Are you ever pulled in multiple directions from different sales people trying to sell you advertising? Have you ever advertised and found it unsuccessful?  Perhaps it had a very low Return on Investment (ROI). You thought, “I’ll never do this again.”

Many people I talk to have told me just that. They think advertising just doesn’t work. When I ask them what kind of advertising they did, I often find out they were advertising in a medium that wasn’t right for their target market.

I recently had a client try to make a cable TV buy on their own.  Fortunately, right before the order was placed it occurred to them to check with me. The buy was all wrong for them. The salesperson was just trying to sell them advertising and was not concerned whether or not it would be effective. The salesperson put them into networks with higher male demographics and children’s shows (this client was trying to reach busy working females).

Others I talk to had someone call on them using a high pressure sales tactic, “If you don’t advertise in here, you’ll lose business.” Or, “Your competitor is advertising in here – you should too if you don’t want to lose business.”  I tell my clients just because their competitor is doing something, doesn’t make it a good media buy.  Often times in cases where the salesperson is using these high pressure techniques, business owners end up not doing their research and impulse buying expensive advertising that doesn’t get results.

You can avoid this – how?

Use a professional media buyer.  A professional media buyer can save you hundreds of dollars by making sure you only spend money in the right mediums and getting you the best deals possible. However, the best way to avoid these media buying pitfalls is to have a marketing plan, which includes a media plan.  Knowing in advance what your budget is and how you will be spending it alleviates last minute deals presented to you in high pressure situations.

Contact First Page Fitness to learn more about a customized marketing plan for your business. You will be surprised at how affordable it is, and in the long run this will save you many thousands of misspent dollars.