Famous Ad man and advertising copywriter Lester Wunderman says, “Yes.”

Of course, saying it can be done and actually creating advertising that is profitable are two very different things.

Before I continue down that road, let me share with you the  Mr. Wunderman’s complete statement.

This is the 6th thing all successful direct marketers know from a list he compiled and I stumbled across in his book Being Direct…

“6. The Next Step: Profitable Advertising

The results of advertising are increasingly measurable; they must now become accountable. Advertising can’t be just a contribution to goodwill – it must become an investment in profits.”

Dem’s fightn words on Madison Avenue…

Can you imagine The Big Ad Agency for Budweiser or Coke or Toyota having to account for every dime of advertising directly against the results it created?

They can’t do it.

So how do you make advertising profitable?

In short, you have to track every ad that goes out. You have to have your copywriter or ad agency or web person put a call to action with a order code or order extension or something on the advertisement. It’s there so that when a prospect responds or a customer buys, they give or send in the code and you know where the lead or sale came from.

Then, you do more of what’s working and drop what’s not working or not working as well.

Let’s see if I can put it in dollars and cents…

Let’s say you have 5 advertisements running at any given time. And for simplicity sake each ad costs you $200… so you’ve got $1,000 in advertising out there.

We’ll say two of those are billboards with your logo and maybe your address. These are big image or goodwill ads… so that’s $400 of your $1,000 budget.

Now, You also have a newspaper ad written by a direct response copywriter costing you $200. It has a call to action and maybe a coupon of some kind.

Then you have a more traditional ad like the newspaper guy told you to run. Then finally, you have some postcards with coupons on them that you mailed out to the area around your business.

Now obviously, these numbers are not to scale but here’s where we are at…

2  Billboards for total of $400

1 Direct Response Space Ad $200

1 Image Space Ad $200

1 Direct Response Postcard $200

Total $1,000

Stay with me and hopefully I can wrap this up in coherent manner…

Let’s say over the next week you get $5,000 worth of new business. Let’s also say that $$1,000 came from the direct response ad because people brought in the coupon to get the offer and another $2,000 came from the postcard offer.

And $2,000 came from some combination of the billboards and other space ad… you think. It could have been referrals, or walk-ins or… Fact is you don’t KNOW where the last $2,000 comes from.

Now, things get tight… the economy is suffering. Your customers are fewer. You need to know when you spend money on anything that you’ll get a return on your investment. Now, which of the 5 ads do you keep and which do you cut?

That’s what accountable, and ultimately profitable, advertising is all about. Tracking your ads and then doing more of what you KNOW works and less of what is just a guess.

Hope that makes sense.

I dare you to let me know your thoughts below…

Those are the words that from the second of “19 things All Successful Direct Marketing Companies Know”

But what else did Lester Wunderman have to say on the topic?

Let’s take a look-see, shall we?

“The product must create value for each of its consumers. It must satisfy consumers’ unique differences, not their commonalities.”

OK… STOP right there! How in the heck are we supposed to make that happen?

If you, like me, have ever wondered… How do I make, or even advertise, one product to satisfy multiple thousands of unique consumers-

Ahhh, there’s the problem, isn’t it? We’ve slipped into thinking about us and the product again – not the consumer.

So let’s see what else Mr. Wunderman has to say…

“The call of the industrial revolution was manufacturers saying, ‘This is what I make, don’t you want it?”

Hmmm, that reminds me of the famous quote of Henry Ford about his first assembly line automobile… “It comes in any color you’d like – as long as it’s black”

Imagine going to the market with that idea today… chance are, unless you had an extremely rare and highly desired product, you’d get laughed out of the market.

Let’s continue…

“The call of the Information Age is consumers asking, ‘This is what I need, won’t you make it?”

Quite a shift, huh?

So how does this apply to your product or service? Do you have to make a unique product or service for each and every customer?

No, I don’t think so. But, I do think that every product or service should start out like it is for an unique individual.

And that is the essence of this point, right?

Start with the consumer in mind. The old saying about starting a business is “to find a need and fill it.” and that is still good advice. Because, in order to find a need, you must think about a unique problem experienced by a real person.

Now, you’ve got the product or service… how does it make the consumer a “Hero”?

This is where advertising copywriters can really earn their pay.

It’s one thing to explain a product… to merely describe the features of a product.

It is another thing entirely to expand those features into benefits that a consumer can relate to.

But to really hit an advertising home run, you must find the unique benefits that create an emotional response in the consumer towards the product or service. As advertising copywriter’s we must break past “useful” – to “desirable” – to “can’t live without because…”

You see, in order for your product to make the consumer a Hero, they have to see what happens because of using your product. What is the effect of using, owning, having your product or service? Will they be a better mom and loved and adored by their children, their spouse.. even their own parents. What about the neighbors?

