Proof Reading Trick

Typos in ads are surprisingly hard to find. Our minds sometimes play tricks on us when we are proof reading. We will read what we expect to see, rather than what is actually on the page. If we know the line is supposed to say "Cheese Pizza" that is what we will see, even if the type says "Cheese Piazza". To avoid this problem I like to read all of my ads backwards. We learn to read from left to right, top to bottom, as we get older this pattern becomes automatic. In the interest of speed we stop focusing on individual words and begin taking in information in "chunks." This is why if a word is close to correct we may gloss over it. By reading each line from right to left, we break our normal pattern and force ourselves to read each individual word. Taking a few minutes to do this can prevent typos in your ads and save you a lot of grief from customers.

Keep selling, keep smiling.

Thanks--Jim Busch

The web myth

Today (October 27, 2009) is the 15th birthday of Internet advertising. On this date in 1994 the first banner ads were posted on the web. In the intervening years many people have come to see web advertising as the magic wand of marketing. Businesses want to believe that they can put up a web site and the customers will come rolling in ("You get money for nothing and your clicks for free!") This is not quite true. The web is a victim of it's own success, with so much online clutter, your customer's website can easily be overlooked. Even Internet giants like E-bay and Yahoo realize they have to advertise in other media to drive traffic to their sites.

To demonstrate the need to promote their website in my papers I do a little "surfing" with my clients. Typically they know their web address and go directly to it in their browser. I ask them to find their site the way consumers usually do--by Googling it. Google and other search engines make their money by selling "sponsored listings." I did this recently with a local carpet company. The results of my search found the customer's site but they were listed below a number of discount dealers offering up to 60% off retail. One of the companies listed suggested shopping at your local store, getting the stock number and then comparing prices online. By including their web address in a print ad, the carpet store can ensure that shoppers will go directly to their site without having to compete with the online discounters. By directing shoppers to their site in print they can turn the information super highway into a one way street leading right to their store.

Keep smiling, keep selling

Thanks Jim Busch

Selling against TV

Here's a fact from yesterday's USA Today (Tuesday October, 13, 2009) that should interest anyone who is considering television advertising.

In 2002 1.5 million Americans owned a DVR

In 2009 43.7 million Americans own a DVR

One of the main reasons people buy digital video recorders is to avoid commercials. Even if a consumer watches the program a business has purchased, the likelihood of their commercial being seen is significantly less than a few years ago. If you have advertisers who invest in local broadcast or cable advertising, share this fact with them. They would do better advertising in your paper where consumers actively seek out the ads rather than actively trying to avoid them.

Keep smiling, keep selling

Thanks Jim Busch

Welcome

Welcome to Ideas and Eyeballs.

This blog is dedicated to helping advertising sales people and advertising sales managers achieve their goals. My goal is to provide front line sales people with practical information that they can use to make more sales and better serve their advertisers. After 30 years as a sales person, sales manager and sales trainer, I believe I can offer you some unique insights. My career takes me around the country and I get to talk to some of the most successful people in the industry. I am also a bit of a "sales geek", I spend a lot of time reading books on sales, advertising, marketing and psychology.

I love to talk to other sales people and learn from them. Unfortunately I can't sit down with each of you and have a face to face conversation. Fairfax Cone once said "Advertising is what you do when you can't go see somebody," the same could be said of this blog. Knowledge is useless, unless it is shared, this blog is my way of sharing what I have learned and I hope you will want to share your thoughts with me.

My goal is to post at least twice week. Initially I will do this on Monday and Thursday mornings. Thank you for reading this.

Thanks--Jim B.