Jul 29, 2024
North Bay, ON  

“I’m sorry sir, but there is no reservation in that name, and we are sold out.”

Can’t read the full email – click here for the online version.

It was mid-morning, and we had just unloaded half of our car into our Sea-Can, an hour east of Calgary. We had finished clearing out our house at 1:30 AM, driven to a hotel in the city, only to learn that our reservation hadn’t been received. A small town 40 minutes away had space so we drove on into the night, knowing at least that we would be traveling in the right direction.

But now, in the light of day, my wife outlined our reality.

Another entire carload was still sitting in our shed back home and there was no way we could leave that for our son to deal with. We’d have to drive back west, 2 hours, load up our car, then drive back to our container to store the stuff there. 

Then, we could continue on our way to Ontario, and visit my parents.

It meant we’d arrive a day later than planned.

To give some of you context, we have sold our house in the Canadian Rockies, and are planning on taking up residency in Panama. Possession date is Aug 1, but we are traveling to Europe to attend an bi-annual reunion of my extended family in Berlin, which starts on that day.

So, we needed to be out of the house, all furniture and fixings we don’t need for months stored away. Enroute back to the mountains, I was reminded of how bad most advertising is and how often small businesses are easily swayed by the lure of lots of potential eyeballs.

This time, I am referring to the large signs seen alongside highways. 

Here’s an idea of the messaging I witnessed.

• “Adventure Lives Here” in big bold letters – then the name of the company. In small print were the names the 2 communities the business was located in.
   
• “Beyond Fine Dining” in big bold letters. Below less legible is the town and name of the restaurant. Less visible is the hotel the restaurant is situated in.

There were many others, equally bad. What is wrong with them, you might ask?

Many things, but #1 is that none follow the conversion equation with all its necessary components.

 Which are:

1. Attention – with nice images and graphics – most get this right
2. Engage – this means, now that you have my attention, is this relevant to me, now?
3. Educate – tell me why I need to pay attention and take action.
4. Offer – each and every promotion needs a call to action. A reason to take some action if even to get more information (where the business can then do follow-up and close the sale)

There are many other errors. And remember, one has at most 5 seconds to read the sign before zooming by.

Unfortunately, the sign salespeople sold these companies on the premise that millions of eyeballs will see their signs over the course of a year. The contracts are usually for 12 months minimum and creating the signs themselves is costly, with the design, copy-writing and then installation on top of the rental.

Lastly, there is no way for these businesses to even track the success of these signs – which is exactly what the sellers want. They don’t want you to know you are wasting your dollars. 

If you’ve been sold by anyone on the promise of “traffic”, with none of the other components, especially, offer and tracking – run, don’t walk, away – now. 

Use the link below to self-audit your promotions if you’re not 100% sure your ad, website or promotion is following proper marketing principles.

Go to: https://hughtafel.com/evaluator/

Until next week,

Stay healthy and focus on profit! 

- Hugh 
The “Profit Accelerator” Expert

P.S. Did you know that even tiny improvements of 1-3%, in just 12 fundamental areas of your business could give you 50% and more improvement to your bottom-line? Test out my brand-new Profit Acceleration Simulator^TM  and discover the true impact of a conservative estimate of Profit Acceleration initiatives on your business and see for yourself. (https://hughtafel.com/sim)

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