Listen, it’s no secret that as a whole our attention spans are shrinking at an alarming rate, right? 

I mean hasn’t technology and an instant gratification mindset created a world full of monsters?  I know I’ve lost a customer’s attention to their cell phone on more than one occasion.

Maybe that’s true, maybe humans are doomed to devolve into twitching, slobbering monkeys permanently attached to remote controls, cell phones, and 3D glasses…

That is certainly a possibility.

On the other hand, maybe you’re just boring…

Okay, so shock value aside, really think about it for a second.  In your experience, have you ever been so interested in a book, or a conversation (or a video game or something) and completely lost track of time? 

Of course you have, time flies when you’re having fun right?  Because you’re focused on it.

So, do you think it would benefit your marketing if you could put a message out there that captivated your audience and held their interest?

Would you like to know how?

Imagine you have a stage and a spotlight.  On that stage is you, your product, and your customer (and their wants and needs) and you can only focus the spotlight on one of the three.  

Where do you think the spotlight should focus?

Logically we all want to say the focus should be on the customer and their wants and needs, after all we DO train salespeople that way don’t we?  Focus on the benefit, the 20% of the features they actually care about, etc…

But much like that one sales guy who just can’t stop blabbing about what HE likes about the vehicle, where does your current marketing effort actually point the spotlight?  Do your ads talk about how long you have been in business?  How low YOUR prices are?  Do they focus on the product and the awards it’s won?

Yes the customer wants a low price on a great vehicle, but they are never going to pay attention long enough to find out your offer if you don’t engage them right away.  (I know it’s easier said than done, I love talking about myself too, but so does the customer and that’s who we’re after right?)

Let’s use the comment section to brainstorm some ways we can move the spotlight of our advertising towards the customer…

Would you say I was crazy if I told you you should have an infinite marketing budget?

Well in all fairness, I might be a little crazy but don’t get out the straightjacket yet.

Anyways, instead of questioning my sanity, why not ask yourself a question… “What kind of advertising could I do where it would make sense to spend as much money as I possibly could?”

I’ll give you a hint, it’s the type of advertising where you know that for every dollar you spend you get X dollars in sales coming in.

No, it doesn’t involve telling the customer how long you’ve been in business or how trustworthy your staff is.

Nope, it doesn’t have anything to do with co-op money from the manufacturer, try again…

Give up?

The two magic words for advertising your business are... Direct Response.

I'm sure most of you have heard of direct response advertising, and I'm sure lots of you understand what it is, but how many of you actually use it to promote your business?

For those of you who may not be familiar with it, direct response advertising is the type of advertising where the soul purpose is to generate a response from the prospect. It's usually pretty ugly, it's not designed to build your brand, develop your image, or get your name out there... It's meant to get the person seeing (or hearing) it to take immediate action. (Pick up the phone, send in a coupon, show up at your door etc...)

Okay, so now that we all know what it is, what are the positives and negatives of direct response marketing?

First the negatives:

1. Direct response marketing isn't too popular with the people selling the ads.

Why not? Because you are able to track the results. If you can track the results you know whether or not the ad was effective, if their ads aren't effective, how much money will you spend with them? It's far better for them if you just keep blindly spending money getting your name out there...

2. Direct response marketing isn't usually flashy or fancy.

This means your friends and family (and competition) won't be super impressed. You won't have the fancy glossy stuff to show off like your competition does, so you will be uncomfortable for a while. Which leads me to...

3. It's not the industry norm.

That means you'll stand out. Standing out means you'll be talked about. That means the other reindeer might laugh and call you names. (Not to mention the lack of all the reindeer games...)

4. It's not as easy.

There are far too many details to cover here today, (if you're interested we will talk more about this in future posts) but suffice it to say there is a lot more to direct response advertising than just making it funny, or catchy, or pretty.

Now for the positives:

1. While it may take a while to master, it's (relatively) cheap to test.

The problem with the advertising you've been doing is that you know that only half of it works but you don't know which half. The benefit of direct response is that you can test small and only roll out what works. You don't have to blindly blow your ad budget every month without knowing if it's working, you are able to test small campaigns and then only roll out the successful (profitable) ones.

2. Once you've got something that works, it will keep working.

Do you know the cheesy looking full page advertisements in trashy magazines like the National Enquirer? (Like the ones that offer collectible plates or knick knacks for sale?) Those are direct response ads. The advertisers run the ads and measure the amount of sales that come from each one. Since as far as I (and Google) can tell, the cost to run one of those ads is over $50,000 they probably measure pretty closely don't you think? And since you see the same ads over and over and over, they probably do pretty well.

3. When something doesn't work, you'll know before you waste too much time and money.

I don't think this needs too much more detail does it? The whole point here is that once you get this process dialed in, you can basically get customers in the door at will.

Well I guess that about does it for the overview of direct response vs. image advertising. The decision you have to make is whether or not you are willing to put up with the grumblings of your ad reps and the potential embarrassment of going against the grain, in exchange for the knowledge to get customers and make sales as easily as getting a bag of chips from the vending machine.

If you think you might be interested in how to apply this to your business, like this post and/or leave a comment below. If there is sufficient interest I will write a series of posts (or maybe do a webinar) on how to specifically apply direct response marketing to the car business.

Do you consider yourself a stereotypical “left over from the 70’s greasy car salesman”?

You don’t do you?

Do you identify with that stereotype at all?

Probably not, although you may work with a guy...

If you have only recently started in the business, there is a chance that when you told your friends and family you were starting in the car business that they didn’t immediately picture this character and question (or tease) you about it...

