As I was scrolling through my Facebook page, seeing pictures of my grandkids and friends, I was surprised to see an add for a law firm software claiming to “dramatically increase sales in my law firm”. Because I am currently working with a law firm and doing some research on software platforms, I was not surprised to see the ad and curiously I decided to click on the advertisement. Immediately, the ad suggested that I get a free book for only the cost of the shipping of the book. However, I was asked to input my name, email address, physical address and a credit card before I could even see the value of the book they were selling. Not surprisingly, I was immediately frustrated with the offer and went back to my usual mindless scrolling.
During the day, we are bombarded with advertising and branding of all types. And for much of this advertising, there is little pay-off for the companies paying for the advertising. For simple use products and services (think soft drinks, food, inexpensive consumer goods), advertising of this sort may be acceptable. However, for more professional services advertising, such as the law firm advertising that I had clicked on, much more thought needs to be put in. This is where I began thinking of how important it is to consider the 3 R’s of advertising: Relevance, Recency, and Resourceful.
Relevance, Recency, and Resourceful
Relevance
In advertising, the source through which the consumer is viewing the advertisement needs to be relevant. In the example used, I was viewing a channel that I see as highly personal. In looking at my search history and how I consume content within Facebook, it should be fairly obvious to the advertiser that showing me a professional services advertisement would not have a high impact. The ad reminded me of a recent conversation that I had on the Bizzy Signal podcast with Adam Kemper from Fig Advertising. During the podcast, Adam talked about “meeting your client where they are at and where they will be able to get your message the most clearly”.
In order to be relevant to your clients and prospects, it is critical to do research on where your potential clients are and how they are consuming advertising messages. For the example, it would be much more appropriate for the law firm advertiser to do digital advertising within business publications and possibly while using LinkedIn. But putting an advertisement that distracts from my usual social media consumption not only is time consuming, but it may also actually have a negative effect on the user, pushing them further away from your brand.
Recency
It is a well-known fact in advertising that there is a “Rule of 7”, meaning that you have to touch your prospects 7 times or more before they truly engage and make a decision about your brand. With the increased number of media channels and on-line activity, this number has increased in recent years to almost twice that amount. With this in mind, it is important to be in front of your prospects on a regular basis, and if possible, in multiple mediums. This can include posting via social channels, digital advertisements, physical and digital brand advertising and publications.
Ultimately, the more often your brand can be in front of your desired audience the better. Ultimately, if you are not getting your brand in front of your prospects, someone else is. However, it is also very important to make sure all of these touchpoints are on brand with visual, tone, and supporting the brand promise.
Resourceful
The last R is possibly the most important, as it is the resourcefulness that is given to the prospect or client. Being able to offer them information that shows you understands their problems or challenges and have the ability to solve them is an important part of connecting with your target audience. Creating content that is additive to the client or prospects business, focused on creating urgency to solve their largest problems, and the ability to then have the resources to help them is key in getting their attention.
Advertising and content that is created which is self-serving to the business too often falls flat because it is focused more on the company creating revenue than it is about helping the client or prospect with their business. When was the last time you read a piece of content or advertising that said “if you have this problem, our solution is the one that will help you solve the issue?” This type of content is meant to only create that one transaction and not create a true helping relationship with the client or prospect.
