3 Tips to Help You Deliver On the Expectations Created By Your Advertising
A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending my nephew's birthday party. It was your typical event that included the customary opening of presents.
It was this part of the event that caught my attention.
When my nephew looked over the bounty before him, he clearly had his eye on one present in particular. It was a large box, with bright, colorful wrapping paper, a huge coordinating bow and lots of curly ribbon. Frankly, it just looked like there was something amazing in there.
As my nephew tore off the paper and ripped open this box, it was hard to miss his sudden change in expression when he found nothing but clothes inside, the ultimate bummer of a present for a young child.
I know… Leave it to me to find a correlation between a child's birthday and franchise advertising, but never-the-less, here it is.
Frankly, a good marketer or ad agency will be able to wrap your offer up in "pretty paper," but all of that won't matter if you can't deliver the goods they're expecting. Then, just like the pretty box of birthday clothes, you'll be pushed to the side without a sale.
So what can you do to make sure you're delivering the goods? Here are three tips to help.
• Ensure that goods inside are as unique as the wrapping.
There's nothing quite like unwrapping three uniquely wrapped gifts only to find that each contains the exact same toaster. What a let down.
Your unique selling proposition (USP), sometimes referred to as your value proposition or value statement, is the single most important element in making your business successful. To make a place for your business in the mind of your customer, you've got to do something or offer something different than any one of your competitors. No one else can say it. Even if they tried, it wouldn't be true. The more distinct your USP, the greater your chance for marketing success.
Does your franchise have one? Until you do, success will be elusive.
• Make sure that there's actually something inside all that fancy wrapping.
Unfortunately, I see this a lot, especially with paid search or social media advertising. An ad will say something like "We can build your franchise in 16 weeks." Then, that ad drops you at the site's generic home page which says absolutely nothing about that build-out plan.
Sure, you may talk about the 16-week-build-out somewhere on your web site, but a visitor is giving you only a few seconds to impress them with what's inside your gift-wrapped package. Essentially, you've given the customer nothing more than a beautifully wrapped — but very empty — box.
• Make sure your wrapping is appropriate for what you're including inside.
Yes. There's nothing wrong with giving kids clothing for their birthday. The problem in this scenario is not the gift itself, but the expectation that was created by with the wrapping and the setting. Kids clothing as a gift certainly make a very nice gift, but should not be featured as the biggest, fanciest gift at a child's birthday party. The gift just cannot deliver on the expectation.
The same is true with your advertising. You don't want to treat your "Save $20,000 in franchise fees" offer the same as your more run-of-the-mill free whitepaper offer. For your more typical offerings, use the marketing equivalent of a gift bag and save the fancy bows, big boxes, and shiny wrapping paper for your most unique and valuable offers.
