Wizard of Ads Clay Campbell: Do you do it just because everyone else is doing it?

“ You have to be in here, all your competitors are. You don’t wanna be left out do you?”

Several years ago where I live, a lucky yellow page
salesperson talked a reluctant attorney into buying an ad in the yellow pages. The next year a couple more attorneys bought ads, and one of them bought a bigger ad than the attorney from the previous year. So the next year that first attorney buys a bigger ad and that year several more attorneys bought in to the yellow-page-ad-buying fever. The fourth year the first attorney bought a full-page ad and the next year about 12 more attorneys purchased display ads.

The next year there were 20 attorneys in the book, and one bought a double truck (two pages together) several others bought full-page ads and the yellow pages sales rep bought a new Jaguar and moved into a new home by the golf course. Last year in our little town of Paducah Kentucky, population 30,000, there were 44 pages in the yellow page directory of attorneys. All are competing for the business of the 30,000 folks and collectively paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to compete with each other in the Yellow Pages. This is happening in every town in America.

If everyone is doing it…should you?

I happen to fervently believe that you should try to get the best bang for your ad dollars.

Two or three years ago an attorney bought a billboard sign in Paducah. This year as you drive around there are faces of lawyers’ on billboards all over town, each one trying out “American Idol” the other. A kinda scary thought.

Let’s say all the plumbers in your town are running big ads in the yellow pages, and you’re a new plumber starting up. Should you buy a big ad in the yellow pages too? Well, I don’t know that, but I defiantly would “ipod up” to biggest and most liked radio station in town and find out if any plumbers were running ads. I would also check to see how many of the plumbers had websites. There is even a plumber ad video on you tube and it’s very funny.

If everyone else is doing it should you? Only if that is the best bang for your buck.

I can tell you this: the attorneys in our town notice and read the other attorneys’ billboards way more than everyone else does, because when you buy a red pickup truck, you all of the sudden notice all the other red pick up trucks.

My humble opinion is this: Don’t buy a yellow page ad because the yellow page rep says, “ You have to be in here, all your competitors are. You don’t wanna be left out do you?” If you own an insurance company, don’t buy a billboard because all the other insurance companies do.

If you are a car dealer and 8 other car dealers are running TV ads in the evening news, don’t do it. Find another way.

Most business owners are pretty sure half of their advertising dollars are wasted; but they’re not sure which half to quit. That's when you need a consultant.

Don’t buy advertising of any kind without a well thought out strategy plan. Decide what media is best for you and try to dominate it. Be the first to dominate your category in a media your competitors are not using, and it is very likely your competition will never ever catch up.

If everyone else is doing it should you?

Answer this: If 25 fishermen were fishing in Minnesota in one lake, and none fishing in a nearby lake, would you go fish in the one with the 25 others, or be the lone fisherman in the other? Advertising options available to take your money today have become like the lakes in Minnesota: there are about 10,000 of them.