Maybe it’s an office product… will your consumer think: “because of this product, I will be the office hero.” It may not be that obvious, but that is the basic rational for most products or services… “How will this make me look to others?”

And controlling that response requires work… lots of work.

It requires knowing your consumer in ways your competition doesn’t.

When we as advertisers can honestly create a “gotta have it because…” mentality in the consumer’s mind with a product or service that delivers to an individual, then you’ve got a long standing hit that will be wanted by many consumers.

Because, let’s face it everyone wants to be a Hero in some area of their life.

Your thoughts?

This is part of a list of “19 Things” put together by Lester Wunderman, known as the “Father of Direct Marketing”.

So let’s jump into it shall we?

Direct marketing is a strategy, not a tactic…

“It’s not an ad with a coupon; it’s not a commercial with a toll-free number; it’s not a mailing, a phone call, a promotion, a database, or a website. It is a commitment to getting and keeping valuable customers.”

Those words you just read are not mine but are a direct quote from Lester Wunderman’s great book Being Direct – Making Advertising Pay.

Let’s talk about that statement…

At the moment I am writing this, I am working with a client who is a $300+ million per year direct marketing powerhouse. Over the years, their delivery method for both their products and services have changed. What used to be mostly print ads and publications has now moved online and is delivered through email and websites.

The tactics have changed, the media has changed, but the point of the business is still the same…

Find a customer, make them an offer that benefits them, sell them and build the relationship with more and new information, products and services.

You see, when you continue to build the value you provide to the customer, you are at the same time building the value of the customer…

Wow! that’s a hell of a good statement… Let me say that again with emphasis:

When you continue to build the value you provide to the customer, you are, at the same time, building the value of the customer.

At the risk of tooting my own horn, I have to tell you, that statement is powerful. That is a strategy around which you can build any type of business you want.

Because, you must continue to build the value after the first sale. If you don’t, there won’t be a second sale.

Now, instead of “talking past the sale” as I was told back in my face-to-face selling days, let me ask you…

How can you apply that stement or strategy to your business?

Do you see the difference in strategy versus tactics?

The floor is yours, dear reader, the floor is yours…

Being in marketing and advertising, I always flip through these things to see if anything catches my eye… or to see if I could offer my copywriting services to these businesses.

Anyway check out this picture I took of one ad:

They actually did several good things in this ad…

On the lower right, they play up their strengths…their free this and free that services.

They also have a couple personal pictures… even their dog is featured. Corny? Yes but personal works in advertising.(A post for another day perhaps?)

So not bad, right?

Take a closer look:

At least it's a discount…

Did you catch the typo… and the irony?

OK, to be fair and honest, I completely missed this typo.

But…

My wife did not… and here’s why.

We need some new brakes for the car. So this ad caught her attention because she’s worried about how much new brakes are going to cost.

So at this point the ad is working perfectly, right? Right.

But then she looks at the individual coupons looking for the brake job coupon… and it happens… a typo on the one coupon she’s looking for.

Instantly she goes from interested to “I’m not trusting my car to these guys… they can’t even spell!”

Un-Marketing! rears it’s ugly head once again.

Now maybe you don’t care if your mechanic can write. But I assure you many people do care about typos in ads. To them it says  a lot about the quality of work you’ll do.

[Side Note: Some people believe typos can improve response because it makes you look more human... less perfect. I've never seen the actual numbers or ads to say but I doubt it works across the board.]

Especially when you consider there were at least 3 other car care ads in that same flier on that same day.

Listen, I’m not perfect either. Just look around my site and I’m sure you can find at least one Un-Marketing example… If so let me know so I can fix it, please:)

The point is, we need to try and minimize these lazy mistakes in our marketing as much as possible.

Well, enough of that for today… I need to go proof read a few ads.

Tell me… Have you ever been lazy about your marketing and it cost you or your company sales?

If so let me hear about it below…

Later,

McCool

The article was great. But what really jumped out at me was a headline buried deep in the article.

You see, when Wetzel finally sold the first ATM to a bank in New York, the bank then had to sell the idea to the masses.

Here’s the headline they used:

“On September 3, 1969, our branch will open its doors at 9:00 a.m. and we’ll never close again!”

Shortly after, consumers demanded 24 hour access to their money and banking was changed forever.

It reminds me of the National Cash Register Company back in the 1800′s… but that’s another story for another day.

The question / brain teaser of the day is this:

How could you apply this headline to your business?

Let me hear your ideas below…