Paying for ad campaigns that bring little or nothing more than a bunch of impressions is frustrating and mind-boggling.

You can think you're doing everything right - modeling ads on others you see around, doing your homework by checking your competitors' ads, putting your company in a good light - what could be the problem?

Most small and medium-sized businesses are making the same mistakes in their ad campaigns and if you haven't had time to study marketing, which most business owners have not, the most logical thing is to look around for example ads and then model your ad on those.

I am here to tell you that nearly all examples surrounding you every day are mediocre.

How Can I Write A Great Ad Without Studying Marketing?

There is in fact a highly effective form of marketing that does not take years to learn or a huge budget to implement.

It's called direct response marketing and what sets it apart from other marketing is that:

1. It targets a very specific group of people - your ideal customers

2. It always asks people to take an action, getting them interacting with your brand right away

Direct marketing isn't limited to digital marketing - it can also be done using email, direct mail or telemarketing, as a few examples.

Why Direct Marketing Is Perfect For Small or Medium-Sized Businesses

In direct marketing we sell only to those people most likely to buy our product, rather than blasting our ad to a huge and diverse audience, hoping for miracles. This alone raises:

Cost-Effectiveness: Due to spending more on ads for likely customers and less on unlikely customers will save money.

Targeted Approach: Narrowing down your best audience will help in all future campaigns to get better results.

Getting people to take an action and interact with our ad gives:

Measurable Results: In this way facts can be measured and contact data can be collected to keep in touch with interested people.

What is the point and why do these simple principles work?

The more specifically you narrow down your audience, the more you can tailor your message to them. This is extremely effective because people feel like you understand them (and you do) and therefore they are much more likely to take action toward your product or service.

Market research coupled with strict A/B testing in ad campaigns - testing two headlines against each other for example - are some of the ways you can get closer to reaching the right people.

The ads themselves, in asking people to take action, also provide valuable data on what types of people are interacting.

While I aim to get two dollars back for every advertising dollar spent, due to excellent market research, audience selection and solid ad writing, I have seen returns of twelve to thirteen times ad spend using direct marketing.

Can you imagine how much money you're losing by not doing direct advertising?

For small and medium-sized businesses, this strategy can provide an impactful method to run highly profitable ad campaigns without a huge budget. If you need any help getting this set up for your business, feel free to contact us for a free marketing analysis.