Advertising: the basics
Managing responses and monitoring your campaign
A good advertising campaign can pull in the orders - but make sure you can deal with the response.
You should determine the expected response level and check you have enough resources to meet it.
It may not be a good idea to plan a campaign at popular staff holiday times. If this can't be avoided, consider temporary cover to deal with responses.
You may need a system to ensure leads aren't missed. For example, you could design a standard enquiry form to be used by people fielding calls. The main aim is to find out as much as possible about what the caller wants.
If they just want further details to be posted, the enquiry can be dealt with straight away. If the query is passed to a salesperson, give the customer an indication of when they can expect a response. If you get a lot of these types of queries, it's a good idea to set up a system to track them. See our guide on how to manage your customer care.
Monitoring an advertising campaign
Each time you take an enquiry or make a sale, ask how the customer heard of you. This reveals whether any individual strand of your advertising or other marketing activities is particularly effective. Check to see if there are any patterns in enquiries relating to when and where your advertisements are displayed.
If you include vouchers in print advertisements, use a different code for each publication they appear in. This allows you to pinpoint where incoming vouchers have come from.
You might find some advertisements generate many enquiries but no actual sales. These cost most because they take up staff time without generating revenue. If this occurs, check whether your staff need additional sales training or if your adverts need amending.
It's also worth looking at the kind of sales each advertisement generates and whether they have a good profit margin.
You should bear in mind that some advertisements may have delayed results. One person may order the next day, another might wait a few weeks or even months. More expensive products may not be purchased very often by consumers, and so your advertising may be targeted at keeping your brand at the front of people's minds for future reference. Advertising aimed at increasing brand awareness is always harder to measure because it does not transfer directly into sales.
Subjects covered in this guide
- Introduction
- How advertising can help your business
- Local advertising
- Advertising on the internet and in online directories
- Advertising in the trade and technical press
- Radio, cinema, outdoor and national advertising
- Planning an advertising campaign
- Getting value for money from your advertising
- Managing responses and monitoring your campaign
- How to write an advertisement
- Here's how I increased my sales through advertising
Actions
- Advertising guidance on the Advertising Association website - Opens in a new window
- Marketing e-course on the learndirect business website - Opens in a new window
- Use our interactive tool to investigate what will be the best advertising media for your business
- Manage your personal list of starting-up tasks with our Business start-up organiser
