26 By Mike French How to do it 1. Schedule uninterruptible time to plan your advertising. You will get more done and accomplish more advertising projects if you do. Do your planning away from the distrac- tions of your normal work. One person I know goes to the public library and he leaves his phone in the car. 5. Monitor your competitor’s advertising. Know what kind of ad- vertising is currently being used in your area. Get on recycler lists so you will 2. Make all your advertising methods trackable and account- able to results. Don't do any adver- tising projects you cannot measure! This will help you spend your valuable advertising dollars the most wisely. 4. Brainstorm with your sales staff for new ideas. You will benefit greatly from taking advantage of their valuable observations and experience. Involving them will also create good will and enthusiasm by staff towards your marketing campaigns. Here are a 30 things Some recyclers tell me they don’t get their advertising done because they simply feel over- whelmed by it all. They don’t know what to do and where to start. Besides all the old advertising methods, there’s all the new electronic stuff including the many kinds of social media. But I think they are making it too hard. you can do 3. Learn and do ONLY direct response type advertising meth- ods! All advertising methods fall into two categories; Image Advertising and Direct Response Advertising. Know the difference between the two. Simply put, Image (non-selling) Advertising doesn't ask the customer or prospect to do any- thing. There is no offer presented and it cannot be measured or held accountable for results. Direct Response (selling) Advertising, on the other hand, tells them what to do. It includes specifics about products/services and tells where/when/how to get them. The results can be measured. receive their mail-outs. How do you do this? Buy something from them, or get a family member or friend to do so and then give you what they receive. Look at what they are doing with a critical eye and use what you learn to make yours better. 7. Use bounce-back offers to instantly sell again to those who have just made a purchase from you. This works because people who have just bought something are now predis- posed to do so again. Prepare some small flyers featuring some specials to use for this purpose. Place them in your statement envelopes to ride along with customer receipts. Include one with every shipment and even to be hand delivered by your delivery driv- ers. Have your sales staff give one to each person they make a sale to at your store. 8. Up-Sell. Studies have shown that people will generally say yes to an up-sell opportunity up to 20% above the cost of their original pur- chase. If they just spent $100 with you, you can easily add another $20 to the sale by offering them, at the point of purchase, something else they need. Put up-sell products into place and train your sales staff how and when to present them to customers. For instance, if a customer just purchased an engine, the salesperson would say, “Do you need oil, seals and belts to go with that?” Yes! You should sell things like fluids, belts, and special- ized tools needed to help with the install! By making only five up-sell purchases of $25 per day, at the end of 6. Do advertising projects more often than your competi- tors do. This will give you an edge. For instance, if they send a company newsletter once a month, send yours every three weeks. If they drop some- thing into the mail twice a year, do yours three times a year. 11. Become “the” automotive recycling expert in your market- place. This will make you the go-to per- son by the media. When anything news- worthy happens, they will seek you out and interview you about it. To become the local expert, you simply proclaim that you ARE “the” expert and you add the title to all your advertising, “John Doe, The (city/county/state) Top Expert in Automotive Recycling!” By the way, there can be only one so-called top “ex- pert” in any field per community and the title goes to the first one to proclaim it, no matter how young or how old! 13. Hitch-hike your ads along with a non-competitor business who sells to your same marketplace. You may find some new clients among their customers and contacts that you have not reached. If they have a newsletter, or do direct mail, ask to include an ad in it about your products and services. Con- tribute to the costs and you both save money. the year you have increased sales by $32,500! 9. Read at least one good advertising book a month. This will help you stay informed of new and exciting advertising trends and methods. 10. Attend an advertis- ing/marketing class or confer- ence at least once a year. 12. Use social media. There is Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, just to name three. Learn and do one social media method at a time until you master it. There are many how-to books avail- able and you can do research online to find them. 14. Phone your customers. This has proven to increase sales up to 35% in one month. Call five of them per day and ask how they are doing and to check to see if they need anything. You will catch some at their point of need and they will order something on the spot. 15. Send thank you notes to those who have made purchases from you and include a coupon good for sav- ings on their next purchase. 17. Call old customers who haven’t bought from you for a while and 16. Ask for referrals from your best customers. Contact referrals imme- diately and introduce yourself. Tell them who referred you to them and ask if they need anything. How to get your advertising done! 30 30 Ways! Ways! 30 Ways! 30 30 Ways! Ways! 30 Ways!