YOU ARE BLEEDING 6 OUT OF EVERY 10 PROSPECTS — AND YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE THE HOLE IS.

Dear Business Owners

“The fastest way of growing business is paid ads”

We have created hundreds of successful business strategies and marketing campaigns for clients. Here is part of what we’ve learned.

People don’t stay on social media in order to see your ads. Only one ad in fifteen makes any impression at all on the viewer. Yet few packaged goods can survive without ads. It is the most effective selling tool ever invented for the introduction of new products.

What follows are some ways you can get the most for the money you put behind paid ads.

Your most important decision : What you say is more important than how you say it. Your most important decision is how to position your product. Should you position Dove as a product for older women with dry skin—or as a product which cannot irritate sensitive skin? Should you position Shake ‘n Bake as a new kind of chicken dinner—or as a better way to make fried chicken?

Make a promise : Once you determine how to position your product, boil your advertising down to a simple promise. Then deliver that promise as if your job depended on it. Keep it simple. Most paid ads are too complicated. They try to deliver too many ideas—and end up delivering none.

Beware: If your promise can be construed to be in any way misleading, you run the risk of having to go to court. Caveat vendor.

What’s the big idea? : It takes a big idea to jolt the consumer out of her indifference—to make her notice your ads, remember it, and take action. Big ideas are usually simple ideas—like the “Crown” campaign for Imperial Margarine, which ran for eleven years.

Be consistent : Too many good campaigns are yanked off the air before they have begun to pay off. Your brand image should be consistent from year to year. Pepperidge Farm has promised old-fashioned goodness for fifteen years. Commercials for Nationwide Insurance have projected a consistent image for five years; awareness has quintupled.

Have a heart : You are advertising to human beings. They cannot be bludgeoned into buying your product. An ad that is warm and human is more likely to succeed than one which is cold and impersonal. One of history’s great campaigns for Spray ‘n Vac rug cleaner delivered a strong promise in a human way. After six months of national advertising, Spray ‘n Vac became the best selling brand in its category.