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TRANSCRIPT:
Avish: Alright Fred, let’s talk now about using newspaper advertising. I know it’s becoming less popular with internet these days, but do you think that newspaper ads still have a place in marketing seminars.

Fred: I do. It depends on what kind of seminars they are and who they are appealing to. But if it’s appealing to a group and the only way to really know this is to test it. But yes, we should still talk about it just because for some people, it might be an ideal component of a mix.

Avish: Okay, sounds good. So let’s say – well, the first thing thinking back on something you just said there, so obviously we have to test it. But in general, when would newspaper advertising be an option we’d want to consider.

Fred: Well, if you got something that is going onto, I mean, this is going to sound like a really stupid answer, but if the seminar is appealing to people who read the newspaper then it make sense to test. They are a lot of people. Say for example, if you are going after a bunch of technology-oriented 20 year olds and you know that was your market; newspapers would be the wrong place probably and even test. So if your market is of a certain age, probably, I would say, at least 40 plus and it’s something that you figured that there would be a good chance that those folks would still be looking at newspaper ads then it’s worth testing.

Avish: Okay and how are we going to test? When you say test, how are we going to test whether the newspaper ad is working since there is no automatic click through type thing.

Fred: Yeah, it’s a good question. So what I would do is let’s say for example you’re doing your first one, your first test seminar and you decided, okay well I’m going to try newspaper ad here so I would take out a relatively small ad meaning something a quarter page, maybe less. Let’s say quarter page depending with the cost within in your area or your own newspaper group and I would then have some kind of some special code that they have to use when they have to use or email in to get some kind of a deal so you could track whether or not that newspaper ad was worth it. Fairly simple, straightforward to do and give them some kind of special bonus or mention code 391 and get blah, blah, blah.

Avish: Okay. That makes sense. So let’s say you decided that your market does read the newspaper. Newspaper advertising can get pretty expensive, so how are you going to get the best prices and save money?

Fred: Well, one of the things that you want to do is, it’s often times the case that they will give you a different rate if you are local as supposed to national. Also, with the drop in advertising that is being done in newspaper now, you can generally negotiate a pretty good deal. So the first thing you want to do is, if you don’t have a presence in the city where you are doing that particular seminar, you may want to setup a PO Box and so hopefully you can claim to have some kind of local presence. Often times, they want you to have a retail store or establishment within their city limits or area of distribution, but sometimes you can do that.

Now, also you want to check with a friend and see if he or she can put the ad in for you or claim to have their addresses your address to try and to do that. That seem a little bit of gray area, but I would certainly try that. So again, remember, these folks are negotiable. Now if you’re doing whole series of seminars and you don’t really care if the ad runs or not because you’re just going to get bonus, you know people if they are advertising in the newspaper list, you can do what’s called sort of like, one of those sort of “leave it or leave it” kind of deals where you send the newspaper the picture or the copy or the pdf of what you want to run and just say, I know your normal rates were thousand dollars, but here’s a check for 500 bucks, if you decide to run it, please cash the check.

Avish: Ah okay and so then they might just – they will get the space, they’ve already got your check, they can just cash it and get the money and run your ad?

Fred: It’s really difficult for people not to cash a check.

Avish: I like that. Okay. So let’s say, you got your ad rates, what’s the most important element of the ad and how do you make that add element better?

Fred: The most important element of that ad, like with everything almost having to do with this or anything website, etc is your headline, which what you put on the top to sort of suck people in and let them know that this ad if for them and its promising some pretty good benefits. So the headline is crucial.

I used to – my headline that I ran for my consulting seminar was, “How To Start In Building Consultant Business In Your Own Field.” And that was compelling back then. I don’t think now that would be particularly compelling. It’s pretty general and again, it’s for anybody wanting to get in the consulting business and I would say, who should attend and I would list about just everybody with the dog catcher so everybody feel like it’s for them. But the headline is crucial and usually what you need to do in headline to make it work is to promise a big benefit and to try and make it something that is relatively unique. So, “How to Start and Build a Successful Consultation Business in Your Own Field” and eh, sort of weak now, but it worked back aways.

Again, your headline is something that you want to test and if you want test it before the fact and this is a sort of little bit sort of a trade secret. One of the things you could do is you can put some Google ads and use the various headlines that you’re thinking and see which one pulls the greatest click through rate. And although it’s not going to be exactly the same audience as people that are the newspaper readers, it will at least help you understand what might pull better. So you might test three or four Google ads with different types of headlines and see what worked.

