Your gut desire, when advertising, is to want to speak to “people ready to buy TODAY.”
People in the market RIGHT NOW.
This is the desire that has made Google rich beyond the dreams of avarice.
They’re the only ad platform able to deliver prospects actively in “buying mode.”
Unfortunately, the only one getting rich from Google Ad Words is Google.
Local businesses that grow huge advertise via mass media.
The “problem” with mass media is that 90 to 99% of the audience ISN’T in the market today.
And it’s tempting to see that 95% as wasted.
The truth is the wasted part is the part that works most powerfully.
And for three reasons:
- People are more easily swayed when they’re NOT in “buying mode.”
Once you need what I sell, you’re more suspicious of stories I might tell and claims I might make, because of my vested in interest in selling you. Whereas if we’re just making small talk, you’ll entertain my stories without undue suspicion, and I’ll win your sale before it has even started. - The number of your audience who WILL BE buying in the next year or two is vast
Here’s some back-of-the-envelope math as an example.* Say people buy a new-to-them car every 5 years, but only enter “buying mode” for 3 months of that 5th year. So 3 months / 60 months equates to 5% of your audience that’s in “buying mode” right now. But 20% (1/5yrs) of that audience will be in the market sometime this year, and 60% (3/5yrs) will enter the market sometime over the next three years. If you’re reaching hundreds of thousands of people via your radio (or TV) campaign, the math starts to pencil out very favorably doesn’t it? Now enter the fact that those people will enter the market biased in your favor because you influenced them BEFORE they entered “buying mode”! See how a consistent advertiser could easily double in size over 2-3 years? - Influencers and Context Matter
Branding is a way to grow your reputation. Not just with key decision-makers, but with everybody. We’re social creatures, and our sense of what the people around us believe and think matters more than we are comfortable admitting. More importantly, after a certain length of time, what YOU say about yourself on the radio will become “what ‘they’ say” — IF you’re crafting your ads correctly. And that general reputation will drive further sales your way, even among non-listeners (or viewers).
Do you see why the “wasted” part of your advertising is the part that actually does all the work?
Why you WANT to speak to people who are not yet in the market for what you sell?
But there IS a catch!
The catch is that ads that speak to people who aren’t in buying mode have to entertain them.
If people don’t need what you sell, why in the world would they listen to your ad unless it entertained them?
That’s why you need to hire an ad guy capable of crafting ads and telling your story in way that’s inherently interesting — in a way that pulls listeners and viewers in and fires their imaginations and emotions.
Interested in launching a campaign like that and capturing all that business over the next three years? I’d be happy to help
* P.S. This math is based on the length of your average buying cycle. If you sell food or consumables, a much bigger percentage of your audience will be in “buying mode” at any given time.
That said, most companies that partner with Wizards are in industries that have longer sales cycles, such as HVAC, Roofing, Plumbing, Jewelry, Appliance Sales, Mattress Sales, Orthodontics, etc.
You can — and should! — do a quick and dirty calculation for the math in your industry and see for yourself. If you’d like assistance with that math, feel free to e-mail me
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- Military-Grade Persuasion for Your Branding - June 25, 2024