The good news and bad news about ad campaigns is that price and results are not necessarily connected. You can pay the same price for poor results as you would for great results.

The difference is based on what you put into your campaign before you implement. Plan well and you’ll get better results out of it.

Here is a simple and effective four-step method to plan your advertising so you can see better results from your campaign without spending more money.

A. Understand your strengths
Ask yourself these questions:
● Why do people buy from you?
● What do you really do for your customers?
● How are you better than your competition?
● What special skills or advantages do you have?

The answers to these questions are your competitive advantages. They are what make you stand out from your competition. They may be related to price, location, professional skills, attitude, responsiveness or your own personality.

People buy from you because you do something for them no one else does. Understand this and you've taken the first step to create a better ad campaign.

B. Identify your customers (your target market)
To promote your business you should focus on people who value what you do. Your strengths (or competitive advantages) will help you focus on who will most value your service or product.

For example, if your location is your strength, target your message on the customers who desire a convenient location. If product / service quality is your strength, focus on customers who appreciate quality.

To get an idea of who your target market is, look at your current customers. Or, look at your profit margins to decide which type of customers to focus on. You might have several target markets because you have several products or services and a variety of strengths.

Focus on people who will place a high value on what you can do for them. These will be your most loyal and profitable customers.

C. Create a meaningful message
This is, without question, the most important element in your advertising. Crafting a message that is compelling, persuasive and delivered to the heart will overcome poor production quality and a weak media schedule.

Conversely, the greatest media schedule and the slickest production quality will fail miserably when combined with a message that doesn’t resonate with prospects.

Your message needs to make your prospects want to do business with you. Engage the imagination and tell the customer what they want to hear, not just what you want to say. Speak in language they understand, not your industry jargon.

Finally, deliver one message at a time across all mediums your campaign employs. This will amplify for message and deliver far greater returns.

D. Deliver your message as often as your budget allows.
You’ve analyzed your strengths, you know who your customers are and you’ve created a message that targets the emotions and will persuade people to want to buy from you. Now it’s time to buy ad space / air time. You have multiple choices here: TV, radio, outdoor, direct mail, newspapers and so on…

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