When traffic slows, the instinct is to discount. But price cuts are often a symptom of a deeper issue: unclear messaging. A successful ad campaign will gain you customers, grow your sales, and protect your margins. And it’s never been easier and cheaper to run effective ads. The precise targeting of Google Ads and social media ads allows you to have a big impact with a small budget.
If you’ve run digital ads in the past, why not double down? And if you’re new to digital advertising, read on to learn how to craft a compelling marketing message.
At the Heart of a Great Ad Campaign
So what makes an effective advertising campaign? Is it great copy? Great images? Do you need to be a brilliant writer or designer? While those elements can’t hurt, you already have what you really need: an understanding of your customers.
“Think different.” These two simple words sold millions of dollars’ worth of product at Apple in the company’s seminal 1997–2002 advertising campaign. Why? Because Apple knew that its customers didn’t want to be IBM clones—they saw themselves as creative and unique.
To create a message that connects with your customers, you just need a process. And that process begins with creating customer avatar(s) as an excercise. Picturing your customer will help you dig down to understand their needs and create a compelling message to meet those needs.
The Avatar Excercise
An avatar is a representation of your typical customer. Since you likely have several types of customers, you will have several avatars. For example, the young parent is a different avatar from the advanced dancer. It’s okay to have several; just remember that the avatar is a composite representation.
- Think of your avatar as a real person (giving them a name helps). What’s their age, gender, income? Where do they live? What are their likes and dislikes? Why are they (or why is their child) in dance? Are they new to dance?
- What’s your avatar’s biggest source of pain in life?
- What’s their biggest pleasure in life?
- What’s your avatar’s biggest worry when it comes to dance?
- What’s their biggest worry when it comes to shopping for dance clothing and footwear?
- What’s their biggest pleasure when it comes to shopping for dance clothing and footwear?
- Why does your avatar dance?
Think deeply about each of these questions. Take your time. The better you understand your avatar’s pain and pleasure points, the easier it will be to create a message that resonates with them.
Are they run ragged in life (question 2)? And worried about buying the wrong thing for their kid (question 4)? Then effective ad copy could be: “Our dance bundle makes getting the right dancewear quick and easy.”
A great marketing message either solves a pain point (worry about getting the right fit) or creates pleasure (the joy of finding a beautiful bodysuit). A great marketing message enters the conversation that is already taking place in your customer’s head.
That thought process in your customer’s head is rarely about price. Retailers tend to talk about discounts because it’s easier than finding another message that resonates. But if you do this avatar work, you will come up with a powerful marketing message and not have to give away margin.
Finding the Right Words
Once you’ve created your avatars, it’s time to craft your message. If you’re good with words, go at it. If not, farm it out to someone. (One of the better freelancer websites, like Toptal, Guru or Upwork, is a good option. AI text-generation services are also an option—whether you choose to use them depends on your preferences, requirements, and comfort level.)
If you hire a copywriter, make sure you are clear about your message first. Your job is to know what you want to say. The copywriter’s job is to find the right words to say it.
Whether you hire it out or do the work yourself, here are some tips for creating a compelling message:
- Make one point, and only one point. If you try to tell the customers everything, they’ll remember nothing.
- If necessary, you can have different copy for different avatars. Just make sure that the campaigns are not contradictory. And put them on different social media channels to reach different sets of customers.
- You can use photos to support a secondary message. For example, if you want to communicate “You’ll get the right fit,” and you also want to convey a body-positive message, then show different body types in your imaging.
- Make it about the customers. Talk about “you,” not “we,” “I,” or “my store.” There’s a tendency in a lot of ad copy to say “We have this” and “We are that” and expect the customer to do the work to figure out what it means for them. But they’re not going to put in the effort. It’s your job to let them know what’s in it for them. So don’t say “We have the biggest selection,” say “You will find the perfect leotard in our store’s huge selection.”
- Talk about benefits, not features. People are interested in what the product does for them, not what it is. A leotard’s feature may be its microfiber fabric, but the benefit is that you will stay cool and dry all through a long class. “Cool and dry” is what the customer cares about.
Have a call to action. What action do you want your customers to take? “Shop now” on your website? “Visit our store today”? Be clear about their next step, and your ads will be more effective.
A Word on Discounting
“Just do it” or “Buy our shoes.” Which tagline do you think would work better? That’s an easy one, isn’t it? And “Buy our shoes” quickly becomes “Buy our shoes at 20 percent off.”
While you may not reach Nike-level copy, I’m confident you can create a compelling message that connects with your customers and brings them into your store. And you won’t have to discount.
If you truly believe that you have to compete on price, don’t give a blanket discount. You can’t afford to do that. Focus on having big discounts on a few key items. These items need to be in high demand and have high price sensitivity. A big discount on hairnets won’t bring people in, but a big discount on tights might. Popular items where customers grumble about price is an excellent place to start.
But only offer a few of these loss leaders at a significant discount. The rest of your products should stay at full price.
The Bottom Line
Before you turn to discounts, try the above process. You know your dancewear consumer. You have what it takes to create a compelling marketing message that will bring them in and get them shopping with you.
Gilbert Russell is president of Brio Bodywear, which has two brick-and-mortar dancewear stores in Ottawa, Canada. Through his consulting firm, No Qualms Retail, he also enjoys sharing his experience and knowledge with other independent retailers.
For more great marketing tips from Russell, check out this DRN article explaining how tapping into customer emotions can boost sales.
This is an updated version of an article originally published in Dance Business Weekly in 2021, which is no longer in publication.