Targeting Your Advertising Strategy Can Boost The Bottom Line

By Dave Juwel

Do you remember the movie Godfather, where all the gangsters were running around making people offers they couldn't refuse? That saying has been echoed ever since in the training halls of the advertising industry. It has become a prime directive...if you can’t compose ads that make people offers they can’t refuse...its not very likely that you’ll succeed in the advertising industry, or your personal business. The same holds true for aviation advertising.

Advertising agencies are paid millions of dollars to create ads that people can’t refuse. Perhaps we need to take a closer look at their strategies....

The Typical Aviation Ad

I have an airplane for rent. Give me $85 an hour and you can fly it.
Your Response: Ho Hum…

A Successful Aviation Ad

I have an airplane for rent. Give me $85 an hour to fly it or I’ll break your fingers, kidnap your family, key your car, steal your parakeet, and erase your computer games.
Your Response: Arggh!... Erase my computer games?... here I’ll take a couple hours’ worth!

A humorous example, but do you see the point? Which category do your ads fall into? Do they provoke deep sleep, or catch people’s attention and motivate them to buy from you? The typical aviation operation solicits business every day. This solicitation is usually done both orally and in writing.

The same strategies that apply to your ads, and direct mail pieces, are also the same strategies that will help your employees succeed in selling to your prospects. Every employee should be able to successfully draw people into their particular area of sales with just a 30-second verbal introduction. Remember, when you’re standing at the bottom of the ladder to success, you only need to move up one rung to leave 90% of your competition behind. And that’s really all you need to accomplish in your advertising. You just need to do a little something different from everyone else so that you stand out.

The majority of the aviation ads that I read are boring, complacent and non–motivating. All they tell you about is the features of the company. The only people making money with those ads are the people that sold the ad. You need to do at least two things in your advertising campaign:

• Review your competitor’s ads and do everything possible to keep your ad from reading like their ad.
• Look at the ads from the more successful people in all industries (from all across the nation) and see what parts you can incorporate in your ad. Keep in mind; you’re looking for inspiration, not copy-catting.

I once saw an ad for a kit built airplane that really caught my attention. It had a picture of the plane flying over very picturesque scenery. It promised that it would fly faster than the name brand Cadillac of manufactured aircraft, and it promised superman like performance in all of its other flight characteristics. WOW!  Snowcapped mountains, luxury and Superman all rolled up in an aircraft I could build myself. The ad made it easy for me to see a lot of my needs being met in this aircraft. Now it was obvious that they were selling the sizzle, but it’s the sizzle that gets your mouth watering, and it’s the sizzle that causes your legs to go get the steak. Do your ads drizzle with sizzle – or just expensively bore people?

It’s your choice.

(Pictured: Dave Juwel)

FMI: www.sba.gov/content/advertising-basics