10 Tips From Marketing Management Professionals on How to Avoid Ad Campaign Mistakes
- By Dan Pimentel
- Published 09/18/2011
- Marketing
- Unrated
Savvy advertising and marketing professionals who earn their money by specializing in developing advertising campaigns and then offering marketing management know of the many expensive pitfalls, gotchas and mistakes many businesses can make when trying to manage a campaign using in-house personnel.
Often times, these businesses have had an unpleasant experience with a marketing or creative agency who either did not do what they promised, or charged for things like sent faxes, running up an already high bill. As a reflex action to this experience, they may try to bring the management of their advertising campaign "in-house" by utilizing middle managers and administrative staff to handle design and implementation. With staff already stretched due to budget cuts, creativity suffers when corners are cut, and soon the company's brand falls of the radar screens of their customers.
Here are 10 mistakes businesses can make when trying to manage their campaigns in-house, along with tips on how a professional marketing management agency can help solve these issues:
1. Not seeing the "big picture": When a business tries to do their campaign without the aid of professionals, they frequently fail to look at all elements of the campaign, instead focusing on the false expectations of instant gratification. A professional marketing management agency will put together a comprehensive campaign using all available media, and will plan your next 12 - 18 months of advertising and marketing spending.
2. Avoid printing pre-press overcharges: When a company uses in-house or inexperienced graphic designers for their collateral sales materials, these files often are not prepared for the printing press properly. When these ill-prepared files get to the print shop, extra "pre-press" charges can be added to fix the mistakes. One printer we contacted said as much as 75% of files they received needed extensive work to print properly, which added greatly to the final bill. By utilizing a professional marketing management company, these expenses are eliminated and overall, your printing costs can be reduced significantly.
3. Everybody thinks they are a photographer: Companies often try to save money by doing ad photograph themselves. But while this is a cheap alternative to hiring a professional photographer, the final images usually are not ready for high resolution use in any media. A marketing management agency will show you why hiring a professional to shoot your photos makes sense for maintaining the highest quality in your imagery which in turn further polishes your brand.
4. "Desktop Publishing" is NOT real graphic design: The one single biggest mistake businesses make is having office personnel use commonly available word processing software to design sales materials or display ads. These projects will look of poor quality and diminish your brand. Spend the money to use the professional designers at a marketing management agency to keep your image sharp.
5. Avoid spending on ineffective display ads: Without a trained marketing management agency working with you, it is easy to spend lavishly to put your homegrown ad in all the wrong places. An agency will sort out the available media buys and recommend only the ones with the best chance of success, which optimizes your ad budget greatly.
6. The "shotgun approach" is never a good value: Some companies who try to manage their own campaigns will spend far too much targeting the wrong prospects. Use the right marketing management professional to research your market and determine precisely who to target, which will stretch your ad dollar farther.
7. Social media can be a "time suck": You know people who have become addicted to social media sites, spending hours on there throughout the day. They try to cob together a cohesive message, but fail miserably. A marketing manager from a professional agency can recommend a social media strategy that presents the same message as the other elements of your campaign.
8. Trust me, you are not a website coder: If you are trying to design and maintain your company website in-house, it is costing you more in wasted time than if you had just hired a professional in the first place. By using the services of a true marketing management pro, your site will convey the same message as everything else you put out there. And if you add in the wasted time of trying to conquer the giant that is search engine optimization, you will spin into a money-losing downward spiral without seeing the results you sought. Again, leave this to the pros, it is money well spent. But always use the same person to create the site optimize it for search engine rankings.
9. Spending too little on your campaign: Top advertising researchers have concluded it takes seven impressions if your brand into the mind of a buyer before they contact you to buy. Seven. Anything less, and you could be wasting advertising money. While it appears to cost more up front to launch a campaign that uses enough different media and strategies to produce these seven impressions, a marketing management agency will produce this kind of effective approach that will send your sales numbers in the desired direction.
10. Using cheap online or offshore labor: Beware of the temptation to save money by using people off popular internet classified ad sites, as many of these might be amateurs without a legitimate resume posing as so-called professionals. If you do shop the classifieds online for graphic design and/or advertising people, make sure they have a business license and will gladly offer up verifiable references that you can contact. And if you choose to use the dirt-cheap labor found overseas, remember that they may not understand your U.S. market or will suffer language and grammar difficulties. All of these risks go away when you just spend the money to hire real marketing management professionals.
