Advertising your business is very important for spreading awareness to different places, boosting visibility among new customers, and keeping the venture running successfully for a long time.
The downside of advertising, in all its forms, is the sheer amount of it that surrounds us. The resulting barrage of words, pictures, and sounds often causes the intended audience to tune out.
Advertising budgets must therefore be used prudently. For example, it is probably not sensible to advertise a product designed for women in a magazine intended for men. Local media markets must first be checked to ensure that the advertisement, and the medium in which it is presented, fit the intended customer base.
This can be done by determining the most popular media channels and verifying how much of the market the medium penetrates. Such information is usually available to the public because it is used to set advertising rates. Check with local business development centers or advertising governing bodies for sources of media rankings.
Additional suggestions include:
- Determine the “cost per thousand” (CPM) before considering the purchase of any advertising space. CPM refers to the overall cost of reaching 1,000 people. To calculate it, divide the cost of the advertisement by the estimated audience size (in thousands) of the medium in which the ad will appear. For written publications, the audience size is called the circulation number. The result indicates how much money it costs to reach 1,000 people, thereby showing the best value for money.
- Put together a media or press kit.
- Write a short, one-page, fact-based media release that explains your business, what your product does, who benefits from the product, and the impact it will have on customers (for example, the time and money it saves or the safety it provides).
- Keep an updated notebook that carefully records your advertising budget, goals, descriptions of various media outlets and their audiences, demographics, dates, and advertising strategies. Equally important, accurately record the results of all advertising campaigns. Future marketing decisions can then be evaluated using this information.
Stick to the following five principles in all advertisements:
- Promote one clear message. An advertisement should convey its message within three seconds or less, using a suitable tagline that explains the major benefit of the product.
- Strengthen the message with credible claims. Do not simply state that the product saves time and money — show exactly how much time and money it saves.
- Test all advertisements before releasing them. Let four or five competent people judge the advertisement for effectiveness. If the response is negative, improve the advertisement. The purpose of an advertisement is to attract and satisfy potential customers, not the creator of the ad.
- Make the advertisement easy to read and use. Ensure that it contains all necessary contact information, including website and email addresses, along with an incentive for customers to buy the product. Make it easy to measure the effectiveness of the advertisement by including a coupon or special offer that helps track results.
- Create curiosity. Many successful advertisements are not designed to sell a product or service immediately. Instead, their purpose is to generate interest. For example, if an accounting service is being offered, rather than simply stating how excellent the service is, create curiosity by saying something like: “If you are paying more than $5,000 a year in taxes, learn how you can reduce this amount by 20% or more!”
Consider all advertising options, along with their benefits and costs, before choosing an advertising medium.
Change advertisements after they have been given enough time to perform. Do not allow advertisements to become stale, but at the same time, do not remove them too early before they have had a chance to be effective.
Final Thoughts:
Advertising is very important for your business because it boosts both visibility and awareness among new customers. Many companies in today’s world, including small businesses, depend on advertising for growth and long-term stability.