Page 96 - The Bootstrapper Bible

ChangeThis The more you measure, the better your ad gets. Be a control freak about testing. Test one thing at a time. Make every ad you run a direct-response ad. Even if youʼre trying to boost your storeʼs traffic, build in a response mechanism. This is harder than it sounds, but itʼs worth it. No matter what sort of business youʼre run- ning, you need to figure out a way to measure what works and what doesnʼt. You can insert coupons in the mailings you do. You can offer a discount if someone mentions an ad. You can (and should) have a separate phone line for the ad you run in the Yellow Pages so you can track which calls come from that very expensive ad buy. Most of all, you should ask. No business is so impersonal that you canʼt talk to your custom- ers. Take them to lunch or buy them coffee or just chat with them. Ask them what theyʼve noticed about your marketing campaign. Ask them what finally enticed them to come visit. Go slow. Donʼt be so quick about pulling one campaign and replacing it with an entirely dif- ferent one. When you change marketing strategies, you lose all the frequency youʼve worked so hard to attain. And you have to start over. As Jay Levinson, the father of guerrilla marketing, says, donʼt change your advertising when you get tired of it. And donʼt change it when your staff gets tired of it. Change it when your accountant gets tired of it. RULE 8: GET MENTORED. Nowhere does it say youʼve got to do this all alone. Find someone whoʼs come before you and ask for help. Odds are, youʼll get what you ask for. What youʼre doing here is pursuing the American Dream. I donʼt know about you, but I love seeing people succeed. And if thereʼs a way to help someone else reach a goal, most people are eager to pitch in. | iss. 6.01 | i | U | X | + | h 96/103 f