The 7 Costly Myths of Retail Advertising

These 7 myths are rampant in the advertising world. They are taught to advertising sales people who have never done a lick of advertising in their lives, yet they are giving YOU advice. Read through them carefully, see how many you recognize. Some may even challenge your own thinking!

Myth #1. You Have To Build Your Brand Name And Advertise The Brands You Carry To Be Successful.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Brand building is what very large companies with almost unlimited advertising budgets do. The three main drawbacks are that it’s expensive, it’s very difficult to track effectiveness, and it is much less effective at generating sales immediately. There is an alternative to expensive, ineffective brand building advertising…It’s called “Direct Response Marketing.”

 

Myth #2. The Traditional Advertising I’ve Done In Past Will Keep Working, I Just Need To Do More Of It.

Todays consumer is drastically different from even 5-7 years ago. Statistics prove that a consumer does 2 months of research in person and on the internet before buying. Traditional price driven advertising is losing effectiveness, as seen by most retailers in the lack of traffic and sales. This is because most retailers are still advertising 'cheap price' 'cheap price' 'cheap price'. This is a losing proposistion.

This means you must be in the business of providing quality information to your consumers, not just sales information and glossy brochures. You must use the internet effectively, with email, and good content rich websites to help your buyer come to the decision that buying from you is the correct decision.

 

Myth #3. Advertising Sales People Are Trained & Give Quality Advice To Make My Advertising Successful

Unfortunately most ad sales reps are not qualified to give you any advice on what works and what doesn’t in advertising. They are hired guns. They could have been selling cars last week, and selling insurance the week before.

Most have very little training…and the training they do get is SALES TRAINING…not training to help you maximize results of your advertising. Their number one priority is feeding their own families, getting that commission for selling you advertising…not your results. Finding someone who has tested and proven method of getting results and who doesn’t get compensated by selling you ad space is critical!

 

Myth #4. Pictures Are Worth 1000 Words.

Have you heard the old advertising adage “More white space means more readability” or “A picture is worth a thousand words” Sorry but again, this is BAD advertising advice.

First if a picture was worth a thousand words, door to door salespeople would arrive at your door and hold up a picture. If the homeowner liked the picture they hand the dough over. If not, they send them packing. Advertising is nothing more than selling in print!

A picture is not worth a thousand words in advertising. A good rule of thumb is this “If a prospect is interested…they will read as much as you give them.” "The More You Tell, The More You Sell" That’s why you’ll learn to use words combined with pictures to connect emotionally with your prospects, and compel them to come into the store and buy.

 

Myth #5. Price Is The BEST Way To Get Your Prospects Attention

Do you ever feel like a used car dealer when your ads shout “Slashed prices” or “50% Off!”? Does it sicken you to have to practically give away what you used to make a really nice margin on?

It doesn’t have to be this way. Over 50% of the buying population doesn’t have price in their top 3 considerations when making a buying decision…yet over 90% of all furniture advertising leads with low prices. Learning a few of our simple strategies like expertise, premiums to drive sales and 'Reason Why' copy will help you get your margins back to where they belong (and help you stop advertising like a low price used car dealership).

 

Myth #6. Your Ad Must Sell The Prospect… (WRONG...Your Ad Must Compel The Prospect To Come In, Then You Sell Them)

This is a key concept…Your ad must accomplish one and only one thing. Driving the customer into the store. Period. It doesn’t have to educate them on features and benefits. It doesn’t have to convince them not to buy your competitors. It needs to catch their attention, prime their desire and give them an offer compelling enough to get them off the couch and into the store. Then your sales team takes over and moves them closer to the sale.

This is why showing a bunch of products with prices is a total waste...Not to mention setting yourself up for price wars and shrinking margins.

 

Myth #7. Your Marketing Budget Should Be 5 Or 6% of Gross Sales

The first thing to realize is that marketing is not an expense, it’s an investment. An investment in acquiring customers…and customers are the ultimate business asset.

Understanding what the total LIFE-TIME value of your average customer is critical to this process. So instead of limiting your ability to get customers with a percentage… you want to find the most cost effective way of producing new customers that will be worth thousands to you over the long haul. Then invest your dollars in getting those high value customers as heavily as possible. If it turns out to be 3%...fine, if its 9% thats fine too. Most business owners are much too cheap when it comes to buying customers.

 

For More Information About The Traffic Guys and their programs to put loads of paying customers into YOUR store call 800-393-2054, or click HERE