And when we begin advertising a product, telling people that the product exists and that one should trade its money ( or other assets ) for it, many people have expectation that their hard work will show direct success. One of the biggest problems with measuring success is that in all honestly, other than revenue over a great period of time, you can never truly measure the effects of a campaign.
If you advertise a show by passing out flyers and creating 2.0 website groups, how can you tell which part of the campaign influenced them more? How do you know if it influenced anyone at all?
Anyone who advertises ( espcially for people who don’t do it often ) can sometimes become discouraged with certain methods or campaigns because they don’t result in positive attention. You put up 30 raido ads in a week for your restaurant; you don’t see any new customers. You sponsor non-profit events that are attended by over 20,000 people; you get only three responses about your business. You partnership with a local business to showcase your brand around the area; you get no new traffic to your website.
If you ever get upset at these outcomes, you can come to the conclusion that the campaign was a failure. But many times people assume that the failure is due to the campaign itself, and not the timing. The timing is wrong because the advertising was done too close to the event ( ie: passing out flyers a day before the show ), or the results are measured too early ( ie: I started my radio ads and haven’t received better weekly sales ).
The best way to go about creating campaigns is simple: Start early, measure late. If you are advertising anything, make sure to seed your campaigns very early. Especially for non-event advertising ( such as branding, local business, websites ), it always takes time for a consumer to recognize a symbol and its meaning. If you advertise anything, the amoutn of exposure needed for a consumer to embed a message within their head is usually 4-8 times within a given week, and lesser over time.
The person receiving the advertisement usually never recognizes or remembers the message upon the first 2-4 times, and it takes even more times for saturated media venues like newspapers, websites, or flyer boards. Starting off early can embed the message for easier facilitation of new advertisements in the future, as well as a quick recognition of their meaning ( essentially branding: Isn’t easy to just see Windows, Coca-Cola, or even a local store, and understand the message automatically ).
This can help people to advertise better in the future because you don’t have to work as hard with trying to introduce a new advertisement and force someone to recognize it. You have a local band? Try exposing a poster three months before a gig, instead of two weeks.
Doesn’t it cost more money to start campaigns earlier?
Yes and no. Yes if you organize your campaign in the same way but for a longer period of time. But no if you organize the entire campaign better and work on a longer time period. You can create small ads on big website networks such as Facebook or Craigslist once a week for a few weeks before you actually begin full-fledged advertising. You will spend a tiny bit of money and time, but you will have a head-start on having people recognize your message.
The true plus-side to any advertising is that the longer you have your message out there, the more success you will have in your advertising in the future. This is one reason why it is hard to measure initial success from a campaign. What if someone recognizes your restaurant two years from being advertised and decides to take their family to your establishment for dinner?
What if journalist heard about your band through flyers during their years in college, and decides to listen and review your album in a newspaper? What if you build a website, and your content moves up the chain in Google searches?
You can see, seeding your advertising campaigns is one of the greatest keys to advertising success. It is only common sense that tells us that the longer you place a message in front of someone, the easier they can recognize and react to it. The biggest companies had given their due diligence in advertising and marketing in the past, and now they can reap the benefits of a persistent message.
My advice to you: don’t lose hope. Be persistent and patient, and your work will pay off. Just ask Robert Woodruff
