When Every Advertising Dollars Counts More than Ever: Monitoring Success and ROI of An Advertising Campaign

Gauging the effectiveness of an advertising campaign is a skill all business owners should have, and unfortunately very few really do have. Whether you are using newspapers, magazines, fliers, radio, television or some other form of media, it is essential to target your audience as closely as possible and give the medium you are using a fair shop. Too many people for instance will run one newspaper ad and expect to see immediate results. Or they will run five or ten radio spots at odd times, often the cheapest times, overnight when fewer people are listening, and will wonder why they didn’t see an increase in business. They will say “I tried that and it didn’t work” not realizing that they didn’t give it a fair try at all.

There are two primarily types of advertising: direct response and top of mind awareness. Direct response advertising is the type designed to give you an immediate, but short term business increase. When a car lot runs a weekend sale and promotes it heavily, that one event is fueled by direct response advertising. However, most businesses use top of mind awareness advertising and don’t even know it. They receive more long term benefit from it when they do it appropriately, because they are branding their business. They are making sure that people think of them and associate their business with the general business category. Try this test. When you have a sniffle you reach for a 1.) tissue or 2.)Kleenex. The answer is number one, but you likely said number two. Kleenex is a brand of tissue, but they have branded themselves so well that people use their name to mean tissue. Think of Coca Cola. How many people say they are going to go have a Coke when they actually mean a soft drink. Coca Cola has successfully branded itself.

When you hear the phrase "we’ll leave the light on for ya" you probably think of Motel 6. Their branding efforts were very successful. You can do the same think with your spa business, but it takes time and dollars. Newspaper ads should run two or three times a week for about six months to implant themselves in the mind of the reader. Radio ads should run consistently for six to nine months to effectively brand your business. When thinking of designing and advertising campaign, be sure to educate yourself on the subject. Consider a college course in advertising. Or, read some of the books on IMC, or integrated marketing communications that are available at your bookstore. Don’t go into advertising blindly like so many people. Educate yourself and you’ll see a positive difference.

In the coming year when everyone will be tightening their belts, businesses and clients alike, how you spend money on advertising, where you spend money promoting your business and how effective each campaign is will be of supreme importance.