Don't give up on that newspaper ad just yet

From: http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/1996/12/09/smallb5.html

Friday, December 6, 1996

Don't give up on that newspaper ad just yet
Sacramento Business Journal - by Bill "Guerrilla" Gallagher, Ph.D.

Have you ever put together a really impressive newspaper ad? Did you have the good fortune to have it well placed in the paper? (They say the best position is dead center or just above the place where your right thumb is holding the paper.)

After you ran this ad, did you cancel your morning appointments and wait for the phone to ring off the hook? (Phones used to have hooks, I guess.) And the only person who called you was your mother-in-law, who noticed that you spelled some word wrong?

So, you decided that maybe the ad wasn't so hot after all.

Not necessarily. The question should be: How many times do I need to see your ad to move from total apathy toward your product or service to something called "purchase readiness"? How many ads will get me to pick up the phone and call you for that FREE brochure?

By the way, unless you have a good reason not to, the phrase "Call today for your FREE brochure" ought to be in every ad. It not only implies no obligation, but it tells me exactly what you want me to do. Please note also that "FREE" is always spelled with four capital letters.

Okay, back to our original question. How many time do you need to run that ad to get me to call you?

The answer is seven.

This has to do with our neural memory buffer, a little too complex to go into here. Just think of how many sevens exist in our culture. Seven deadly sins, seven wonders of the world, seven days of the week -- you get the point. Seven is cool.

But wait. The complete answer is really "seven, plus or minus two." In other words, some folks will call after only seeing your ad five times; for others it will take up to nine. Figuring on the worst-case scenario, you need to run the ad at least nine times to catch all of us who might be interested in your offer.

Hang on, we're not finished yet. Since most of us aren't paying attention but about a third of the time, you really need to run that ad three times nine. Twenty-seven times your ad needs to show up in or near the same spot before you will know if it's an effective ad or not.

This is why you need to be patient.

And, obviously, use smaller ads.

Over and over again it has been shown that small ads are just as effective, and in many cases more effective, than full-page jumbo ads.

Why? Well, when we read the newspaper, we're looking for information. We scan everything looking for facts, stories, bargains and so on. When we see a whole page devoted to something that doesn't grab us in one-twentieth of a second, we quickly scan to the next page.

Hang in there. Have the patience to wait it out. By the time you're sick and tired of your ad, your future customers are just noticing it!

Bill Gallagher is head of Guerrilla Sales & Marketing in Diamond Springs and co-author of "Guerrilla Selling." For more information on the topics and ideas in this column, call (800) 800-8086 or send e-mail to bguerrilla@aol.com. If you have a marketing question, send it to The Business Journal, 1401 21st St., Sacramento 95814.