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Revisiting (one of) my stupidest marketing mistakes...
I've been known to be pretty critical of other companies' advertising efforts.
I hate magazine ads that make you work to figure out what they are selling; fancy, "arty" photography that does nothing to describe a product or it's use. A trip in the car to Indianapolis always results in ranting over the vague and cryptic messages on the billboards. Again, what are they selling? At 70 mph that's not much time to figure it out. Don't even get me started on the Viagra "get things done" commercial where the guy unloads a team of already harnessed ?? horses to pull out his stuck truck and trailer. I get the symbolism of what they are implying, but does the average consumer that's the target market for this product get it? The long version of the commercial shows a woman in the upstairs window - presumably hinting at what's next - but a more realistic scenario would be that same woman wanting to know if those horses got unharnessed, cooled out, bedded and fed before the guy even came to the house...
At any rate, I feel a little dumb, after all this time, FINALLY writing a proper description for the magnetic business card calendars, and illustrating what a great bang for the buck that they are. For years, my copy said; "Our handy magnetic business card calendar lets you keep your card in front of your customers all year round, and give them a chuckle, too! Each month has different Things Not to Say to a Farrier phrases, paired with humorous farrier drawings. At the bottom is a farrier related hint that may (hopefully) help your clients to help you better care for their horses' feet. Great to enclose with your invoices, or with your holiday cards. These stick to any metal surface. Just remove the liner, and apply your own business card to the adhesive."
What I never took the time to describe, was the fact that with each calendar comes an EXTRA magnetic piece that you punch out and stick to a SECOND business card. This lets you turn any ordinary business card into a handy magnet that you can bet will stay around where clients can see it a lot longer than a regular card.
It's a tough concept to convey with just a small picture and a few lines of copy. Many folks who were interested in the idea, got tripped up when I tried to explain that they needed to use business cards that they ALREADY HAD or place an order for some separately. So, I took a new picture and constructed the above graphic to hopefully give folks a better idea of how this all works.
AND, for just $1.50 - farriers can keep their name in front of their clients, as well as give them a monthly chuckle, for a FULL YEAR!
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