10 Questions to ask if your advertising doesn’t work

Every day I talk to business owners, especially the SMME’s, who simply gave up on advertising because “it doesn’t work for my business”.

I found that business owners often do not understand the dynamics of how to create an advertisement that will effectively influence clients to come and buy, or at least try their products and / or services. By identifying the most common mistakes found in advertising I was able to create the following list of questions that will lead to a more productive and profitable advertising campaign:

1. Who will buy from us and where can we reach them?

If your answer is “everyone” you are almost certainly wasting your advertising budget. Before you even consider putting an advertisement together you have to know who your target market is, and where they will be looking for the products and / or services you provide. You need to do some market research and focus your campaign on your target audience. If you don’t, your advertisement will certainly fail, regardless of how great it looks.

2. What is important to our prospects?

Unless you want your advertisement to be ignored, I suggest that you find out what is important to your prospects and deliver a message that is important to them. Your prospects have hobbies, families, careers and the associated wants, needs and challenges they bring. These things are important to your prospects and have great impact on their buying behaviour.

3. Does our advertisement have a compelling headline?

The headline is the most important element, regardless of the media you use. On average, five times as many people will read the headline than the copy of your advertisement. The success of your advertisement relies heavily on how well the headline sells the product and / or service. Make sure that your headline addresses the main concern or interest of your targeted audience.

4. Why should our prospects believe us?

It can take many years and hard work to attain a credible reputation that will drive customers to your business based on referrals alone. You have to turn sceptical prospects into believing that you and your product will provide, at very least, the main benefit you promised them. Some of the most common methods include independent research, customer testimonials, case studies and frequently asked questions with suitable answers.

5. Are we offering VALUE from the client’s point of view?

Your prospects are only interested in how your VALUE proposition can satisfy their wants and needs. Are you saving them money? Are you giving them more than they are paying for? Will you make life easier for them? Your advertising message must focus on giving VALUE to the client. Don’t waste your time and money on trying to tell your clients about how great YOU think your business is.

6. Do our prospects know what to do?

It often happens that a client looks at your advertisement and realise that they actually have a need for your product, but because there is no urgency to your message they will often forget about it. If your prospects don’t have a reason to act NOW they are unlikely to do so at some point in the future. You have to inform your prospects of what they will miss out on if they don’t act NOW. Simply listing your telephone number is not enough.

7. Do we have the right advertising frequency?

Frequency is the number of times a person is exposed to your marketing message in a given time period. Frequency is important, even if you have a great message. High repetition is important and your advertisement will have greater impact when frequency is applied. If you know what media matches your prospects’ profile you should stick with that media for at least 12 to 18 months and apply the right frequency.

8. Have we got enough reach?

Reach refers to the number of people that see your message in a given time period. Purchasing media with large reach is generally more expensive, but it allows you to reap the benefits of advertising more quickly. The more prospects you reach the greater the percentage will be that need your product or service right now. However, buying too much reach without repetition can be disastrous for your company’s long-term growth. Buy as much reach as you can afford but DO NOT sacrifice frequency in the process.

9. Do we know what is working for us?

The main goal of advertising is to increase sales revenue. An advertisement producing no results IS WASTING YOUR MONEY. With available modern technology, and given enough time, you should be able to attribute a return on investment to every marketing activity and every single piece of advertising.

10. How big is our marketing budget?

How businesses function without a marketing budget is beyond me. You need to know how much money you can spend to reach your target market. Your marketing budget will also drive your choice of media (newspapers, fliers, radio, television, mobile, digital signage, etc.). Another advantage of having a marketing budget is that it provides you with a degree of defence against pushy advertising sales people.


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Pierre Fourie is a leading marketing and advertising consultant based in Johannesburg South Africa. He is highly regarded for his expert knowledge on Digital Out Of Home (DOOH) systems and his ability to conceptualise and execute marketing / advertising strategies. Pierre was dubbed the “digital expert” on developing content strategies and promoting branding concepts for private digital advertising networks, including Planet Fitness Gyms and The More Golf Group. His background in the electronics engineering field of study, combined with more than 10 years experience as a business owner, entrepreneur and media expert is reflected on his personal blog: http://mediamarketingandsales.blogspot.com
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