My Graveyard Of Marketing & Advertising Ideas

My Graveyard Ideas

Fri, April 22, 2011

I’d like to hear from you. If you're reading this, make sure you let me know.
I hate being alone.

So let's get started.

What are the advertising and marketing ideas that you’ve tried over the years that have NOT worked?

Do you have any?

I do.

Before I give you some of mine, I have to let you know that I was very successful in practice, seeing up to 158 patients in a single day, doing just one thing that brought in people in carloads. (THAT IS A SECRET THAT I SHARE WITH MY COACHING CLIENTS AND NOT ON A BLOG)

I learned in the mid eighties how to use “Emotional Direct Response Marketing” (EDRM) to get a constant flow of customers for my businesses.

And I used to consult with local businesses and get them lots of customers with EDRM. So I’m pretty good at this stuff. My starting point was probably up a couple of notches from yours; maybe not. So with that in mind, here are my graveyard marketing stories:

Graveyard Idea #1: Flyers. I tried all kinds of flyers with my logo big and bold covering most of the flyer. I know now that flyers DON’T work. They never did. Just like brochures; they never work BECAUSE they're NOT personalized and written right. They are confusing. I always use sales letter now. They sometimes work if you get the headline and offer right.

Graveyard Idea #2: Door Hangers. They’re kinda like flyers. I put out 1,000 of them and didn’t get one call. How about you–have you every put out a door hanger? I know some of these companies stock door hangers. I wonder if they ever tested them to see if they work or they just had their advertising company make something pretty. Door hangers can work but it's the follow up call and letter and postcard that make the difference.

Graveyard Idea #3: Yellow Pages. Wow–was this a bomb! If you’ve got drop stores for you lead boxes all over the place you’re in, this might work. But the kind of ad that you should put in is frowned upon in the yellow page industry. I was able to get yellow page ads for a plumbing client of mine to work very successfully, and believe it or not, people still use them. NOT much, but it's all in how the AD is written.

Graveyard Idea #4: TV & Radio. I’ve tried everything in this business. You can get these to work if you have a large business and get the TV and radio stations to agree to only charge you per call. That's the TRICK. I have taught many businesses this technique.

Graveyard Idea #5: Newspaper. This is a tough one if you don't know how to take care of a list. Couldn’t get this to work in my little suburb in the local rag. I guess not enough people read it or don’t care about dry cleaning.

That’s enough graveyard blunders for this post. But I want you to understand that some of these might work for you and your market. These advertising mediums are only delivery systems. What you put together will determine if your campaign is successful or not.

With time and testing I could get all of these to work in our dry cleaning businesses.

We have successfully conquered:

Bag Drops (WITHOUT door knocking as the final step. Others say they have bag drops, but they are just the warm up for someone knocking on doors.)

Postcards Mailings
Referrals
Day Care Center Marketing
Fundraising
New Movers
Business Offices

And all of this is done WITHOUT a salesman. This all comes in automatically.
I’d like to tell me your Graveyard Marketing & Advertising stories below.
Will you do that?