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THIS WEEK
When Should you Change your Business Ads?
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
When Should You Change Your Business Ads?
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Many small businesses struggle with their ads. Particularly around Yellow Pages time we see many businesses who want to change their Yellow Pages ads from their previous ones.
But before you leap into all that time and expense creating a new ad with advertising copywriting and graphic design – you need to ask yourself a few questions.
Are the ads still working? If you are still getting a consistent positive response rate, then it is likely you are just bored with your ad, but your customer isn't. Some of the best ads remain exactly the same for 10 years or more.
Do you have proof that they are working? Do you have some way to track the actual results? Do you always ask how you were found? Do you have a particular tracking code that automatically counts each person on the way through the process? Make your decisions about your ads based on maths not emotion.
Are you willing to test your control? You need to invest in testing in order to generate the best result. If an ad works, then it is called the "control" - similar to a science experiment. You then need to measure everything you want to do against the control ad. Ideally what you need to do is first test variations of the control to see if an adjustment of the headline, guarantee or offer will improve your response rate. Then try comparing the results against different ads to see if the different ad performs better or worse. If it performs better – you have a new control ad.
Test small – roll out big. When you are testing you need to test with a large enough sample to give you data, but small enough so you are not wasting money. Once you have a control that works you can then roll it out to larger numbers of people, confident in your response rate.
 There is no such thing as gradual results. To be blunt – if you are going to get a result, you will get it from the first ad. Every ad should at a minimum pay for itself – and your control ad should consistently generate returns many many times over. Ads for small business need to generate a clear return on investment – otherwise find another way to get your message out to the market.
Think of testing in the same way as you would test prototypes of new inventions to see which works best, or how you have a suit made to measure where adjustments are made through fitting processes. Words also need adjustment to fit and ads are no exception.
In terms of testing, Google Adwords are a great way to test headlines and subheadlines for the most powerful response. Some companies have different phone numbers each year for their Yellow Pages ad so they can track call throughs from the ad.
Still other companies use what is called "split testing" in terms of their website copy – where people are randomly sent to one of a number of pages identical bar one or two elements to test the results.
So when should you change your ads?
- When your control is no longer working and you aren't getting results
- When the ad is unprofitable
- When you have a better control
Of course, if you have a totally new service or offer, then it is a different story – but all of the above questions still apply in terms of creating a control for your new ad. If you are willing to answer these questions, you will end up with more powerful and effective ads and better business results.
| HR Tip of the Week - Corporate Dress Standards |
 It may seem strange but dress standards are on the rise again. With the change in economic conditions we are seeing an increase in the requirement for more corporate dress standards.
What I found over the years were that uniforms/dress standard were a reflection of the underpinning culture and morale. Where there were problems in a team, the standard of dress was one of the first visible signs that something was wrong. Don't ignore uniform/corporate dress issues.
If you are caught with employees who look more like they are going to the beach or disco, you have a challenge ahead of you.
First you need to make sure each and every manager knows and wears the acceptable standard of dress every day. Without this first step - nothing you do or say will work. If the manager is lax on this issue you will generally find they are lax on many head office or management issues.
You then have to ensure you have a clear corporate policy on what is acceptable and communicate it to your employees. Finally you need to take action when employees breach this policy.
The challenge is that many of your Gen Y's in particular have no real idea what you mean when you say acceptable corporate dress. If your Gen Y's are not complying, you may need to look at how you are communicating in general to them, and adapt your style. One enterprising HR Manager recently put together a style guide using photos from catalogues to give her team a visual clue of what was acceptable and what no longer "worked".
 One of the worst jobs in HR has to be sifting through piles of resumes to fill a vacancy.
Why is it the worst job? Well there were times when I would have a pile of up to 1000 resumes for one position. We simply didn't have time to read them in depth, so each resume would get a quick 10 second run over - and were thrown into a definite yes, definite no and maybe pile.
The definite yes pile had people who obviously met the selection criteria, whose resumes were clearly laid out and it was easy to understand how they would benefit the company.
The no pile were people who were underqualified or whose resumes were so hard to understand that we would have had to spend hours teasing out if they did in fact have the skills.
The maybe pile had some of the things we were looking for - but generally we would still have to spend a bit more time to comb through them to work out if they really met what we were looking for.
To be honest - if we had 5-10 good resumes in the yes pile - the maybe pile generally didn't get much attention.
It used to frustrate the heck out of me because I knew that we were missing potentially great candidates. Given our time pressures we couldn't see everyone, so because of the quality of their resumes these people (and our company) missed out.
I have been looking for a while to find a course to teach people how to write resumes and I finally found a great one. Beverley Neil is one of the true experts in writing powerful resumes. Her work has won international awards as well as countless jobs for her clients.
She has put together a Resume Writers Course which was designed to teach resume writing skills to people who want to start their own resume writing business.
But in my experience the Resume Writers course content is ideal no matter if you:
- just want to polish your own resume
- are helping your teen get their first job
- are a HR manager and want to teach your employees how to boost their skills
- are a not for profit helping job seekers find jobs
Don't be in the no or maybe pile. With Beverly's course you will make it into the yes pile more often.
Oh and the best bit ... with her full course option Beverly personally critiques your first application and resume to make sure you are presenting it in the best possible way. She is a lovely lady and really knows her stuff - so this is no small offer.
Check out the Resume Writers course - I personally think it should be mandatory for all job seekers and businesses.
Yesterday Zappos was bought out by Amazon. So what? Well the CEO of Zappos wrote the best example of a letter to his team that I have read. If you every are part of a take-over, merger, acquisition or buy out you need a copy of this letter on file to show how it should be done.
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog included a post about "Get Response - A Lesson in How to Kill a Company."
Legal stuff: This newsletter is intended only a general guideline for Australian businesses. You should seek specific advice for your situation rather than relying only on this newsletter
Earnings disclaimer. Some of the content may include advertorial information, which means I may receive financial compensation for the products I recommend. But - unless I know and trust the product, I will not recommend it.
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