Ok, so it’s only a very slim chance but still... can you blame them?  It’s a VERY powerful image that has been associated with our industry for longer than lots of us have been alive.  And although it’s taking a while, we are slowly recreating our image from “greasy car salesman” to “professional sales consultant.” 

(In fact I think it’s worth mentioning that when I did a search for “greasy used car salesman” on a stock photo website to find an image to go with this post, I got more results showing well dressed professional looking people than I did of what I was looking for.)

So what is my point?

Well, recently we discussed some ways to steer away from typical “car ads” and have our marketing stand out from the crowd.  Since we have gone to all of that trouble to steer ourselves away from that stereotype why would we dive right back into it with greasy advertising?  Today I’d like to discuss our marketing from the most important point of view there is.

Our customers’.

Think about it...  Do we write our ads to win awards?  To make our families proud of us? To get our name out there?

Maybe some of us do, but we sure shouldn’t.

 The ONLY reason we should be spending a penny on advertising is to convince a customer who needs (or wants) a car to come in to see us and give us a chance to help them get one.  (Or fix their car for a service ad...)  Either way the goal is to get them to come in and spend money.

So does that mean our new ad campaign is going to be “get down here we want your money?”  While it might be a refreshing concept, if we look at it through the eyes of our customer it doesn’t really fit what they are looking for. 

What are our customers looking for?

Super genius marketer Dean Jackson says a customer is like a mouse.  Their entire purpose in life is to: 1.Get Cheese and 2. Avoid Cats.

The “cheese” may be a little different to each customer in terms of what their hot buttons are for purchasing but it’s usually fairly similar, they want a good deal on a vehicle that is going to meet their needs.

The “cats” they are trying to avoid are us.  They don’t want to feel pressured, they don’t want to feel like they are being “sold”.  They don’t want to be asked to fill out a credit app (sorry a “customer statement”) before they have picked out a vehicle they would like to own, etc...

Wait a minute Brady, if our goal is to get their money, and their goal is to avoid people trying to get their money, what the hell are we supposed to do?

Good question. 

It’s important to note, they aren’t trying to avoid spending money.  They have a need and they understand they will need to use money to fill that need.  They are trying to avoid having their money “taken” from them.  The real question is: how can we advertise in a way that gives them what they are looking for without showing them our “whiskers” before they trust us? 

Could we offer some information (in a nonthreatening way) that would help them on the way to their goal?  Maybe a free report?  How about “The 7 most important questions to ask before you finance a new vehicle”? or “The 3 questions to ask so you never pay too much for your vehicle again...”?   Just offer something that will provide value without asking for anything in return.

This could even work with follow up after the purchase.  Do your customers always come back with the same questions about their vehicles?  (Here it’s always Bluetooth related)  Why not film a quick instructional video and send them a link after your first after sale phone call?  Do you think that would stimulate a perfect CSI?  How about a referral?

What do you think?  I know it’s not what we are used to, but do you think it could be effective?

Yes, I used the word incest, but don't worry...

I'm not going to make any mention of any specific parts of the world you may live in, or the likelihood of your neighborhood being wiped out by a tornado.  

This isn't a comedy blog, and I'm not "Larry the Cable Guy"...

However, I would like to discuss something just as annoying.

Auto industry advertising.

You know what I'm talking about, open the newspaper or listen to the radio...  Really?  The lowest prices EVER?  This weekend only?  Never going to happen again? 

You can tell a dealership advertisement in less than a second can't you?  Of course you can, they all look and sound exactly the same.  But why is that?  Listen, it’s no secret that advertisers copy each other’s ideas on a pretty regular basis.  I can’t remember ever hearing a marketing guru speak that didn’t recommend putting together a “swipe file” of good ideas, ads, and headlines that could be tweaked for your own purposes.

So what’s the problem?

 The problem is not that you’re “swiping” it’s who you are swiping from that creates the problem.  If all of your ideas are coming from other car dealers (or worse the manufacturer) you are committing marketing incest.  Without new blood being introduced, you are producing deformed, genetically weak advertisements.

 (Don't get me wrong, it's not just the auto industry that does this, in fact most industries "borrow" from each other and end up creating generic, boring crappy ads...)

So what can we do about it?  Where can we get ideas if not from each other?

1. Look outside of your industry

Did you know the first drive thru was used at a bank in 1930?  Where would our waistlines be if the fast food industry hadn’t copied the idea?  (Don’t worry, it only took the fast food guys 20 years or so to catch on...)  The old school direct mail guys recommend you study ads that you see over and over again in places like the National Enquirer.  Why?  Because they are insanely expensive to run.  If you see them repeated it means they made money. 

2. Check current events

What are your customers thinking about in their day to day lives?  What is taking up space in their brains?  If you can relate your marketing to what they are already thinking about you will have a FAR easier time getting their attention.  You’ll have to be a bit creative, and a bit careful...  You might want to avoid anything too controversial, but scan the headlines and look for inspiration.

3. Check the calendar

A quick Google search for obscure holidays or obscure holiday calendar could lead you to some ideas for ads that would help you stand out from the crowd.  For example, did you know that December 9^th was International Anti-Corruption day?  Neither did I, but I can think of several ways to use it...  Or how about National chocolate covered-anything day on the 16^th? 

How about you?  Do you have any examples of advertising that has really caught your attention?  (Good or bad) Why not post them below and we’ll discuss them in the comments section.  For instance, I was NOT allowed to put signs in our vehicles that said “I want you inside me...”  Would that have caught your attention?