Now's the best time to advertise

The home stretch of this holiday shopping season is upon us, and now may be the best time for your current and prospective clients to do some serious advertising.

While spending may have been somewhat evenly spread out since the spike on Black Friday, there's major, concentrated spending about to start and it's up to you to help your advertisers get a piece of the action.

According to the Consumer Reports National Research Center (yes, the Consumer Reports people), in recent years nearly one-quarter of shoppers surveyed said they wouldn't complete their holiday shopping until December 23rd and later. And 5% said they planned to finish their shopping after Christmas. With money so tight for consumers this year, odds are there are even more holding off as long as they can before spending their limited dollars.

So, don't let your prospective advertisers tell you that most people are done shopping after this weekend. They're not. Explain that 24% of your readership will still be shopping after the 23rd.

If they say their past experience has taught them to not even bother advertising the last week before Christmas, take a look at the ads they ran last year that led them to that conclusion. Without running the right size, frequency, and content, even the biggest spending days can seem slow for an advertiser.

Ads that work well in these last few days usually contain lots of prices and items and a strong discount in the headline. If possible, include a wide range of prices as well. One jewelry store recently said they were focusing on items $20 and under, which he claims were selling like there was no tomorrow.

An ad everyone should be selling right now

Here's an ad that ran last year about this time for a local fitness equipment retailer. Click on it to see a larger version.

You should sell it now--it'll help you end your December on a high note and start your January off strong. Better yet, the ad is good for the advertiser, too.

With the average sale of fitness equipment being so high, even a bad response will generate plenty to make a profit and then some.

The strategy was created by an ad rep at one of our client newspapers, the Medicine Hat News in Alberta, Canada. It's custom made to get people about to buy fitness equipment seeing, reading, and responding to it.

Why sell this ad to run now and into January? According to Men's Health Magazine, 50% of all weight gained throughout the year is done between Thanksgiving and New Year's. And the further along we go in this prime weight-gain season, the higher fitness equipment begins to appear on people's Christmas lists.

Not that this category wasn't strong to begin with--23% of Black Friday shoppers surveyed had recreational or fitness equipment on their list.

Another good reason? Take a look what Sports Authority is promoting this week. They're one of the largest sporting goods retailers in the U.S., with 450 stores in 45 states, so they know what's hot.

If you're a Response Oriented Selling ad sales client or use our DesignYourAd Overnight Ad Production service, you can take this and customize it to your needs. Just ask.

A restaurant running 2 half-page ads per week for a year

This is one of the best restaurant ads I've ever seen. It has a great headline and graphic at the top to grab their target customers and get them reading. It also shows lots of selection and gets into detail about the quality of the food as well as price--three things their target customers feel strongly about. In addition, the images themselves reinforce the quality.

Using our ad sales and ad strategy techniques, the Coeur d'Alene (ID) Press made a sale to a Japanese restaurant--two broadsheet half pages per week for a year.

The ad itself was so successful they had to turn people away the very first time it ran. This kind of ad can easily be adapted to almost any restaurant in your market and should be part of every ad rep's tool kit.

Of course, while the strategy is excellent, convincing the advertiser to actually run it and keep the suggested size, frequency, and content--that's where our approach really shines, and what separates a good ad rep from a fantastic one (see post Is Your Local Ad Staff Killing Your Newspaper?).

After this restaurant experienced difficulty getting a response with an ad produced by a local ad agency (which was a little light on the benefit and substance), the ad rep got to work using our Response Oriented Selling techniques, by first eliminating any incorrect theories the advertiser might have relating to ad response, including size, frequency, and content and replacing them with a more effective approach.

This changed the dynamic of the sales call, enabling the ad rep to get some detailed information about the account's products and services, competition, and target customers.

He then applied our logical process for converting the information into a killer direct-response ad strategy which he then passed through to the designers to make look better, which they certainly did.

Returning to the restaurant and presenting the ad is typically the easiest part, since the prospective advertiser has already bought into the ad effectiveness techniques that the ad uses.

It was just a matter of showing how the strategy incorporated into the ad both these techniques and the new information gathered earlier about the restaurant, its competitors, and target customers

And since both the information and the approach to arrange the information was drawn out of the account, the ad rep was able to prove--before the ad ran--that the final recommendation of size, frequency, and content would provide a dramatic response.

It was a truly win-win situation.

Here's the email from the Coer d'Alene Press:

Bob,

Another success story. This restaurant's sales have been down for over a year. We made a McInnis presentation to them and they saw immediate results with the attached ad. After the first ad they had to turn people away the day the ad came out for lunch and had record days the two days following. They signed up for two half page ads per week for a year. I can't begin to thank you for your logical sales approach program.

Warmest regards,

Paul Burke

Director of Advertising
Hagadone Newspapers North Idaho-Coeur d'Alene Press

After a while, too many ad reps start believing current and prospective advertisers when they say larger ads are too big a risk and simply unaffordable, especially in this recession.

The reality is, if they actually run the right ad, including the right size and frequency, they'll get a tremendous response, and thank you for encouraging them to do it. You may even make a few bucks out of the deal.

An appliance ad every newspaper should be selling right now

For many consumers in this economy, the time to buy a new appliance is after the one they own dies, and around the holidays is no exception. If there are local appliance or electronics stores in your market that aren't running, are running too small, too ineffectively, or are about to drop out, here's an ad that you should consider selling them.

Our overnight ad production service created it as part of our Response Oriented Selling course (read more about it on our newspaperadproduction blog).

