Tim Bossie.com

We’re rolling right along with this series and hopefully you’re getting an understanding of how important it is to set a time for yourself to ask yourself some questions about your internet advertising campaign.

If you’ve been following this series (you can start it here) then you’ve already made some great progress. If you haven’t I do encourage you to go ahead and start from the beginning.

In this post we’re going to cover something I recently started asking myself.

What culturally significant event can I use in my advertising this week?

Here’s a fact about advertising. Especially in online advertising.

People want to feel comfortable.

One way to do that is to put them at ease by citing, talking about, explaining, offering help with things that are going on in the world today. Even a slight mention of a major news event, something relevant to the culture today, or even something personal that people can relate to will help the reader of your advertising material feel better about you.

What you want to ask yourself is what’s going on in the world right now that will help me relate to people? I’m not talking about using headlines as keywords to trick people into clicking on your search engine listing, blog post title, or email. I’m talking about infusing whatever it is you’re advertising with; ie. blog post, article, ad, ppc listing, etc., whatever is relevant to now.

A huge mistake I see a lot of people doing is being very generic in their advertising. Articles are plain, boring and hold no relevancy. Blog posts are just about giving out dry information. Emails are pushy in tone and are just going for one thing. There is no reason for someone to want to read, click, or buy.

Be a student of events

I am convinced that when you stop learning, stop looking at what’s going on, stop taking an interest in world events… you stop growing as a person and stop growing as a business. The internet is moving at a very rapid speed. People are moving from one thing to another on an hourly basis. If you’re not going to offer them something that they can relate to, something that’s happening in the world around them, then you’re advertising is going to suffer. Your response won’t be as great as it could be.

I just wrote two ads for a client the other day and I talked about being at Starbucks (a lot of people sit in Starbucks and surf the internet. This was for relevancy in atmosphere.) and a slight mention of gas prices (This put both the reader and my client in the same mind set. I’m trying for time relevancy).

Think to yourself what is it that people are struggling with?
What is it that people are culturally engaged in today?
How are people communicating? How do they spend their leisure time? What is a pressing issue?

A great way to keep up with things is to subscribe to a variety blog feeds and newsletters. I get a ton of ideas for ads while checking my Google Reader and my email.

Take some time to think about this question. Then start to put it into your advertising plan. You’ll see an amazing difference.