Avoiding Addled Ad Campaigns

What is the the most common mistake some businesses make when building a direct-mail advertising campaign? This lesson is best taught by the errors of other's ways.
 

by Brock Henderson   [September 5, 2001]

I am often asked what types of advertisements work best for an ISP business? But I am never asked which ads are the worst. I'm going to tell you anyway.

The most common mistake businesses make when it comes to advertising is that they don't test it. If you aren't testing your advertising for your ISP business, how do you know if it's doing as well as you'd like? You test your equipment to be sure it's operating at peak performance, right? But you don't test your advertising?

Test your advertising. Test your advertising repeatedly. Test your advertising constantly. Always be testing.

Polling isn't testing
You might think you have the best advertisement ever crafted for an ISP and that nothing should be changed. After all, you painfully toiled over every word. You asked co-workers their opinions. You asked subordinates what they thought. You may have even asked your spouse. The result of your polling completely convinces you that your advertisement is the greatest of all time. Surely, this is the advertisement that will get those phones ringing?

Fine. Let's say your advertisement does produce a few sales. But ask yourself this—did your advertisement do as much as it could to bring business your way? How will you know unless you test the advertisement?

For example, let's look at a very basic offer that some ISPs advertise—one month of free Internet access. Is "One month free" the best way to communicate your offer? Or are there other ways of saying the same thing that could produce better results?

Consider changing your offer from "One month free" to "Two months for the price of one" or "$0 first month." Each phrase is the same offer simply worded differently. Changing the key phrase can make a big difference in how well your advertisement is perceived by your target audience—but you wouldn't know this, unless you tested these different phrases in different advertisements.

Golden rules
There are a few important rules you should follow when testing your ISPs advertising campaigns. The first is simple—never test more than element at a time.

If you change two elements in your advertisement, you have no way of knowing which adjustment improved your results. Even worse—perhaps the first adjusted element of your advertisement could have brought a lot of sales your way, but the second change undid the positive impact of the first. Why risk failing your test? You don't spend money to lose money, do you?

Which brings us to a very common and understandable objection to testing your ISPs advertising—it costs money. Remember, not testing your advertising campaigns will cost you even more money over the long-term. Testing your advertising is like preparing an advertisement for success. You can keep the cost of testing down by:

• Testing your advertisements in small batches.
• Testing your advertisements in select areas.
• Testing your advertisements among select media.

The extra time and money you spend on testing your ISPs advertising messages will produce more sales. Producing more sales means more profit. Testing your advertisements is spending money to make money. Now, that's makes more sense, doesn't it?

Stage test
Let's walk through the stages of testing of a direct mail piece for your ISP. First let's test the statements encompassing your basic offer:

• First Month Free
• Two Months for the Price of One and
• $0 First Month

Note that we have one offer mentioning money—in some communities a stated dollar amount will pull more than either of the other offers. But you don't know if it is true for your service area unless you test it.

Next, identify a small target area as the testing zone of your direct mail advertisement. There's no sense in sending a mailing to everyone—remember, this is a test.

Here is where you break out the calendar. Abstain from doing any direct mail advertising for one month. During this time, keep track of the number of phone calls received (inquiries), and the number of sales generated from your select testing zone. This will provide you with a baseline—a reference point for measuring the results of your direct mail campaigns.

Yes, you could just as easily review sales made during your baseline month, but we're also measuring inquiries. Without a proper benchmark you have no accurate way of knowing how your direct mail campaigns are performing. Sales alone don't tell the entire story. Some advertisements generate a lot of inquiries, but not a lot of sales—you need to know if your direct mail campaign is producing interest or producing revenue. The rest is simple:

• During the second month, send the "First Month Free" offer to your target area. Track the number of phone calls received and the number of sales generated.
• During the third month, send the "Two Months for the Price of One" offer to your target area. Track the number of phone calls received and the number of sales generated.
• Finally, send the "$0 First Month" offer to your target area during the fourth month. Track the number of phone calls received and the number of sales generated.

By now, you should have a simple spreadsheet that shows you which direct mail piece generated the most calls and which generated the most sales. For our purposes, let's assume that the second offer—Two Months for the Price of One—generated the most sales. This is an offer that makes sense to utilize in future mailings.

Now that you have the offer that works, it's time to see if it works for everyone. If your first offer was to a mid-income residential zone, then this time you want to test your offer with upper income residents.

Repeat months two, three, and four to determine if the same offer works as well with one demographic target as another—results may very. If there isn't any difference and "Two Months for the Price of One" produces the best sales from both groups, then you're ready to begin a large-scale direct mail campaign with complete confidence that your advertisement produces sales for your ISP business.

Still testing
Now you can test other elements of your advertising message in different media. To test your advertisement in print media, buy space only in one publication at a time to determine which newspaper or magazine produces the best results. Next, see if color helps land more sales. Or change your graphic, test different sections within the same publication—but always keep track of your results.

Testing your advertising is an on-going process. Don't be complacent. You should always be testing your advertising. Be aggressive and be patient. You are on your way to producing some great advertising and avoiding the biggest advertising mistake that many businesses make. 
 
 

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