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The 16 Biggest Myths in Marketing

MAGAZINE MYTHS Myth # 1 "Sure you'll get lots of direct orders - you have no competition, you'll be the only mail order ad in the magazine." Fact: If you're marketing with a direct-selling mail order ad, there should be lots of other mail order merchants in the magazine - the synergy will help your ad get better response. Readers will be shopping that section with a pen and checkbook in hand. If there are no other mail order ads, there's a reason: they don't work.

Myth #2 "You can sell anything from this publication, all our ads work." TRUTH: You can tell in advance what works, those ads keep repeating month after month. You can tell if your ad in a magazine will be successful to a good degree by studying the last year of issues: competitors' ads appear in it monthly; so do ads for similar products. This is the only way to tell, everything else is a crap shoot. So is this, but at least the dice are weighted slightly in your favor.

MYTH # 3: The 3 Ad Exposure MYTH When you ask magazine publishers for an discount on your ad (you do always ask, don't you?), most usually respond with "Sure you can get a discount. Run your ad 3 times and get the 3-ad rate." Unenlightened advertisers then mistakenly place three ads in three succeeding months, and oops! Magazine production time is 3 months, so when the first ad appears on the newsstand, if it's not successful it's already too late to cancel ads 2 and 3. You just lost 3 times the amount you should have. Oh boy, how many times have I heard this story. Here's the MYTH: "Your ad needs three exposures for the best draw!" Hogwash. I don't think so. If your first ad sinks like a stone, your other 2 will follow it right down to the bottom. So will your money. Recommendation: If you want the 3 ad discount, by all means, take out a 3 ad insertion order. BUT what the ad salesperson probably forgot to tell you: you have a FULL YEAR to fulfill the 3 insertion contract - so place the first ad, and enjoy the discount. Place the second ad to run in the magazine 3 or 4 months later - so you'll have plenty of time to cancel it if the first ad doesn't draw well. Then, if your first ad - your test ad - doesn't work, cancel: the rest of your ads won't either. You'll get either orders, or experience with your 1ST ad. (Experience is what you get when you don't get any orders). You don't want to get more experience with ads 2 and 3. SO DON'T SCHEDULE 3 ADS IN 3 CONSECUTIVE MONTHS in any untested magazine - unless you have really deep pockets can take the hit. If you cancel your remaining ads, you may have to pay the "short rate" (the difference between a single insertion rate and the 3x ad rate), and that's a fair charge, but it will be a hell of a lot cheaper than running the ad a second and third time. If your first ad works, you'll have the rest of your life to place additional ads. You'll thank me for this if your first ad doesn't test well. Send a nice bottle of champagne with that "thank you" letter, will you?