1) Market to the people that are likely to be interested in your product.  Do not mass market or waste money with mass marketing.  Think of the success of Google AdSense that targets the audience.

2) You must monitor the results of your advertising, not just by the number of responses but also by the value of the sales.

3) Start adverts with a good headline!  Your business name is only of interest to yourself.  For example which adverts’ headline do you think will attract more attention?

a)   A Smith and Sons or

b)   Kitchens installed FREE

4)  Always evaluate all your advertisements.  It is a good idea to run two different adverts and monitor and decide which one has a better response.

5)  Include a good offer in your advertisement to entice your audience into a response.

6) To grow your business you cannot cut costs, you need to increase your turnover.  Marketing is essential for growth but remember rule number 1.  Use your budget wisely and see what works.

7)  Some must strategies in your marketing budget for any size business: signage on vehicles and premises, PPC advertisement online, a customer referral scheme where you incentivise your customer to recommend you to others and perhaps promoting your business to other business’ customers and vice-versa.  (obviously not to a competitor)

8) You must follow up marketing letters sent by a telephone call and your response will double.

9)  Talk to your customer in your advert, resolve their problems or even better, if your budget allows, pay for sales copy and this cost will pay itself over and over again.

10) You must make clear in your advert what the customer needs to do, this is known as “the call for action”.  You must make it black and white, in other words, easy to understand for it to work.

Hasta la vista …