by Sue Mazur, Coffee News AUSTRALIA

I received a call from one of my Advertisers one day telling me that he wanted to stop his Coffee News advertising. I was a bit surprised, and asked why. The fellow shared that he has been receiving quite a lot of response from an on-line local trade directory that he had signed with recently, and it was certainly enough business for him.

We had a chat about how Coffee News was giving him exposure in the marketplace, so that when customers saw his listing in the trade directory they were familiar with his name, they would choose him over his competitors in the same directory. I then asked if he had read the publication I sent to him “How to get the best results from your Coffee News Ad” that explains this and shows how to more accurately measure responses. He was very honest and said that he hadn’t read it and wasn’t sure where it was. He was so keen about the on-line local trade directory and said he definitely wanted to give it a go, and would get back to me and let me know how it went.

About two months later, I got another call. The same fellow. Asking if he could put his Ad back into Coffee News. He shared that his responses from the on-line trade directory had fallen. I re-sent the publication to him again that night.

A month later I checked in with him and he was so excited and shared something else he had experienced from his Coffee News Ad - “you know - I’ve had five calls from Coffee News - and none of them wanted quotes before I did the job - that stuff about ‘A’ type buyers really works!”

We often see businesses looking for the magic medium to advertise in - brilliant results with little investment. The truth is, there is no magic medium (otherwise we’d all be doing it).

Coffee News gives you visibility / branding / familiarity. Coupled with a multiple marketing strategy (including signage, vehicles, uniforms, websites, stationery, newsletters, networking and other promotions) you increase the familiarity of your business and increase the reticular activator response for good prospects to call you. Yes - they may tell you they heard about you from a friend, an on-line directory etc. The bottom-line truth is that it is the familiarity you have developed that brought you that customer to you!

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