In advertising, there are no one-media-fits-all solutions. To choose the best ways to advertise a business, you need to research your target market and find the most effective media to reach that group. The most effective way to advertise your company shouldn't start with where you should advertise, but what and how you should you advertise. Answer the following questions to figure out who to market to and where they learn about the products and services they need.
Why Do You Need to Advertise?
Choose your advertising goals. Advertising can be used to increase brand awareness, find sales leads, develop long-term customer relationships or urge one-time purchasing. Your advertising goals will help you identify the message you need to send your potential customers.
Who Is in Your Target Market?
Determine your target market. You have two options for determining who your customers are. You can use primary research, in which you perform a survey, conduct tests or interview a focus group, to find your target market. Secondary market research uses the results of surveys or tests conducted by other businesses or the government. Primary research works well for existing businesses because you use results from your actual customers. Start-up businesses can use secondary market research to help them discover who their potential customers might be.
Don't try to be everything to everyone. By falling into the common trap that you want to sell to everyone, you are missing out on an opportunity to effectively use your advertising dollars. While a handful of people in one demographic may be interested in your business, it makes more financial sense to speak to as many people from your target market as you can because they are the people who would most likely buy your product or service.
What Is Your Message?
Pick one message per advertisement. Your message should pertain to the advertising goal you identified in the first question. Try to distill the benefits of your product or service into one sentence, and use this as the basis for your ads. What problem does your business solve?
How Should You Deliver Your Message?
Advertise using copy and images that speak to your audience. Make sure your advertising style shows the personality of your business, and looks like something your market would be interested in.
Choose an action you want your customers to do after viewing your advertising. Tell them to call for an estimate, visit your website to make a purchase or sign-up for your newsletter.
Where Should You Advertise?
Find the media your target market uses. Most major media maintains audience demographic information. If you're targeting other businesses, try finding trade journals that cater to their field. The most common forms of media include websites, newspapers, magazines, television, radio and billboards.
Advertise in a variety of media. Media is extremely fragmented (meaning many people are viewing more than one type of media, making it harder to target your audience). According to Jeremy L. Knauff of Duct Tape Marketing, the best approach to fragmentation is to "focus on two mediums that work well together and ensure that a similar message is used on each." The catch is you need to make sure your target market views the media you choose. If you are targeting a younger market, choose new media (websites and social media). If you are targeting an older demographic, choose traditional media (newspapers and radio).
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