Touch Points

CAN YOU FOG A MIRROR OR ARE YOU JUST DEAD WHEN IT COMES TO ADVERTISING? Part 3

3. Not fully utilizing your available signage.

Your easiest and cheapest form of advertising will almost always be your signage. Nothing stimulates the purchasing power of the shopping public more than windows covered with a big sign saying “Opening Soon.” Capitalize on your location and the traffic (pedestrian and vehicular) with a sign or signs that stand out from the rest of the business signs around you. Don’t allow a graphic designer to create just another sign that fits in with all the rest; be bold, creative, different - but above all, make sure you do it right. The number of new businesses that skimp on signage is legend. A cheap, ill-conceived sign tells the world you really aren’t ready to play on the same turf as your competitors. Who intuitively knows that? Your potential customers. And guess who won’t shop your store because of it? Those same potential customers. They write you off without even giving you a chance.

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Here’s a link to an article from this week’s WSJ: Article Buying and Selling in a Finicky World by Brian Steinberg. The text of the article follows...

CAN YOU FOG A MIRROR OR ARE YOU JUST DEAD WHEN IT COMES TO ADVERTISING? Part 2

2. Not making any room in your budget for advertising.

“I’ll advertise when I get more established and get some money coming in.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard that. What usually happens is the money NEVER comes in and the business is always behind, so they never get to any promotion until they advertise their closing-out sale. One prime form of advertising is your location. Sometimes, an outstanding geographic location of your shop doesn’t even need much more advertising than eye-popping signage. However the less appealing your business’s location, the more you need to spend on alternate forms of advertising. Budget for it.

CAN YOU FOG A MIRROR OR ARE YOU JUST DEAD WHEN IT COMES TO ADVERTISING?

When you came in to work today, did you die when you had to make a decision on your advertising? If you didn’t recoil into a fetal position and your brain’s neurons actually fired up, on what did you base your decision? Gut feel?

Here is the first of the twelve most common advertising mistakes made by new businesses everywhere. I hope you don’t find yourself making these when you are launching your business and I especially hope you’re not making them if you’re one of the old dogs. I don’t meant to belittle your decision-making, but I see it every day and it causes me to wither away a little bit every time.

1. Expecting to open the...