Customers are bombarded with advertising, so make yours stand out.
Most small-business owners understand that advertising is critical to their company's success. That's often where these owners' understanding of advertising and marketing ends. Business owners must develop a strategy to make their advertising effective in the long run, rather than merely randomly purchasing ads and hoping they connect with an audience that's made up of potential customers and not just a group of uninterested shoppers.
Instructions
1. Identify your customers. Many small-business owners frequently confuse their own interests and lifestyle with their customers' lifestyle, media choices and behavior. Don't develop an advertising plan based solely on the radio stations, newspapers and gatherings you enjoy. These may be radically different from your customers' preferences. Instead, develop a profile of your typical customers, from their income level to their entertainment choices. Local marketing agencies may be able to provide you with regional aggregate data about your target market, or you can conduct your own surveys to measure your target customers' interests and behavior.
2. Research your medium. All advertisements aren't created equal. Although a newspaper advertisement may reach a large swath of your local market, it doesn't necessarily connect with the target audience you wish to reach. Before placing any advertisements, talk with an ad sales representative to get demographic information about the medium's audience. If your target market doesn't use that medium, you're not reaching any real customers, and you've effectively wasted your advertising budget.
3. Apply advertising psychology. Merely informing customers that you are open for business isn't an effective advertising strategy to drive sales. Because audiences are confronted with so many advertisements each day, you must quickly identify why your target audience would benefit from your services, provide an immediate reason to use your services, and, if possible, set a short-term deadline, such as a sale or discount period, for customers to act upon your offer.
4. Develop your brand. Small businesses traditionally have difficulty building a brand for themselves that sets them apart in their market. Your brand is your business's identity and, more important, lets customers know what you stand for and why you're not just another small-business owner. Every time you advertise, stress your brand identity and your business's identity, and stick to your brand's message in virtually every advertisement you make.
