No matter how busy you are it’s critical to take the time to understand what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Make it a part of your process to clarify the purpose of each marketing activity, using the five steps below.

“Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving.”—David Ogilvy

“If you don’t have a competitive advantage, don’t compete.”—Jack Welch

Effective advertising attracts an audience and motivates them to action. It drives customer traffic, differentiates your store and your ad from your competitors’, and always supports your store’s strategic position. By creating ads that accomplish these four things, you’ll achieve the short-term goals of increased sales and customer count while developing advertising that will become the building blocks of tomorrow’s success and prosperity.

Right about now, you may be thinking, “Our stores are strategically positioned; what can this guy tell us that we don’t already know?” But it’s all in how you define strategic positioning.

Strategic positioning means different things to different people. We define strategic positioning as the creation of a unique and valuable position, supported by a system of activities distinct from those of your competitors. The key words here are “unique,” “activities,” and “distinct.”

“Success means never letting the competition define you. Instead you have to define yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about.”
—Tom Chappell, Tom’s Of Maine