As a small business and startup we money is tight and when we advertise we need to 10x our money! Credit to Grant Cardone for the phrase 10x!
10X Your Advertising
I love marketing and advertising. There’s no doubt you’ve ever heard a Grant Cardone. He’s a hyperbolic salesman and a motivational icon and he definitely deserves credit because he lay claim to “10X” and I like it. I think it’s a great phrase and I agree with the idea of doing things bigger. I’m kind of coming at from a different angle, but I don’t want to say “10X” and not give him credit for it.
When I talk about 10X, I want a 10 x return on it. If I’m spending one dollar I want to get ten out of it.
As a start-up you know dollars are limited and I want to maximize all my resources. That’s why we’re talking about 10X advertising. Over the years I have learned a few secrets that I’m going to share with you that have allowed me to get a 10X return on my advertising efforts. In my business were just ran a Super Bowl ad. That’s a ton of money but for me, it works because I get 10-times return on it.
So I love marketing. I have a digital marketing company. I own a direct mail magazine that is in 23 cities, so when I spent a dollar, I get 10 and this is how I do it.
Hit Your Target, Not Around It.
You need to know your ideal customer and their very specific demographic. You should market to a 30-year-old different than a 60-year-old. If you don’t know your target market, how in the world are you going to hit it? I don’t want to hit around my target market I want a direct hit. Picture a bull’s eye. I know exactly who my target market is. This person is most likely to buy from my companies.
If you’re shooting around the target and not hitting it, you’re spending half your money on advertising to a person who may have no interest in what you’re selling. I can describe my ideal customer in all my businesses like an FBI profiler.
So when I put together advertising I know who I’m talking to, I know the language, I know why they don’t buy, I know what they need to hear too. The language of a sub-30-year-old is different than a 50-year-old different than a 70-year-old. Their buying habits are different.
Create a Measurable Response.
In other words, I want to make sure that it worked. My advertising is done effectively because it has measurable results. When I advertise, I can go into my companies and ask: How many calls did we have this week, how much business did we have this week? Why/ Because my advertising is designed to get a response. It’s not benign. It’s not generic.
Advertising is Designed to Increase Sales and or Customer Traffic
You’re creating a start-up, it’s not your time to build a brand. You haven’t earned that yet. Your goal is to sell. if you’re figuring out why you want to advertise you can never go wrong with this idea. I want to increase my sales, and 90% of advertising I do is based on increasing sales or increasing customer traffic which in turn increases sales.
Track It
If you don’t track it, you have no idea of your advertising works. I track it every single day, I know why every customer does business with us because I can measure my advertising and that allows me to only choose advertising vehicles that work, 10X style.
I can do Facebook ads, I can do SEO marketing, and reputation management, but I know the one that moves the needle the most: my digital ads. For direct mail marketing, I can do postcards and postcards actually within home services does great. But for certain businesses I have, it doesn’t do anything. TV ads are fantastic for one of my businesses but not for my digital marketing company. It doesn’t help that at all.
Because I track all our responses, I know which one is going to give me the measurable response: the one that’s going to give me a 10X return. Why? Because I can look at the numbers. If you do advertising and you don’t track it, you don’t have a measurable response.
Know the Purpose of Your Advertising
I always want to increase sales but I have some other supporting reasons.
Brand Building
I do want it to build my brand. Why? Because my companies have been in business 20 years so I’ve earned the right to build the brand. I think you start building a brand from day one, but sales is paramount. They kinda go together. If you’re building a brand, it’ll help your sales.
It reinforces my competitive advantage.
I want to remind my customers why they buy for me and not from my competition.
Have a direct call to action?
I want my customers to know when they see it, that I run my advertising for a reason.
Don’t Share the Stage
Why run a Super Bowl ad?
When I bought it, I very clear that I didn’t want my competition’s ads running as well. Not that I think I have a great deal of competition, but somebody might get brave this year.
I get exclusive and very specific advertising rights for these ads. I have no one that I deem a competitor anywhere in this four-hour time frame. Not in the pre-game, not in the post-game, not during half-time. I get assured of that when I buy the ad and I’ve been doing this long enough that they know it has to be absolutely exclusive. Anything less will not do.
If you have to share the stage with another business you’re not going to get 10x return. You have to split it.
How to Get 10X Return
- I want to get a 10-times return on my advertising, so how do I do it?
- I hit the target.
- I don’t waste money on people that are not my ideal customers.
- I create measurable responses.
- My advertising is purposeful.
- I hit all through the demographics so my buyers feel very comfortable with our company.
- I don’t share the stage. I want exclusivity.