Avish: Okay. So I know the ins and out of Google ad as a bigger topic, but just in general, for people who are not or unfamiliar, what do you mean that you can use Google ads to test your headlines?

Fred: Yeah. Good point. You can go to Google and setup a Google Ad Words account. And frequently now Google is sending out all kinds of promotions where you get a hundred dollars worth of free ads. And that what you would do is you pick your various keywords and it doesn’t really even, you know, make sure they’re in the ballpark. But you put in a few different keywords and you see which add or which headline for your ad tends to pull better.

So for example, if we’re doing a seminar on starting your own consulting business, putting something like “Consulting: The New Gold Rush” and see how that pulls versus how to start in building your consulting business and so you can put all these ads up and pay a minimal amount to have people click through. That will give you a better idea what might work best. Again, might work best when you test them in an actual newspaper.

Avish: Okay. I got it. Run a shorter Google ad words campaign, you see which one people click on more and then use that as your headline?

Fred: You got it.

Avish: Okay, let’s say you got your headline selected. What do you mean when you said that you have to create compelling reasons for people to attend?

Fred: Yeah, so why is it that they should go to this seminar as supposed to buying a book on the subject, learning stuff on the internet, etc, etc. There should be some compelling reason why this seminar should be the way they learn about and consume this information. So that includes putting in there things that, you know, never refill before ideas, ideas that we don’t talk about with our private clients but only on public seminars, whatever you want to put in there. There’s got to be enough compelling information to let people know that getting to the seminar is crucial.

Avish: Okay. It makes sense. So, we’d been talking ads and most the terms like quarter page, half page but what about classified ads, are those still running and is that something worth considering?

Fred: You know what, given the fact that Craigslist has virtually killed the classified ad section of the newspaper, it’s worth testing some ads and what I’d like to do is test a few ads well in advanced on the seminar date using different headlines and usually they’ll give you a package on pretty cheap these days. So it’s worth putting some classified ads in there just to see whether or not that pull and again, they way that you do this is provide them with a special code number so that you can track whether or not they’re going to work and prepare three of four different classified ads just like with your headlines and see if you got any response at all, but run those a good two or three months before the seminar to see and worse case scenario, get those people on the list interested parties that will say, hey, contact me when the seminar is going to run.

Avish: Okay and same rule is applied, if it’s the type of seminar that people would be reading newspaper?

Fred: That’s exactly right.

Avish: Are there certain publications you should avoid advertising in?

Fred: Yeah. Good question. You had to be very careful. And well, give you a couple of my examples. Number one, often times there are two newspapers in a given city, one of which everyone reads and the other one is just sort of there. So you’ve got to make sure that you’re advertising in the newspaper and I learned that in Dallas when I put in an ad on the wrong paper. And I forget which one is which these days. But talk with people in that city and ask them and they’ll know what it is. The other thing is you go to be very careful of specialty publications and what will happen is someone will contact you for one of the specialty publication and say, “Oh yeah, we saw your ad in the Dallas morning news and boy that would work great in here.” And when somebody calls you with that kind of a line, the first thing you say to them is “Man, I’m so excited that you say that, in fact I’m so excited that I think we should do is split the revenue and all that you run the ad as much as you want for free and I’ll give you half of the registration dollars, that way, you guys will make even more money. How’s that sound?” and inevitably they’ll say, well that’s not our policy and I go, “Wait, wait! You just told me that this ad is sure of polls such great numbers in your publications, why wouldn’t you want your publication make more money?” To which you will hear usually crickets.

Avish: Yeah. Have you ever had anybody take you up on that offer?

Fred: I haven’t but if they did, I will sure do it.

Avish: Yeah. That’s cool. And how about sections of the paper. Obviously some papers have many sections. Are there better or worse sections for advertising?

Fred: Well that all depends on what you’re advertising. If you’re appealing to primary male audience, again, you may want to test to sports section. If you are appealing primarily to a female audience, again it’s fairly sexes. But it’s true, certain lifestyle sections will pull greater. So you have to make sure and understand who reads what. If it’s a general audience, generally, I try to get in the main new section.

Avish: Okay. So it sounds like newspaper ads can still work, but it depends on the audience and by getting you have to test, test, test.

Fred: Absolutely.

Avish: Cool. Thanks Fred.