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Advertising seems to be some big scary thing that people panic about for no real reason It’s just an advert. There is nothing to fear. The more you play around with them the more you get used to it and learn what does and doesn’t work. As long as you monitor it, that is.
The idea of this blog is to give you a bit more information on adverts and the things that annoy me. I am talking in general terms here, so printed adverts as well as online ones. Even leaflets.
Crazy statements about advertising that are holding you back;
#1 – I ask who are they advertising to and they say “anyone with money”. That’s cute but stupid! Why on earth would a bald bloke care about your hair extension business? He has money, as you requested, but no hair. So your efforts would be wasted.
#2 – “Facebook adverts don’t work.” Actually… they do. Done right, they are amazing! Done wrong. such as boosting your posts because Facebook tells you to, isn’t the best way to spend your marketing budget. They will tell you to boost, they make money. Almost never will you make any.
#3 – Very poor quality images slapped all over your adverts. And you can’t work out why no one is buying. CRINGE!
#4 – People who think an advert HAS to be an offer! Duh, I too thought this. But may I add, there is NOTHING wrong with a discount so people need to get off their high horse about how discounts are bad. They really aren’t.
Let me break some of this down for you.
- You need to know EXACTLY who you are talking to. Why? Because Mr Egg Head isn’t interested! He never will be.. so save your money and focus on WHO you want to be bringing in. Blonde, middle-aged women with corporate jobs..? YES! That’s the spirit. Or families with young children who are time poor and want and need your services for a million reasons. You can do the whole family. When you put an advert out and it has nothing exciting on it, people are just going to scroll right past or turn the page. Wherever your advert is. You need to talk to your ideal client – want more foils… CALLING ALL BLONDES – HIGHLIGHTS ‘ya see? Anyone who isn’t blonde or doesn’t have highlights will ignore it. All of a sudden you’re getting the interest that you want.. because you’ve been specific in your offering.
2. I have done a few courses on Facebook advertising! They are brilliant. It got me a lot of work, but if you keep repeating it and Facebook gets bored of it and then reduces your reach. It needs to be fresh, clean, follow their rules, and positive! Be sure to change up the text and the images or videos now as they love those so much more. And keep on top of it. Join us in The Hairy Business Academy and I will show you much more.
3. Jesus Christ.. the amount of conversations we have had on bloody photos is mental! I cannot stress enough to you how important images are. Blurry, dark, unfocused images and all the clutter in the background are not what people want to see. Instagram is huge now, (still not as big as Facebook, FYI) people love to see pretty, bright, well-lit, flawless images. If your images are crap then people will assume your work is too! That’s just how it is now. Again, we have a photographer in The Academy who can help you. Also, videos are where it’s at now. If you have never got the hang of taking pictures just make videos instead. Problem solved.
4. I was doing a client whose son happened to be there and he has just opened a restaurant and was chatting away about adverts for some reason and he said “so many people think an advert needs to be an offer” and I was like, well yeah.. otherwise what’s the point? Oh, how young and naïve I was haha. In an advert, I just tell people who you are and what you do. Think of John Lewis and their Christmas advert, people get way over-excited about that now. No offerings. No sales. No prices. Just a cute video and people are going crazy. You don’t need to have a multi-million-pound advert to get noticed. Just a small one in the local paper or online will do. But make it catchy. Don’t blend in with all the other people in your area. People love new fresh ideas, even if they aren’t new and fresh, show them in a new light and people will notice you.
Also the thing with discounting, you can 100% do that. The issue is, most people discount an already underpriced service because they haven’t worked out their numbers. You can do that on my Pricing For Profits course. But if you don’t want to discount or add value, then don’t. But stop telling everyone else how to run their business.
I hope all that makes sense to you. Now we move on to the why. Why are you advertising?
To raise awareness? To make sales? To gain trust? To build up your following?
Of course, my young mind was always “I WANNA MAKE SOME MONEEYYYY” and 5 years later I have a bit more sense. But also still want to make money, which is why we are all in business.
Posting a sales offer every time is boring and people don’t want to see £20 OFF every single time, 1 they will never want to pay full price (another post for another day) but also all you ever do is sell sell sell.
Be the person that helps, show off your work, show off your before and afters, show your potential clients that you can work magic on them. Help people understand how and why you do things and what the pros and cons can be for each person. The more your client understands and gets to know you the easier them spending money on you will be.
People buy from people they trust. So get online, get busy, build up your business page, share your best work in other Facebook groups and pages. Being quiet in the corner won’t get you anywhere fast. And I’m sure you have bills to pay like the rest of us.
Check out my post on BRANDING and how it’s important as this is also a big part of advertising.
I can’t remember the exact formula but you can use the old 80/20 rule. 80% useful, informative content and 20% sales. People need to see you 7 times in different places before they buy. And with the world we live in now, that may even be higher.
So to wrap this up, when creating an advert – wherever you choose to do it. Know why you are doing it and make sure you have amazing images that are going to wow people and keep showing off your work, stop ramming sales posts down their throats.
Also, I would highly recommend creating a plan, don’t look in your diary, see an empty week and think ‘shit I better throw an advert out’ and hope for the best. That strategy only works a few times, if that.
Plan it properly and you’ll make lots more money and followers. Which you can do, in detail with us in The Hairy Business Academy. You will also get access to the pricing for profits course in there.
Any questions, you know where I am.
Stephanie xo
Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash