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ans Serif">You offer a reliable, quality service. You know that if more people knew what you can do, you'd increase sales. So you advertise in the most likely media for potential clients to read about you. But there's no response.

ans Serif" color="#008000">Why?
ans Serif">If this scenario is familiar to you there's a few likely causes.
1. Maybe your advertisements aren't designed well - poor layout, inappropriate offer, etc.
2. Maybe you have selected the wrong media, placement or timing.
3. Maybe you shouldn't be advertising your services.

ans Serif">Now there's lots of information around about how to write advertisements - creating "killer headlines", long copy versus short copy, using white space, etc - and tips on how to buy media. But I'm not getting into that today. I'm going to talk about the third point - maybe you shouldn't advertise.

ans Serif">But wait (I hear you ask)… why shouldn't I advertise my business?

ans Serif">Put simply, some services are not suitable to be advertised in the usual fashion. Most advertising is to stimulate action, usually a purchase or decision to place an order. If you're selling a 'product' this is relatively easy to achieve. Customers know what they are buying. There's usually some sort of benchmark, or product criteria, customers use to judge whether your product will do what they want.

ans Serif">But when it comes to services, many potential customers (or clients - I use both terms interchangeably) may not be able to make the same sort of judgement. This is particularly the case for services where the specific outcome is hard to predict, or where there is a large degree of emotional involvement or risk in the customers decision making process.

ans Serif">What kind of service do you provide?
Think about it this way. Services can be broadly classified under the following headings:

• ans Serif">People Processing (eg hairdresser, medical)
• ans Serif">Possession Processing (eg computer repairs, dog obedience training)
• ans Serif">Knowledge Processing (eg education, entertainment)
• ans Serif">Information Processing (eg accounting, investment advice)

ans Serif">Generally speaking, possession and people processing services are more tangible than knowledge or information processing. For possession and people processing services, clients can see/touch/feel the outcomes, and they may even be personally involved in the delivery of the actual service. Additionally, tangible services usually incorporate a higher level of personal contact (intensity or frequency) between the provider and the customer.

ans Serif">So, for more tangible services, clients often have more reference points on which to base a future purchase decision.

ans Serif">If your business provides services with less tangible, and more variable, outcomes then media advertising may not be the best answer for you. For your type of services customers will be very interested to understand 'how' you deliver your service and will need to develop a suitable degree of trust in you before they will make the decision to use your services. These criteria cannot be fully met through advertising alone.