"Why Should I Do Business With You?"

I am constantly amazed by the number of business people who haven't taken the time to answer the simple question, "Why should I do business with you?" How you can go about trying to do business and not have a clear reason for potential customers to use your service or buy your product is a mystery to me.

You may be just one of fifty roofers or dentists or carpet cleaners in a given area. So what reason can you give me for doing business with you in particular? Those of you who know me will be smiling right about now, because you know I tell you that this is the seed of your advertising program.

Let's say you are an auto mechanic. What sets you apart from the auto mechanic down the street, or who has the next biggest ad or the listing ahead of yours? Is there anything you can tell me to convince me to give you the call or the visit to repair my car? Or are you just the same as the next guy? Are you going to leave it to the "luck of the draw" as to whether you get my business or not? What can you tell me that is honest, true and unique about your repair shop?

In the marketing/advertising world, this is called your USP, Unique Selling Proposition. If your ad is only full of bullet points of information (just like the other guys), you are missing the point of effectively advertising. Most repair shops are going to change oil, do brake jobs, tune-ups, engine diagnostics, tire sales, etc. Those are good to list, especially if you do things like wheel alignments, which is something not all shops are equipped to do. But if you want my business, tell me something more that helps me decide to give you my business. (If I need an alignment, then mentioning it is part of what I am talking about, but there is more.) The same principle applies, regardless of the type of business you have.

Make sure you promote your brand, including your logo and slogan. But if you have anything that makes you distinctive, make sure you trumpet it in your advertising. Whether it is lifetime warranties, 24 hour emergency service, mobile service, certifications of some kind, additional services you provide, greater longevity, more inventory, larger service area, more choices -- there should be something that will be attractive to the customers you want.

So examine your ads. Whether it is a commercial, flyer, PPC ad, display ad, billboard, or whatever, make sure you tell your potential customers why, out of all the other people who could do for them what you do, they should give their business to you. That is one important, often neglected, element in assuring you get maximum response to your advertising investment.

The Small Business Person's Dreams Have Come True!

It's finally here! The help you have been looking for to make sense of this thing called "advertising". I have a quote in my book about what John Wanamaker said about a century ago and it goes something like this: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted. I just don't know which half!"

Well, my book, "Sensible Small Business Advertising" will help you out of that kind of jam. If you have wondered how to go about choosing the "right" advertising for your business, or if you have had problems getting it to work for you, or if you have never advertised before and are trying to make a go of it without understanding what to do and when, then this book is for you.

It also addresses a lot of issues you won't find mentioned in the more academic books on the subject -- things like how to identify and avoid scams, how to negotiate with ad salespeople, what the two essential types of advertising are, how to balance them, and how to measure the return on your investment.

There is much more information in these easy-to-read pages. You'll learn why it isn't enough to go into business solely to make money, when to consider using an advertising consultant, how to plan your advertising campaign from start-up to business maturity, and why you should not replace traditional media with internet-only advertising. I invite you to order your copy on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online, then pass the word to your business friends who could use a little guidance too.

Avoid "Ho-Hum" Branding

If I were to ask you what company is represented by a gecko lizard, the answer almost anyone would give me is "Geico". Of course. Geico did an excellent job (a long time ago in terms of longevity of ad campaigns) of using the similar sounding lizard name to help brand theirs. And that "hook" is still working today. Geico's commercials and advertising are memorable when tied to the gecko.

But you may not recall a commercial with this scenario:  It is night in the city after a rainfall. A small car rounds a corner and runs through a pothole, blowing a tire in the process. The car stops. The pothole begins to talk, in a female voice with a Southern accent, and says something like this:  "Oh noooo. Yer tire's all flat and junk. Aww, did I do that? Here. Let me get my cellular out, call you a wrecker. Oh, shoot! I got no phone. 'Cuz I'm a pothooole? Sooooo...... "Kay, Bye." The asphalt on the edge of the pothole flapped as it talked. I thought it was hilarious the first time I saw it. But it was shortlived. I only saw it a few times. View it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjMUfIKktWU But before you watch it, tell me this:

What product was it for? And for what company? Did you know it, too, was a Geico commercial? Well, it was. But although it had a humorous story line, it didn't work as well because it didn't brand strongly enough. For many companies and products, humor is great for drawing attention to advertising, but if it falls short of solidifying your brand in the consumer's mind, it could be considered a failure. Even when not using humor, whatever your message is, whatever genre or approach you use, you will know whether you have achieved success or not by measuring how strongly people are able to identify your brand as a result of it.


Think of all the Super Bowl commercials you have seen. The advertisers spent 4 million dollars for a 30 second commercial. Of the commercials you can remember, how many of them do you remember for their humor or for their "warm and fuzzy"-ness? And for how many of those can you name the brand of the company or product?


For each one that you laughed at, but you can't immediately recall the brand, you can consider that the sponsoring company just paid 4 million dollars for a 30 second comedy, just to give you a chuckle. But in terms of advertising, those same commercials were failures.

Remember that lesson when planning your advertising campaign. "Ho-Hum" branding is any branding that fails to make your business or product name the main point of the ad or commercial. Everything else is just the vehicle used to drive that point home.