I about I got into a fight to the death with an ad rep for a client yesterday. Why? Because ad reps are not marketers and they attempt to give you unwanted bad advertising advice. I do not mean any offense to any ad rep that does know what they are doing, but many know absolutely nothing about marketing. Many have never studied, created or done ANY advertising themselves. They have not been knee deep in the trenches of entrepreneurship like we have. They do not know what it is like to struggle and risk everything for a dream. They haven’t spent their own marbles for advertising instead of things they needed personally like so many of us have. This is incredible to me because these are the same people who are advising countless small business owners on their marketing. Many are just salesmen that “do the marketing or graphic design.” They have done zero marketing themselves and are not required to know tactics, strategies, case studies, response rates, industry data and research (the list goes on for days…) before they give advertising advice. They couldn’t tell you which fonts increase readership, they can’t show you proof for what they are telling you. They just give their opinion without any reason whatsoever and many people follow what they tell them. It’s the blind leading the blind.
Remember the ad rep for a popular local magazine I was talking about earlier? This is no joke, she tried to tell me to take out my offer, copy, coupon, testimonials, headline and other marketing tactics and to just leave a logo, website and address for a two page ad because she thought “those tactics don’t work.” (PLEASE NOTE: I DIDN’T ASK FOR HER ADVICE IN THE FIRST PLACE). This ad rep was advising me to take away the very tactics that convince people to come into the business! These tactics have been proven to work for something like 200 years and this ad rep thinks they don’t work? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? HOW SCARY IS THIS? This is a lady that is advising numerous local businesses on their marketing!!! The truth is that most ad reps simply do not know any better. They do not know what it takes to get a customer.
99% of advertising doesn’t sell much of anything. — David Ogilvy (Founder Of Ogilvy & Mather Advertising Agency.)
I want you to stop for a moment and ask yourself: What is the REAL reason you advertise?
The bottom line reason you advertise is to get people to act. To make money. It’s not to be pretty, modern, funny or entertaining. It’s not to get people to “Wow, great ad.” It’s simply to make money and get more business. You want your advertising to persuade people to whip out their credit cards and slap it on the counter right then. Branding, being funny, creating buzz and being creative is great and all, but the red line is that you simply want customers to pay for your stuff as quickly as possible. That’s what matters isn’t it? You can have all the buzz in the world but if it doesn’t produce any money in return then it’s completely worthless! Focus your advertising on getting a direct response. Remember the purpose of your marketing and advertising: TO GET PAYING CUSTOMERS not getting “buzz” or to win awards. You want to be able to say, because of this ad, it brought X amount in return, If you can’t do this with a form of advertising, then don’t do it and dedicate the money somewhere else where you can. And for you sake, when dealing with ad reps: ask freaking questions. Ask them why they are advising you to do something. Ask for proof. Don’t just take their word for it because “they have found that —– (insert crap here)—– to be true. Make em’ prove it with real examples.
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I want you to stop for a moment and ask yourself: What is fear? 
I want to start this post with some alarming statistics from a recent study: 
I love history and learning about our great leaders, innovators and producers of the past. Here’s a few from this month: 
I will never forget the day I started my first business, Urge Marketing. I was working as a server for a restaurant while finishing college. While my guests were happy and during my breaks, I would read business and success books. One day my boss, Dale came up to me and picked up the book I was reading (Inc and Grow Rich… great book about incorporation by the way), and said “Whose book is this?” I told him it was mine. He laughed at me and said, “You’ll never be a business owner, you are a nothing but a server, you idiot. What makes you think that you can run a business?” Due to this and a few other factors, I never went back there to work. That night with nothing but a whopping $100 in my pocket and a dream I started Urge Marketing and have been doing it ever since. 
Ladies and gents, I would like to announce a new addition for our blog: Local Treasures where we bring you great crazy or funny local commercials for your enjoyment. Each week I’m going to bring you one or two local gems that we think are great. 
Not too long ago, I spent a few hours visiting a friend at the hospital. I noticed how the doctors gave her a prescription to take elsewhere to fill. Why is it that doctors haven’t figured out to put a pharmacy right smack inside the hospital? All day long they are writing prescriptions, why not sell the medicine too? The customers are right there ready to buy them. In fact, it’s even a hassle for them to go elsewhere to fill it. Why don’t they have a pharmacy or even put in something like a redbox medicine vending machine? Makes absolutely no sense. Doctors are literally letting money skip right out the front door!
