by Sarah J Palmer

Created on: September 21, 2008   Last Updated: October 08, 2008

It's a statistically proven fact that if you always do what you've always done you'll always get what you've always got. If you are rude to people they will be rude in return. If you ignore people they will ignore you and if you irritate them with junk mail and cold calling they are going to irritate you by not buying your goods or services.

Behaviour breeds behaviour but do you really know how you are behaving or performing and what you are getting in return? Have you tested and assessed the effectiveness of your current advertising and branding strategies? Without that knowledge you are going to struggle to know whether your new or different strategies are making a difference.

Obviously if you are thinking of changing tactics you must be dissatisfied with the existing ones but you need to quantify your Return on Investment (ROI) before making changes. Decide by what percentage you want to improve your returns or reduce your investment.

It's not as difficult as it sounds simply take the cost of your last newspaper advert and look at how many responses you received that generated incom. Was it money well spent or have you just realised you don't ask new callers where they heard of your company? How else are you going to judge the effectiveness of your advertising campaign?

Both Advertising and Branding Strategies will be ineffective unless they have been produced as a direct offshoot to your Business Plan. Your Business Plan determines what you want, your strategies says how you are going to get it. Maybe your existing strategies would be more effective if tweaked a little.

Increase your profile within your industry: Don't take a stand at the Trade Show but volunteer to be an Expert Speaker in the Seminar Programme instead.

Increase your accessibility and approachability to your prospective customers: Switch half page colour adverts to full page black and white advertorials prospective customers like to receive expert information for free.

At the end of the advertorial include a call to action - offer readers a free gift, guidebook or assessment if they contact you. Alternatively provide a free to enter competition with questions whose answers can be found in your article and include a tick box on the entry form if they'd like to be sent more information or contacted for an appointment.

Don't just send off press releases to your industry media invite them to a breakfast briefing at your premises or an exclusive lunchtime interview with your most senior executive.

Do your existing adverts list the features of your product or do they tell readers how they'll benefit? The latter is always of more interest. I don't care how many years a solicitor has been in business I'd rather know their success rate in recovering debts that's what will make me pick up the phone to contact them.

It's amazing how many people omit their phone number on a printed advert, commercial vehicles or business correspondence, opting for the cheaper word count option of their web address instead.

This may be the Technology Era but people still like to talk. It is the most traditional method of communication so never make it difficult for prospective customers to talk to you. Record helpful voicemail greetings on all work phones. Include contact numbers on all outgoing correspondence including invoices and delivery notes. Ensure every page of your website bears a physical contact number for a real person. Returning to a Contact Us page can be so tiresome. This simple best practice can make the difference between people remembering your brand with affection, with contempt or simply not at all!

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