5 Profit-Draining mistakes you make in your advertising every day and what you can do about it- Part 1.
Furniture World News Desk on
10/10/2013
By David Love, President, Love Furniture Profits
Starting with this article and then over the next four weeks, I’ll expose Five Profit-Draining Mistakes you make in your advertising. I’ll provide some solutions as well.
Before we start though, let’s have this understanding: when I say “Ad” I mean ROP, circular, preferred customer mailing, email, even your web site. Any means you use to communicate with your customers and prospects.
The most glaring mistake almost all advertisers make today is failure to talk about benefits in their ads. All furniture and mattress ads today (as least the ones I see) are benefit starved. Granted, “Sale”, saving money is a benefit but price is not the primary reason people buy. Long term financing is also a benefit. But we all know that chews through profits like a hyena chews through a wildebeest carcass.
When I was a rep for Sealy Mattress, they conducted a survey of those who had recently made a purchase to discover the reasons they bought. There were 10 choices from store location, to the salesperson, selection, and so on. The choices included Value and Price. Guess what? Value was ranked #2. Price was ranked #8. The consumer knows the difference between price and value. Think about a considered, major purchase you made recently. You wanted good value and if the price was a little higher, you were willing to pay it. Right?
When prospects are reading your ads, they’re not looking for a “sofa” or a “recliner.” They’re looking for solutions to their problems. A very wise man once said, “You don’t buy the drill, you buy the hole.” You don’t buy the “thing.” You buy what the “thing” will do for you. This Truth is vital to all selling. And isn’t advertising nothing more than professional salesmanship, multiplied by media?
You must get this if you want to cut profit-draining waste from your advertising: people buy for one reason and one reason only; to get BENEFITS. Never for any other reason. That’s right; never!
Benefits are the advantages and satisfactions people get from what they buy. What are some examples? They buy to get Comfort, Better Relaxation, to be Proud, to get Better Sleep, to have Prettier Homes, more Inviting Living Rooms, to be the Envy of their neighbors, and so on.
So . . . a prospect for a new mattress is not looking for a new mattress. She’s looking for a better night’s sleep. She’s tired of waking up achy and tired, with no energy. She hates it when she rolls toward that hole in the middle of the bed and can’t get comfortable. She wishes her shoulder didn’t hurt when she lies on her side. She doesn’t know what’s like to wake up fresh, brisk full of energy, ready to face the day. She’s looking for solutions to her problems.
Strong advertising can generate the largely pre-sold vital floor traffic – or sales leads – which your salespeople must have to make sales. Weak advertising does nothing more than waste opportunities and drain profits from your bottom line. All furniture and mattress advertising that I see today suffers from weak, label headlines that don’t promise a benefit or any solution. If there is any copy it is uninteresting and does an inadequate job of conveying benefits, or it fails to promise benefits at all. Other than 50% – 70% off and up to 60 months free financing. Sound familiar?
My experience is, and I think you'll agree, most stores, do a pretty good job of teaching their salespeople to talk about benefits in the selling process. So why don’t we do the same in our ads?
Next week in installment #2, I’ll tell you why.
David Love is the owner of Love Furniture Profits. An advertising consulting and coaching firm that shows retailers how to get more traffic, more and higher ticket sales and more profits using long-lost scientific advertising secrets unknown by about 99% of all of today’s retailers.
David is a 41 year furniture/mattress, in the trenches, industry veteran. His unmatched-by-anyone background includes retail furniture sales. Manager of a retail furniture store. 22 years on the road making money for companies like Sealy Mattress and Best Chairs. His territory and his retailers achieved sometimes remarkable sales increases due to the expert advertising and sales advice he gave. He has also owned and sold his own profitable furniture store and was a highly regarded sales manager of a top 100 furniture store.
With his front-line experience he has a passion for passing it on and sharing that experience to help furniture and mattress retailers cut advertising waste and maximize sales and profits.
To find out more get your free copy (a $29 value) of his just released, breakthrough Special Report for Furniture and Mattress stores, “5 Long Lost Scientific Retail Advertising Secrets that work like magic in today’s economy for any furniture or mattress store to get you more customers, more sales, more profits” go right now to www.lovefurnitureprofits.com. David can be reached at david@lovefurnitureprofits.com.
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