I hope all of you had an outstanding 4th of July, whether or not it is a national holiday in your country. During our last holiday, a young man in his late twenties/early thirties told me that although he has his own contracting business, it exists solely through word of mouth.”The worst thing I ever did was advertise,” he said. “All I got were the bottom feeders who didn’t appreciate my quality work and weren’t willing to pay for it.”
I was very surprised to hear this, especially since he is the sole support of his small household, which includes his wife and a new baby as of May 12. Plus, there are women I work with whose husbands worked in construction and are now unemployed due to the recession.
As ironic as it sounds, “word of mouth” (get the reference?) just isn’t enough in our business. At least initially, we need to get our names out there so people know who we are and what we are capable of doing. If you whistle in the dark, it may sound good, but the only one who hears it is YOU. Once an individual develops a strong reputation, of course, s/he may become well known enough that clients come to them. Wouldn’t that be great? And yet, even then, it never hurts to always have your name out there, in the forefront of clients’ minds.
Today, we must approach advertising from multiple perspectives. The advent of the Internet has given us seemingly limitless opportunities for advertising. There are pay-to-audition sites, which despite the flaws, do provide exposure; our own individual Web sites that spotlight our services; and networking sites like LinkedIn and of course, VOCasting. com, where we connect with other industry professionals – absolutely vital in this field. And let’s not forget the opportunities to attend conferences, workshops, and classes to further refine our skills.
I often wonder if someday there will be a giant VOCasting.com reunion. Imagine meeting in person the images on our computer screens, and experiencing up close the mannerisms and personality traits that simply cannot be captured electronically. What an interesting reunion that would be!
I’m going to wrap up this short post with a passage that shows up every week in my church bulletin. And I ask…Does anything capture the Power of Advertising better than this?
WHY IS IT?
A man wakes up after sleeping under an ADVERTISED blanket on an ADVERTISED mattress and pulls off ADVERTISED pajamas; bathes in an ADVERTISED shower and shaves with an ADVERTISED razor; brushes his teeth with ADVERTISED toothpaste; washes with ADVERTISED soap; puts on ADVERTISED clothes; drinks a cup of ADVERTISED coffee; drives to work in an ADVERTISED car, and then…refuses to ADVERTISE, believing it doesn’t pay. Later, if business is poor, he ADVERTISES it for sale. WHY IS IT?
julialombardo
mstaji 7:06 am on July 5, 2009 Permalink
The idea of advertising aimlessly or without a plan is usually the problem that will cause the bottom feeders to come out from the depths and harass you. That is why marketing was established. A methodology to figure out who your target audience is, what medium they can be reached through and what the most effective message that will effect them is.
Although dealing with an advertising firm that takes marketing you very seriously is expensive. It also has an excellent return on investment. Alternatively you can also utilize Public Relations in generating “word of mouth” at a very low overhead and still reach your target audience.
The point here is what you wish to achieve. Too much work coming your way and you’ll get swamped. Won’t meet your deadlines… will be physically exhausted (and richer… but not really enjoying the new found income) too little work will effect your self esteem which means your drive to succeed will/might suffer because you feel like you’re a failure.
The idea of generating just enough growth to suit your needs is very difficult. A balancing act that is constant and has to be very specific.
As someone who is an advertising professional I’ve actually heard of a company that went bankrupt because of its advertising company. The ad company made a 2 minute ad… which is ridiculously long for a TV commercial at the advertising company’s expense. The client was just asked to pay the airing fees (if I remember correctly). The advert was such a success that the people bought the product in droves… the factory could not keep up with customer demands. The product would be missing from the market for weeks. Finally a competitor figured out that they can capitalize on the other company’s double edged success.. they made a bottle very similar looking to the first companies… name the product something that sounded a little like the other company’s product and had the same label colors as the other company’s product. So by mimicking their competitor they began to sell and profit from their competitor’s disastrous marketing campaign. Eventually people switched to the competitor’s product… and the other company closed down.
and all because of an overzealous advertising company and a greedy client.