What Is The Point Of Advertising?

I was recently looking through some of my local Yellow Pages and also local business websites in my area when I started to think about the purpose of advertising. I get the weird feeling as I am flipping through some poorly constructed ads and websites that some (ok, a lot of) businesses don’t understand the purpose of advertising.

I think that some businesses advertise in the Yellow Pages or get a website or on the radio or on local TV… because they feel they have to. They think that this is the “thing to do”, they do it because it is expected. They also see it as an expense.

Now, this last one blows me away because advertising is not an expense. Advertising is an investment to be made in your business and it should be using a tested and proven method. You should have a good idea what your return will be and it is best if you can turn it on and off at will. If your advertising is costing you money and you don’t know why you are doing it,

THEN STOP!

Because you are flushing money down the toilet.

You don’t advertise when you can afford it, you advertise when you want to produce results (typically sales). When times get tough for a company, they often cut back on their advertising first. Oh dear. How can a business expect to make money if they are not advertising? They should be advertising more to boost sales, revenue and profits.

The problem is that most advertising is done poorly and is wasted money. Poor headlines don’t connect with customers, poor copy doesn’t interest them, poor (or no) call to action doesn’t invoke the driving urge to run to their phone and call you right now to place their order.

If your advertising does not produce a predictable, positive result for your business, then stop wasting your money on it. Get it fixed. And then turn on the tap of new profits.