using a professional agency is that they deal with these kind of issues all the time. They also kept up to date with various trends and topical issues through their professional associations and trade press. They can help in avoiding these situations by bringing years or decades of commercial experience to your advertising.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+

Christmas! It's the hight of summer!

If your are in business, it could already be to late!

If you are thinking as a consumer, this could appear as a rather stupid time to be promoting Christmas and NewYear. Yet as a Business person it could already be to late.

I hope that this will be a rather fortuitous message, reminding some businesses that the time to act is now, not when the event is already upon us.

'In the advertising industry we plan and work months and years ahead. When you see someone elses adverts you are already playing catch up, plan and prepare ahead of time and steal the market.'

That if you are a tourism based company that wants to get into neext years catalouges the closing date for submissions is only weeks away. If you are aiming for seasonal press or TV adverts you have a little over a month. Web and leflet drops have a little more time but not much, your adverts have to reach you target audience in November at the latest. You will be fighting for space at the printers and time from overworked web designers and will have to pay a premium for last minute services, even if it appears that there are months left. 

Isn't this to early? no in some cases this is to late. We already have our first booking to shoot material for Christmas 2015 adverts. We are in the process of finishing adverts for next years tour guides. This year in Scotland the referendum on the 18th of September has caused some problems as the submission for some of these catalogues and guides close at the end of September. So have had to prepare adverts that reflect both a Yes and a No vote. We also have a client who is planning for a campaign that will not come to fruition until 2016. 

'Planning for next week, next mouth, next year, now. means that you will not have to worry about tomorrow, today.'

Though I do admit to some frustration in having to turn customers away telling them that they are to late to advertise for this season, when it is still weeks away. Far far far to many businesses lose out because they are to focused on current events or trying wrapup previous events to think clearly about what will happen tomorrow. One recent conversation ended with "I'm to busy worrying about how I'm going to pay my bills next week to worry about Christmas!" Take out a retainer with your local advertisng agency or consultant, let them get your advertisng and marketing material out there when it will be most effective while you concentrate on doing what you do best. 

  -Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+

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As advertising is one of the most heavily regulated and censored industries in the world today. Creativity within our industry is creating an original compelling idea that sells our clients products, without breaching any of the rules and regulations that bound us. Pushing the boundaries as far as they will go, but never crossing them without good reason. For it is not our reputations that are on the line, it is our clients.

-Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+

Word of Mouth

Word of Mouth can be an effective and powerful marketing tool. It is very attractive to small business because they are perceive it (wrongly) to be free, that it requires no active input or administration on their part. 

Let me tell you about last Friday. 

I needed to buy an additional... The item and the businesses I approached, I will withhold for reasons that will soon become apparent. I will simply say that the item is usually found online or from a specialist independent retailer where they are sold to consumers and local businesses who need these items urgently and cannot wait for an online order to be delivered.  A quick search on the net identified a number of outlets in reasonable proximity. So I nipped out at lunchtime to purchase the items I needed. 

First port of call. 

‘Closed for lunch’. What! A business selling consumer items closed for lunch. The only time of day when most of its clientele can get to the shops, without having to take time of work.

Second option. 

A faded sign in the door read, “Closed.” Yet its web page clearly stated that it was open 9-5 every day except Sunday. No reply to text or phone calls, even their mobile went unanswered. I moved further afield.

Third option. 

(Putting some serious miles on the clock now) “Sorry mate don’t have any.” Ah, on your site it clearly states that you have these in stock. “Nah, have never stocked these.” Oh, you are aware of the trades description act, false and misleading advertising? “Och who’s going to bother” was the only reply.

Fourth option. 

“None left, sold the last one just half an hour ago”. GRRRRRRRRR! 
“But wait a minute, one of our customers holds a stock and with the weekend and all”.  A quick phone call, a promise to restock their customer first thing next week and I am off to an industrial estate to pick up the item I desperately needed. So business 4 wins my recommendation. I’ll leave it to you to guess what I am going to be saying about businesses 1-3 the next time anybody asks where do I get my supplies? 

The moral of this story?  

Word of Mouth cuts both ways. It can make or break your business in an afternoon. 

Although you are not allowed to pay for Word of Mouth advertsing, it certainly isn’t free. You have to go that extra mile to earn it and you have to manage it to ensure that it is up to date, relevant and can be substantiated. Yet a single negative review can easily nullify any number of positive comments.

To make Word of Mouth advertising work for your business you must know how it works. What can and cannot be done to encourage it and how to manage it. Just waiting for someone to recomend you can take a very long time, unless you know how to jog their memory. If something happens to damage your reputation your must be aware of what has happened and know how to manage it. How to turn even negitive comments to your advantage. This is where commercial advertising consultants and agencies come in, helping you make the most of any oppotunities you have to market your business. Don't leave your advertising and marketing to chance, take control, start making your business work for you.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+

Is your marketing working for you?

Do you find yourself having to invest more time each week looking for sales? 

When you take a well earned break, do your sales fall off? 

Then your marketing is probably not working for you.

The desire not to be left out, to keep up with the latest trends and technology, has meant many businesses are leaping into high-end advertising and marketing, without the preparation or grounding in the basics that support these techniques. Having invested a significant amount of effort in developing an online and social media presence, many businesses have forgotten about the basic building blocks that should be supporting and building their brand.

Business who have the courage to admit that their current marketing is not working for them, need to focus on the basics, their 5W’s. These basics have always worked, they still driving the content of all major advertising and marketing campaigns, no matter the platform they run on. 

Many marketing Guru’s hold up the large multi-nationals as the example to follow, highlighting some of the strategies and tactic's that they have used. Yes, these tactics have been proven to work, in big companies. Companies that have a major investment in the trained and experienced staff to make it work. Much of this advice is not exactly relevant to SME’s as they have neither the budgets, the experience nor the staff to run similar campaigns. 

Smaller businesses need a different way of thinking about advertising and marketing. They must make sure they are relevant and connect with their audience in an authentic way. They need to take a longer term strategy, building a self sustaining campaign that does not need to micromanaged to keep it relevant.  Think ahead, what other events are going on to which you can link your advertising? Let them do the promotional work and place your ad's within their material. To many SME's miss out on these fantastic opportunities to promote their business because they have to think and plan months, or even years ahead. Get this right and you can send more time on your business doing the things you set out to do, not working for your business as an unqualified, unpaid advertising sales and marketing manger.

Gavin Bryan-Tansley Owner Vid-FX+