I think that promoting effectively through Television will depend on your goals, budget and the type of business (product & compensation plan). Furthermore, it is important to do your homework before making a decision to start promoting SFI and TripleClicks on Television.
Generally TV advertising costs too much. However, in the US, if you are in a mid-tier television market , you can probably start seeing your ads appearing in a prime time show starting at a thousand US dollar per month. The advertising costs will be dependent on the time you would like your ad to be shown and also your region (city). While in a small market, you will be able to run a campaign with a much cheaper costs.
There is a way to get free commercials made. If you’re going to use a television commercial production company, you are going to pay around five to twenty thousand US to create a 30 second commercial. However, you may be able to get your local broadcaster or cable system provider to create commercials for minimal or no cost. If you buy advertising from a local broadcaster, they will often create a commercial for between five hundred and two thousand US. If you agree to run advertising for 3 to 6 months, they will often do it for free. There is catch to having a broadcaster create a free or low-cost commercial. You must agree to run only the commercial on their station or cable network.
Before promoting SFI and TripleClicks on Television, you should consider the following points:
How much does TV advertising Cost?
1) How many people locally watch the show that you want your advertisements to appear on? The station should be able to provide you with data from reputable Adstats orgranization.
2) What is the average CPM (cost for the TV ad to be seen 1,000 times) for that type of television program?
For example you want to buy 10 spots over a month on an 10:00 AM news show on your local station. The show is watched by 20,000 people on average. You could calculate a fair price with the following formula.
(number of spots) x (number of viewers in thousands) x (average CPM for that type of show) = ballpark fair price
In this example, 10 x 20 x $11.15 = $2,230
3) Buy the shows which prospect’s watch or are likely to watch
Your local television station will allow you to advertise on specific shows. Survey your clients to see what shows they watch. Also, do a demographic survey of your prospects (age, gender, etc).
You should share the demographic data that you collected with the account executives at your local television stations and ask them to suggest what shows match that demographic. If the shows that they suggest are the same as the shows your prospects told you they watch, then the decision on what show to advertise is an easy one. If they suggest a different show, you should do another informal survey but specifically ask them about the shows suggested by the account executive.
4) Don’t spread your commercials out, rather concentrate them within limits
- You want to first focus on one show.
- For half hour show, you ideally want to show two SFI/TC advertisements.
- For an hour show, you ideally want to have two or three ads.
One way of making your TV ad dollars go farther is to use 15 second commercials instead of 30 second commercials.
You want the viewers of a show to think you’re a major advertiser and remember your ads. By delivering two ads in 30 minutes or 3 during the course of an hour, you dramatically increase the chance of viewer noticing your ad. Off course, too many ads becomes a waste of your advertising dollars.
Lets say you only have enough money to buy 5 spots per month. In this case you would want to concentrate those ads over the course of 3 days. By concentrating the ads over a shorter period of time, you will increase their impact. If the advertising works, you can expand your TV advertising out into another week of the month. When you have the month saturated, you can jump into advertising in another program on the same station.
5) Key elements of good television commercials
Use a local television station to help you in creating your commercials. They should assign a producer to work with you. Your commercial should have the following elements.
- Tell your prospects who you are – The name of your business SFI/TripleClicks should be very clear
- Give your prospects an offer or reason to visit SFI/TripleClicks (ie, an E-book about saving on utility or grocery bills, TC Gift Cards, etc.) . You can ask them to mention this commercial to get your free offer.
- Let them know how to find information about SFI/TripleClicks (Give them your website address, in fact leave up your website address throughout the entire commercial.)
You might ask why not include your phone number or your address with a commercial but, feature your website. Thirty seconds is a really short time, fifteen seconds is even shorter. The more time you spend on presenting this type of information, the less time you will have to promote SFI/TripleClicks. Also, many people have trouble remembering numbers presented to them quickly. A web address can be easier to remember and by going to your website they can get your contact information such as phone number and address.
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