I don't think it should say "what" is protecting your investment. I think it should say "who" or "are you?"
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I always work with my salespeople on what's called an elevator speech. Basically, if you're in an elevator with someone what would you tell them in 20-30 seconds about your business and it's benefits before they got off the elevator. Your advertising should relay that.
Tmac
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I think it's important to have an elevator speech. I actually have something of the sort for the back of the postcard.
The purpose of the front of the image, however, is to be a pictorial analogy:Ad Templates | Jeff Sexton Writes
I want to get landowners to really start thinking about their timber as an investment. What do people associate with investments? Money. What protects people's money? Banks.
By using pictures that people already identify with, I can get them to start visualizing this new way of thinking.
Edit: Here's another link to ad templates:The Best Ads Follow Templates? | Ideation Its Geographic Location
Tmac
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First of all, thanks to you and everyone else who posts about their business on here, it's always an interesting read.
I had a couple of probably dumb thoughts, but I figured I'd throw them out anyway.
1. Is it possible to request some sort of exclusivity deal in exchange for offering the cruise for free? As in, you appraise for free if they contractually agree to use you in the negotiations. You could maybe frame it with a termination fee equivalent to your current appraisal fee if they decide to go with somebody else so they don't feel like they're signing their life away. The advantage to the customer is they have an avenue that doesn't cost anything upfront that also gets your foot in the door and ensures you have a way to recoup your costs.
2. Is there any sense in targeting specific regions to cut down on your travel costs, i.e. advertise in a very concentrated area you'll have a guy around who'd be able to do the appraisals for a discounted price. I guess the fault in this thought is the amount of time it takes per quote.
Also, feedback on your ad copy, I don't really like it. Visually it's very nice, but I don't see anything that would really capture my attention. I think I'd be much more likely to be grabbed by the infographic you're talking about sending later and probably wouldn't have even made the connection between the two mailings.
I had a couple of probably dumb thoughts, but I figured I'd throw them out anyway.
1. Is it possible to request some sort of exclusivity deal in exchange for offering the cruise for free? As in, you appraise for free if they contractually agree to use you in the negotiations. You could maybe frame it with a termination fee equivalent to your current appraisal fee if they decide to go with somebody else so they don't feel like they're signing their life away. The advantage to the customer is they have an avenue that doesn't cost anything upfront that also gets your foot in the door and ensures you have a way to recoup your costs.
2. Is there any sense in targeting specific regions to cut down on your travel costs, i.e. advertise in a very concentrated area you'll have a guy around who'd be able to do the appraisals for a discounted price. I guess the fault in this thought is the amount of time it takes per quote.
Also, feedback on your ad copy, I don't really like it. Visually it's very nice, but I don't see anything that would really capture my attention. I think I'd be much more likely to be grabbed by the infographic you're talking about sending later and probably wouldn't have even made the connection between the two mailings.
1. Refundable.
I think the ad is fine. It encourages land owners to directly think of their tree as capital. One thing is protecting, another is getting a higher ROI than what they would normally get (mis-)managing it themselves (not optimized).
I think the ad is fine. It encourages land owners to directly think of their tree as capital. One thing is protecting, another is getting a higher ROI than what they would normally get (mis-)managing it themselves (not optimized).
Tmac
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You're welcome!
1. I've thought about this, but it'd have to be done in a particular way. I feel like it would create a barrier to entry for people wanting a cruise, so explaining it in a way that doesn't feel like a barrier would be the tricky part.
2. No
The problem with focusing on local advertising is that we couldn't do it in metropolitan areas, which means that we'd be doing a little marketing in a lot of small towns. My inclination is that this would be a lot of trouble to organize and expensive to maintain.
The easiest route for me is targeting the internet where a lot of people inheriting land look for info.
The large majority of landowners are OLD. We asked one lady if she had any plans for managing her timber and she replied, "Honey, when you get to be my age, the only thing you plan for is the grave." How do you respond to that? Haha!
Tmac
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I work at a bank and the conversation that we normally have with our older customers is finding out goals that they have with their estate. We call it Legacy planning. Do they want to send the grandkids to college, do they want to donate money to charity, do they want to help out the kids, etc.
opiate82
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Me personally, I would flip the graphics/message so the "What's the Value of Your Timber?" message is on the top and the "Who is protecting..." message is on the bottom.An update on the graphics.
Tmac
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We actually did this with a landowner in Kentucky. He signed a contract agreement to sale timber and the Forester will be out there on the 19th. Woo!
Yes, but you severely limit the size of your market. If you're retired, this would make sense, but if you're trying to make a living, you pretty much have to focus on the whole state or on a specific niche (large land management, etc)
That was just my inspiration for my graphics guy. The new ones are posted.