As you plan to sell your goods and services, your prospective buyers can be sliced and diced into many demographic categories.

One of the most important categories of prospects is those uninformed about your offerings, yet on your list of targets of those who would be likely to purchase them.

Your advertising is the most economical way to reach this group efficiently and quickly.

Messages placed directly in front of your prospects is the way to grab their attention. A number of years ago, when I was in a position where I needed to do this, I commissioned unique collateral materials which were mailed to our prospect list in about a six week cycle.

Given the same assignment today, I would likely not take the route of mailing collateral materials. Why? First, the cost of the materials would be expensive, as compared to other options. Second, my self-generated mailing list would be small and would not begin to cover the universe of likely prospects.

A telemarketing group could be employed to call the likely prospects, if you have a good list. However, this also has limits, in that it is likely confined to one language and just a few time zones. On top of that, actually persuading the prospects to stay on the line long enough to hear the message is very, very difficult.

Advertising in well-read (or listened to) publications is my answer today. The costs are low and the media's mailing list is much greater than any I could put together by myself (if I were not in the business of media publication). Advertising has the advantage of repetition--and repetition is what one needs when introducing offerings to uninformed targets.

One must obtain the attention of uninformed targets and then help these targets make the link between their needs, needs they may not even realize they have, and the solution you provide. This is not instantaneous, no matter how hard you wish it to be.

Advertising means repetition and repetition brings recognition that your solution is exactly right for the whole universe of uninformed prospects-including the ones you didn't even know existed (yes, we had an advertiser tell us of surprise, at least once, about the source of an order).

Jim Thompson is CEO and Executive Editor of Paperitalo Publications. He can be reached by email at jthompson@taii.com.  
 

For more information on Paperitalo Publications, feel free to contact:    

Curt Gifford  

cgifford@taii.com
770-367-4823

Helen Roush

helen.roush@taii.com

937-403-8602 

Jim Thompson
jthompson@taii.com
678-206-6010

28 November 2014 Issue   

21 November 2014 Issue 

14 November 2014 Issue   

7 November 2014 Issue 

31 October 2014 Issue 

24 October 2014 Issue   

17 October 2014 Issue 

10 October 2014 Issue 

3 October 2014 Issue 

26 September 2014 Issue   

19 September 2014 Issue   

12 September 2014 Issue 

5 September 2014 Issue   

29 August 2014 Issue   

22 August 2014 Issue   

15 August 2014 Issue 

8 August 2014 Issue 

1 August 2014 Issue  

July 2014 Issue 

June 2014 Issue   

May 2014 Issue 

Special April 2014 Issue  

April 2014 Issue   

March 2014 Issue   

February 2014 Issue  

January 2014 Issue 

December 2013 Issue 

November 2013 Issue 

October 2013 Issue 

September 2013 Issue 

August 2013 Issue   

July 2013 Issue  

May 2013 Issue 

April 2013 Issue   

March 2013 Issue 

February 2013 Issue    

January 2013 Issue 

December 2012 Issue    

Advertising Arguments Special 1 Dec 2012  

November 2012 Issue