Often times, these businesses have had an unpleasant experience with a marketing or creative agency who either did not do what they promised, or charged for things like sent faxes, running up an already high bill. As a reflex action to this experience, they may try to bring the management of their advertising campaign "in-house" by utilizing middle managers and administrative staff to handle design and implementation. With staff already stretched due to budget cuts, creativity suffers when corners are cut, and soon the company's brand falls of the radar screens of their customers.
Here are 10 mistakes businesses can make when trying to manage their campaigns in-house, along with tips on how a professional marketing management agency can help solve these issues:
1. Not seeing the "big picture": When a business tries to do their campaign without the aid of professionals, they frequently fail to look at all elements of the campaign, instead focusing on the false expectations of instant gratification. A professional marketing management agency will put together a comprehensive campaign using all available media, and will plan your next 12 - 18 months of advertising and marketing spending.
2. Avoid printing pre-press overcharges: When a company uses in-house or inexperienced graphic designers for their collateral sales materials, these files often are not prepared for the printing press properly. When these ill-prepared files get to the print shop, extra "pre-press" charges can be added to fix the mistakes. One printer we contacted said as much as 75% of files they received needed extensive work to print properly, which added greatly to the final bill. By utilizing a professional marketing management company, these expenses are eliminated and overall, your printing costs can be reduced significantly.
3. Everybody thinks they are a photographer: Companies often try to save money by doing ad photograph themselves. But while this is a cheap alternative to hiring a professional photographer, the final images usually are not ready for high resolution use in any media. A marketing management agency will show you why hiring a professional to shoot your photos makes sense for maintaining the highest quality in your imagery which in turn further polishes your brand.
4. "Desktop Publishing" is NOT real graphic design: The one single biggest mistake businesses make is having office personnel use commonly available word processing software to design sales materials or display ads. These projects will look of poor quality and diminish your brand. Spend the money to use the professional designers at a marketing management agency to keep your image sharp.
5. Avoid spending on ineffective display ads: Without a trained marketing management agency working with you, it is easy to spend lavishly to put your homegrown ad in all the wrong places. An agency will sort out the available media buys and recommend only the ones with the best chance of success, which optimizes your ad budget greatly.
6. The "shotgun approach" is never a good value: Some companies who try to manage their own campaigns will spend far too much targeting the wrong prospects. Use the right marketing management professional to research your market and determine precisely who to target, which will stretch your ad dollar farther.
7. Social media can be a "time suck": You know people who have become addicted to social media sites, spending hours on there throughout the day. They try to cob together a cohesive message, but fail miserably. A marketing manager from a professional agency can recommend a social media strategy that presents the same message as the other elements of your campaign.
8. Trust me, you are not a website coder: If you are trying to design and maintain your company website in-house, it is costing you more in wasted time than if you had just hired a professional in the first place. By using the services of a true marketing management pro, your site will convey the same message as everything else you put out there. And if you add in the wasted time of trying to conquer the giant that is search engine optimization, you will spin into a money-losing downward spiral without seeing the results you sought. Again, leave this to the pros, it is money well spent. But always use the same person to create the site optimize it for search engine rankings.
9. Spending too little on your campaign: Top advertising researchers have concluded it takes seven impressions if your brand into the mind of a buyer before they contact you to buy. Seven. Anything less, and you could be wasting advertising money. While it appears to cost more up front to launch a campaign that uses enough different media and strategies to produce these seven impressions, a marketing management agency will produce this kind of effective approach that will send your sales numbers in the desired direction.
10. Using cheap online or offshore labor: Beware of the temptation to save money by using people off popular internet classified ad sites, as many of these might be amateurs without a legitimate resume posing as so-called professionals. If you do shop the classifieds online for graphic design and/or advertising people, make sure they have a business license and will gladly offer up verifiable references that you can contact. And if you choose to use the dirt-cheap labor found overseas, remember that they may not understand your U.S. market or will suffer language and grammar difficulties. All of these risks go away when you just spend the money to hire real marketing management professionals.
Dan Pimentel
Author Dan Pimentel owns a marketing management agency in Oregon that specializes in campaign development for all businesses and has been in the advertising/printing trades since 1974. He frequently writes about advertising and aviation at his blog.
View all articles by Dan Pimentel