Do Business Well

10. Curtail your advertising agent’s spending

An agent makes more money, the more you spend. He’ll be happy if you go for a bigger, more expensive, more frequent advertising campaign. It could be worth monitoring that expenditure does not exceed the agreed budget figure.

11. Buy publicity-related services direct from the supplier

Advertising agents will usually make a profit on any service, however small, that they arrange for you. Search for opportunities to go direct for some of these services. In quiet times you may well have the capacity to do the work yourself.

12. Update your mailing list

It may be costing a pretty penny sending news bulletins, advertising information etc to companies or people who no longer exist or, if they do, no longer play a significant role in your company’s activities. Put a return address on your envelopes to increase the chance of undelivered items coming back to you.

13. Control the issue of give-aways

Unless they’re good they won’t be well received. Check that they’re necessary in order to get more business.

14. Limit the number of Christmas gifts you hand out

Be very careful about whom you give Christmas gifts to. You never know what petty jealousy they may be creating and unless you hand them out personally there is a chance that the wrong person will receive the gift. If you make a definite rule not to give company presents at Christmas you may save a lot of aggravation as well as money.

15. Analyse the effectiveness of advertising

By putting a reference on the reply coupon contained in your advertisement you can identify which magazines, which issue etc produced the best response, not only as to quantity but also quality. In later advertising campaigns, eliminate those magazines which gave a poor response.

16. Advertising by direct mail

There are firms which can give you lists of almost everything — builders, farmers, garden centres etc. Such lists detail the full names, addresses and telephone numbers and can be analysed by area, type, size etc. Coupled with the use of the latest word processing equipment, they enable you to contact the customer directly by name.

17. Advertising by telephone

Like direct mail this form of communication has a better chance of making contact with the person at whom the advertising is aimed. It also gives an opportunity for feedback and can be quite cost-effective.

18. Share the cost of an advert

If your firm provides a product or service as a constituent part of a product or service in which others are involved, it may be in your interest to consider joint or shared advertising, eg the major suppliers to a construction project.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
Expenditure on Advertising: Would I have made more Profit if I had Spent less on Advertising? (10-18)

• Expenditure on Advertising: Would I have made more Profit if I had Spent less on Advertising? (1-9)
• I Made My Own Advertising Work part 3
• Control your cash flow because cash is king
• I Made My Own Advertising Work part 1
• How Will You Promote Your Product or Service?
• It takes time so have faith: Six simple steps ( 3&4)
• The Language of Net Advertising
• Advertising Loves to Entertain; Its Real Objective Should Be to Generate Excitement
• Does Advertising have a Future?
• Banner Ads and Ad Networks Aid Online Website

5 Comments »