The advertiser, who had dropped out due to lack of response, initially signed a two-month contract. The ad worked so well, before the two months were up the advertiser called the newspaper and signed a contract to continue the ad for the entire year. Here's the "before" and "after" ad:

The designers found it very helpful to view Best Buy's ads when building the new one. Click on the ads to see larger versions.

Of course, the bigger issue is always how to get an advertiser who has had problems in the past to spring for such a big ad. This involves proving that the ad will generate a strong ROI and that the size and frequency are justified. You can read more about how we do this elsewhere in this blog. I'd suggest starting with this article, "The Key To Driving Serious Local Ad Sales In This Recession Is Eliminating Risk".

For those of you who use our ad production service, ask the designers to rework ad 281-Appliance.

Shop local Web pages done especially well

While many of you may be doing this already, here's a great video about how a merchant responded to a slower economy by creating an especially effective Web site to promote downtown shopping--an idea that translates very well to online newspapers, of course. More than just selling impressions throughout a Web site, these people are grouping local advertisers together on one page and enabling readers to sign up for an e-newsletter offering deals.

Sure, maybe your local merchants are doing this themselves already, but you can do it better. And if your designers can't handle Web ad or email blast production, our designers would be happy to help.

Here's the video as well as a number of screenshots of the site. You can see the site yourself at shoplocalmontclair.com.

Another example of how selling response is driving newspaper print and Web ad revenue

We thought we could improve the strategy, which needed a new look as well as a larger size and frequency.

It's amazing the incredible amount of print and Web ad revenue opportunities waiting for you in this recession if you just focus on proving response.

This strategy was created during our recent Web-based one-on-one target account sessions (part of our Response Oriented Selling course) with a major daily newspaper out West who has been generating hundreds of thousands of dollars using our techniques.

Last year at this time the advertiser was running a 1x3 (right).

With the new print and Web ad strategy and presentation, the business has now signed up for a high-frequency, two-month run of 1/2- and 1/4-page ads in process color, along with 30,000 Web impressions. They're even running some classified listings for used equipment.

How did the ad rep pull off such a transformation? By developing a great strategy and then using our unique approach to help prove to the advertiser that this new strategy wasn't a risk at all, but actually a much safer bet than what they had been doing. I'll explain how she did both.

First, the ad rep needed the right strategy

So she did her homework, learning about their business, competition, and target customers.

She also found out why people choose one place rather than another to purchase antique firearms and related items. It turns out, while selection is a major reason, it was equally important to prospective customers that the people really knew their products--in this case they were trained experts and craftsmen who could refinish and rebuild the firearms and tell you just about anything you need to know about them.

The ad rep also found out that the the target customers' shopping companions (who may not be quite as interested in guns) often needed to know there would be other items in the store of interest to them.

Creating an effective print and Web ad as well as using the accounts' own life experiences to illustrate the various ad effectiveness concepts helped the ad rep convince the account that the content, size, and frequency was a safe investment.

As you can see, the "after" ad they ran has a strong attention-grabbing graphic specific to their target customer, and the new headline sums up what people care about--a wide selection and firearm experts on hand.

The ad then moved on to prove they had a great selection of not just firearms but many other items that the buyer's companion might be interested in.

The ad then shared why they're truly experts in their field and finished with a guarantee--something many buyers feel is critical.

How did the ad rep actually sell the larger ad?

With our unusual set of techniques that involve drawing a new approach out of the account using the Socratic method of teaching.

Instead of simply presenting the ad and explaining why it would work, the ad rep first shared with the advertiser our logical, step-by-step approach to direct response advertising.

Since most businesses have their own ideas about their ad's size, frequency, and content, the ad rep gained buy-in to the new approach by illustrating each step with examples of things the prospect does in other areas of his life. We call this little 2-minute lesson the "Response Model", and it transforms the dynamic of the sale.

The ad rep then was able to present the ad and explain why the techniques were based not just on her opinion, but on the way the prospect already sees the world.

This use of the Socratic method to teach our approach has an added benefit as well: The ad rep also buys into it, no longer fearing that the advertiser's larger investment won't pay off.

A truly win-win situation made possible by an innocent little approach that focuses in on proving response, which, as we all know, is the only thing that motivates the customer to run, and run the right size, frequency, and content in the first place.

Are your ad reps able to create ad strategies that will work the first time? And when they do, can they sell the size, content, and frequency that's in the best interests of the customer, or are they slowed down by what the prospect believes they can afford or a number of other excuses like the recession, high ad rates, and cheaper competitive media?

Contact me and I'd be happy to show you the exact techniques behind the sales on this blog in a Web meeting. You can reach me at (631) 477-2505 or at mcinnis@ads-on-line.com.

Clients of the Response Oriented Selling course or DesignYourAd Overnight Ad Production service have access to this ad, the others in this blog, as well as a huge library of ads we've amassed over the years.

Ad Sales Idea: Cash for Cabinets

Another variation on the "Cash for Clunkers" theme that might be enough to get a local kitchen remodeler spending some money (and making some sales).

For any newspaper ad rep who has a kitchen remodeler in their territory, here's an idea I saw in a New York metro newspaper this past Sunday. It plays off of the whole U.S. "Cash for Clunkers" initiative by promoting "Cash for Cabinets". The ad is a little light on substance in my opinion, not really addressing the reasons why people buy from one place rather than another, but I think the idea is brilliant and a great excuse to get back into a prospect or existing client who has been cutting back. Click on the image of the ad for a larger view.