Roughly every quarter Advertising Age Magazine comes out with its examples of good ads from the past few months. See What Print Ads Worked this Summer and get an idea of the creative elements were that made these ads stand above their competitors.

Is this a definative list? No, but its a good starting spot. And if you have designers, print out the ads and show them. Hell, even discuss what they could do better in your designs to be like these winners.

Airlines missing the mark?

Goofing around with this concept, I stumbled across this unique in-air ad agency InterAir Media. They list a lot of ideas on their site, like flyers in seat back pockets, in-air video, etc. I’ve thought there is also the possibility for a modified seat back lightbox to display ads.

There are plenty of options, its just a matter of giving a couple a shot and seeing what happens. But if I was in the business of reaching business travelers, I would surely be trying to leverage some deals with the airlines.

Now before everyone thinks I’ve gone nuts, let me explain. In this movie there are three key elements that, if applied, will dramatically improve any business or marketing program.

Key Message Number 1:

If you build it, he will come.

Opening the doors of your business is simply not enough. You must create a strong stable platform on which you can compete. You must be the best in your market, or have a good reason someone should buy from you. You’ve got to give them a reason to pay attention to you.

When Warren Buffett is looking for a business to invest in he says he is looking for, “Durable Competitive Advantage.” Durable Competitive Advantage is about creating a platform to compete on for the long term. Most small business say they compete on Customer Service. And usually the ones who preach that the loudest are often the worst at it. If you pick something as your competitive platform, make sure you are able to be the best, and sustain it. Measure it. Keep an eye on your competitors, and make sure you are ahead of them in your platform.

Only once you master your platform will any other marketing work. Simply started, if you don’t build something worth coming to for the long term, people will not come.

Key Message Number 2:

Ease His Pain

Your main goal in business is to identify and solve your customers pain. Consumers love to create pain. They need new clothes, new cars, new golf clubs, new jewelry, whatever you sell. And that pain burns deep. It’s your job to identify those pains and solve them.

Finding a pain and solving it is not as simple as saying, “I’ve got golf clubs for sale, buy from me”. People don’t buy golf clubs because they want them, they buy them because they want to outdrive their golfing buddies, or out putt their spouse, or join the golfing team, or be like Tiger. They have a reason, and you need to understand that before you can even begin to ease it.

Keep in mind, consumers often have multiple pains. The more you can solve at once, and the better you understand them, the more prospective customers will trust you.

Key Message Number 3:

Go The Distance.

Once you understand what your customers are looking for, and you know how to solve that pain, it does you no good unless you can communicate that. Too often businesses just run an ad when they feel like it. Or just because their ad rep tell them its time.

Running an ad campaign must be strategic. You must make a plan to communicate your new found pain solving methods. Customers need to know that you have the ability to make their pain go away, that you sympathize with them, and that you are the best solution to solve their pain now.

To do that you need to have a strategic plan to run a series of branding and action ads. Branding ads position you as an expert in your field, and action ads show how you can solve specific pains. You need to run both, and run them consistently in order to make an impact. Running a sale on every third friday won’t cut it. It’ll just make your ad rep money. Stop wasting your money on stupid one shot ads, either commit to a real plan or get out of the way.

Later on I will go more in depth on each topic and give you some ideas on how to put each into play. If you have questions in the meantime, feel free to contact me.

Remember customers are stupid. So don’t try to hard to impress them. Keep it simple and get right to the point. To often marketers think they are the next Michelangelo and start creating breathtakingly beautiful ads. All these ads really do is impress other marketers, and stroke egos. They don’t convert, they don’t make money. Now there will always be exceptions. But as a whole, your customers are bombarded daily with marketing message. Tell them quickly what you have to offer and move them along. You need to get them into your conversion funnel, or sales process, not sitting around admiring the beauty of your ad.

Now a good looking ad does have benefits, but there is a balance. Make sure your ad looks good enough so that it isn’t distracting in its ugliness, but not to beautiful that it takes away from your message.

Remember customers are stupid, they need things presented very simply to them, and they will respond. Get too creative and they will be confused and just move on.

Money is the root of all opportunity… what you do with that money is up to you. If you choose to use your opportunity for evil, then so be it. And often greed makes one learn towards the evil side. But its when money is used for good opportunities that you really see the growth.

Here’s what I mean. Take a small business who just today told me, “It’s been slow for the last couple months. I don’t think the advertising I am doing is working. But I can’t do any more until things pick back up”

Alright, here’s whats wrong with that…

First, the advertising is with my competitor… so I can’t help her do good advertising.

And Second, if you are slow, you must make your advertising work to draw more business. Advertising can not be a result of success. You must use your money to create opportunity… You can not wait for opportunity to create your money. You will be waiting for a long time.

Key Message: If you advertising is not working… screw the contract… force them to make it work, or better yet, take some responsibility and work on your advertising message.

Seriously… do you think that just showing up is enough to make your business grow? It isn’t. Just because you opened your doors and your mother really likes your business doesn’t mean that its successful or even good.

If you are going to commit… Go Big. Put in the time, ask for help, do the research, make it worthwhile.

Most business owners have no problem hiring a lawyer and an accountant, but they think they can handle their marketing all by themselves.

Stop Pretending You Can Do It Yourself!

It’s ok to seek out help. And if you are honest with yourself, you probably need it. So don’t be afraid to seek out marketing counsel to grow your business.

And if you don’t know where to start. Contact me on the about us page, and I can hook you up with someone who can help your business grow.

My response? Your business sucks. You are not unique, there is nothing special about you. Why is it that most businesses are so hell bent on competing based on “customer service” yet Wal-Mart gives better customer service than them.

Most small businesses are not set up for great customer service, most can’t even pull off mediocre customer service. So stop using that as your platform for you business success. It won’t work.

So what can you do to stop your business from sucking? Simple:

• Identify what is unique about your business (and if you say customer service, go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect $200)
• Leverage your uniqueness. Use it everywhere
• Stop trying to compete where you can’t. And don’t pretend competition doesn’t exist.