So you feel that the money you’re investing to advertise your business just isn’t working. You feel that the account representative failed you and they simply took your money.
When it comes to the advertisement, what is the message that you are trying to get across to the audience? Do you have a SINGLE, EASY TO REMEMBER, and WELL CRAFTED MESSAGE in your ad or are there multiple messages that you are attempting to get across?
In my career I have heard many advertisements on the radio, on different stations, and some of the businesses are now out of business. Some of the businesses that remain in business today may not have been happy with the results of their marketing, so they simply pulled their advertising dollars.
What are you doing to build upon your marketing? Are you simply hoping that the marketing campaign will turn your business around and open the wallets of potential customers?
Before I got into the radio business, I worked in the food industry at a mom and pop restaurant. We would have weekly meetings to address issues about training new staff, having current staff train in other areas of the restaurant, and topics that dealt with the “Customer’s Experience”.
“The Customer’s Experience” covered EVERYTHING about the restaurant, from the food, seating, lighting, to the parking lot. When I was 16 I wanted to park as close to the building as possible, but that changed after the first meeting as those prime spots that were close to the building were for the PAYING Customers.
The cleanliness of the building, the volume of the overhead music, and the attire of the staff were always on the list as our owners would have some of their friends come in to order dinner. This was back when mobile phones were just coming out and were like carrying a car battery on a shoulder strap. They would come in and later report back to the owners about their entire EXPERIENCE.
After working at the restaurant, I went to work of a large home improvement store. Guess what? Not only do they advertise a lot, the also have secret shoppers going in to all of their locations to report back to the corporate office about their shopping experience: The conditions of the parking lot, availability of carts, were associates easily found, and did these associates stop what they were doing to walk the shopper to the item that they were looking for.
Here we have both small and large businesses working on ensuring the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE is a positive one.
So, before you chalk up the lack of traffic into your establishment to poor advertising, take a look at your establishment by having some secret shoppers/diners come in to rate their experience. Take their input and act upon improving the experience of the customer so they are more likely to return.