GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons’ 9 Secret Rules for Successful Advertising

From the desk of Roy Furr, Wednesday, 5:21 pm

Most people know GoDaddy.com for their raunchy Super Bowl ads and don’t realize how much advertising it really takes to make them as successful as they are. And they’re no chumps when it comes to advertising either.

What I didn’t know about GoDaddy.com is how much CEO and founder Bob Parson’s philosophy of advertising lines up with mine.

Watch this video and learn his 9 rules for advertising that works (I’ve included my notes below):

GoDaddy.com CEO and Founder Bob Parsons’ 9 Secret Rules for Successful Advertising

1. Start small. Don’t blow a fortune on advertising that hasn’t proven itself in smaller tests first.
2. Exit strategy required. Don’t get yourself into a situation where you’re locked into an advertising contract when the advertising isn’t working. There are plenty of places to blow your budget. Take your advertising dollars elsewhere.
3. It works now or never. If your advertising isn’t bringing returns today, don’t believe the ad salesperson when they say, “Customers won’t respond until the 7th time they see it.” Sometimes customers will, sometimes they won’t. But if your ad works today it’s certainly worth running again.
4. Effective advertising pays for itself. If you can’t trace returns on advertising to prove it’s paying for itself within days or the first couple weeks, it’s not effective advertising. Even GoDaddy’s Super Bowl commercials play this out — I read once that each time GoDaddy has run a Super Bowl ad they’ve been able to attribute a significant long-term increase in business to their campaign.
5. Measure and test. This is critical for that last rule to work. If you’re not measuring you don’t know what’s effective and what’s not. And testing lets you compare what works and what doesn’t and apply your learnings for future success.
6. Effective advertising must be coupled with a good ordering process. Whether it’s your website, your sales call center, or customer service, the customer must feel comfortable responding to your advertising and placing an order. You can kill the order as soon as you thought you had it by failing here.
7. Make it stand out. To be effective your ads have to get noticed. And to get noticed they have to stand out. Whether you go the bikini-clad women route of GoDaddy.com or choose another method of standing out is a personal and business choice. But no matter what you choose, this rule is crucial.
8. Controversy is good. GoDaddy.com has found that about 15% of Super Bowl viewers are offended by their advertising. But that’s why I’m talking about past years’ commercials right now in mid-November. Because controversial draws attention and gets remembered. And… As Bob said… Controversy has translated for them into sales — the most important figure to track.
9. You can’t please everybody. Try to be all things to everybody and you’re nothing to anybody. Find your tribe, your raving fans, your teeming horde — and serve them well. They’ll serve you well in return.

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