ROY H.
WILLIAMS
PRESIDENT
WIZARD OF ADS INC.
[email protected]8 RADIOINK•COM
THE WIZARD OF ADS
MAY 6, 2019
When I wrote my first column for
Radio Ink, I had been writing ads
for 20 years, and I wrote my first
column for Radio Ink 20 years ago.
Evidently, I’ve been writing ads
for 40 years. Where has the time
gone?
Today I’m going to give you my
best advice in the interest of help-
ing you sell more airtime. A lot
more. This is that advice: Know
about more than just radio.
Here are the 20 things I tell
business owners who buy a day of
my time. I want you to know these
things, too.- If you want to be bigger, adver-
tise as though you were bigger.
Don’t calculate your ad budget
based on the volume you did last
year. Base it on the volume you
hope to do this year. - They call it “mass media”
for a reason: it reaches the
masses. Consequently, you can’t
really target using mass media
(TV, radio, billboards). - But don’t worry about that. Use
mass media anyway. Targeting is
overrated and ridiculously over-
priced. - Choose who to lose. Correctly
written ad copy will filter out the
customers you don’t want and
attract the customers you do want. - Filtering through ad copy is how
you “target” when using mass
media. - There are two ways to use mass
media:
A.) Used consistently, mass media
will cause your company to be the
one customers think of immediately
— and feel the best about — when
they finally need what you sell.
B.) Used short-term, mass
media will give urgency and
importance to a special event
when you purchase high repeti-
tion for a period of time, usually
between one and 14 days.- Google is the new phone book.
Like the Yellow Pages of yesterday,
it is the principal resource for buy-
ers who are currently, consciously
in the market for a product or
service and have no preferred
provider. Like the White Pages of
yesterday, Google delivers your
telephone number, street address,
and business hours to customers
who have already chosen you as
their preferred provider. - Customers who come to you
through mass media will often be
credited to your digital efforts due
to the “White Pages” function of
Google. They had already chosen
you as their preferred provider,
but were looking online for your
street address, phone number, or
business hours. - Regardless of how you win
them, it is costly to win a first-
time customer. Getting that
customer to come back a second,
third, or 50th time is cheap and
easy if they had a good experi-
ence the first time. - Advertising is a tax we pay
for not being remarkable. So be
remarkable! This is what gener-
ates word of mouth. You’ve got
to impress your customer. If you
don’t, your competitor will. - Companies that celebrate
their victories have happy
employees. So find things to cel-
ebrate. Happy employees create
happy customers.
12. Most customers are repeat
customers or referral customers.
Mass media is the most efficient
way to maintain top-of-mind
awareness among these groups.
In addition, it will bring you new,
first-time customers.
13. Your plan to stay in touch with
your customers through social
media and e-mail blasts is based
on the assumption that your cus-
tomer is willing to open, read,
listen to, or watch what you have
to say. Is this actually happening?
And if not, why not? (Hint: The
subject line gets people to open it.
The content itself gets people to
share it.)
14. Thirty-six years ago (1983)
David Ogilvy was speaking of
newspaper and magazine ads
when he wrote, “On the average,
five times as many people read
the headline as read the body
copy. When you have written your
headline, you have spent 80 cents
out of your dollar.” Now look at
your open rate. What percentage
of your online budget has been
spent when you’ve written your
subject line?
15. If you have nothing to say,
don’t let anyone convince you to
say it. Boring, predictable mes-
sages make you seem smaller
and duller and waste your money.
Companies don’t fail due to
“reaching the wrong people.”
Companies fail due to saying the
wrong things.
16. Predictable ads are about you,
your company, your product, your
service. Persuasive ads are about
the customer, and the transforma-
tion your product or service will
bring to that customer’s life.
20 THINGS YOU
SHOULD KNOW