Four Nonnegotiable Rules of Advertising

The world of advertising is a wide open landscape. There is almost no limit to the creativity, depth and breadth your advertising mix can take – Not to mention no limit to the amount of money you can spend.

In such an environment a few set of rules can help give you a proper framework by which to operate. I consider these to be nonnegotiable if you want to stay on track and not break the bank.

1. You Must Budget For Regular, Recurrent Advertising

Set a budget up front that you will allocate to your monthly advertising. Make this a % of revenue – not a fixed $$$ amount. Stick to this budget month in and month out – but spend your ad dollars (see next point).

2. You Must Be Consistent

Consistency creates opportunity in advertising. You will never give your advertising a chance to work if you don’t remain consistent.

Don’t change it with the weather, unless you have good reason too (see rule #4), and once you set the budget think hard before cutting it.

This is why you set a monthly budget, and spend it. Month in and month out you give your advertising a chance to work, and you give yourself more data to analyze results.

Also, if your advertising comes and goes, you never give your target market a chance to internalize your message (i.e What you want them to do)

3. You Must Have a Clear Message

Are your ad messages crystal clear? Is it obvious who you are targeting and what you want them to do? Don’t waste a dime trying to be cute, clever, or catchy until you have clear and concise down pat.

Be specific, to the point, and sometimes blunt. Remember "Here’s what I got, here’s what it will do for you, here’s what I want you to do next".

4. You Must Measure, Measure, Measure

It’s amazing how many businesses fail to measure their advertising – don’t be one of them. You have to test and measure to know what is working! 

Don’t be afraid to make changes, or try new things, but make those changes backed up by data – or validate their effectiveness with data.

If you have no idea as to what the effectiveness of one advertising campaign was versus another, you may as well throw money out the window. It will always be a crap shoot.

The more you measure, the more you know what works, the more you can allocate ($$$) to what works, and the more successful your advertising will be – period.

 

Photo Credit: ttarasiuk

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