Advertising The Basics

Advertising: The basics.

Advertising is a marketing strategy that helps you market your business to increase sales, get new customers, or make your target audience aware about your products and services.

1. Overview

Advertising is a marketing tool that helps you market your business and increase sales. Advertising can help customers form first impressions about your business before they actually deal with you.

This guide provides advice on advertising and the best places to advertise. This guide will help you manage your advertising budget and get the most value.

2. Advertising and its benefits.

Include basic information, such as your contact details or website address. Tell potential customers about your product and service to increase sales. Inform customers about any changes in your service, new product launches or special offers. You can ask customers to take specific actions, such as visiting your website or requesting a discount coupon. Remind customers about your business. You can change people's perceptions and attitudes about your business. Create or develop a unique brand for your company. Increase awareness for your business. Create a niche market or position.

Your customers are your best target

Decide whether you are targeting a local, regional, national, international audience or a mix. You should get information from the media company and other independent sources regarding their audience or circulation figures before you choose a media type. You need to know who, what, and where they are. You can usually break down figures into age groups, average income, and other useful indicators.

Advertising must be legal, fair, honest, and truthful. Information on advertising codes can be found at the Advertising Standards Authority.

3. Advertising types

Advertising locally

Local advertising can be a benefit to any business, particularly small businesses and sole traders. Local advertising can be used in the following ways:

leaflet drops.

Postcards displayed in shop windows, supermarket boards. Advertisement space can be rented at bus stops, railway stations or on buses. Newsletters, programmers, and magazines of local organizations. A sign outside your business premises

Local and regional magazines, newspapers, and directories.

Internet/online directories

Advertising online can be affordable and provide coverage you might not otherwise be able to. These are some examples of internet advertising:

Advertise on your own website. Your customers will find it easy to navigate your website and place orders. Advertise your business on other websites using banner and pop-up ads to promote your company and link to your website. You can get into an online directory by registering with directories such as Yell.com or ThompsonLocal.com. Trade and technical media

Advertisements in these publications are a great way to gain sales, product enquiries, trade partners, and potential investors if your business sells products to other businesses.

Radio..

Your advert will be seen a lot if it is repeated enough. To make your ads stand out, you might consider sponsoring specific features such as weather and travel news.

Cinema.

Advertising in local cinemas offers you a captive audience and a long dwell period for your ads.

Outdoor advertising.

Outdoor advertising can include all outdoor media, from billboards and posters to moving ads on buses. If you plan to use outdoor advertising for most signs and posters, you may need planning permission.

Television, national papers, magazines

Although these can be expensive, they can help you reach a large audience. Before you decide to advertise nationally, it is important that you get advice on audience and readership.

4. Planning an advertising campaign

Advertising can help increase sales by informing potential and existing customers about new product launches, special deals and other improvements. Advertising can help you create or enhance a unique brand.

Your customers are your best target

Advertising campaigns are often launched by businesses to increase sales, brand awareness, or launch new products. To give people an incentive, you could offer an introductory deal.

You will also need to determine if your target audience is local, regional, national, international or a combination. This will impact the media you choose. It is important to find out information from the media company and other independent sources regarding their audience or circulation figures. You can usually break down figures into age groups, average income, and other useful indicators.

Advertising must be legal, fair, honest, and truthful. Information on advertising codes can be found at the Advertising Standards Authority.

Do you have the skills to plan the campaign?

It is important to think about the message that you want to convey to the viewer, listener or reader. Advertising can only be effective if it reaches your target audience with a message they want to hear or buy.

An advertisement may be possible to create and print yourself. If your advertising requirements are more complex than a low-priced local advertisement you might consider outsourcing your advertising to an agency. You should only do this if you're willing to spend more, but professional design can make your ads more successful.

5. Advertising is a value-for-money strategy

Set a budget limit. Determine which options offer the highest return. This could be one or more ads in a more costly medium or many adverts in less expensive outlets. Ask for advice from others in the industry to reduce your risk and find out what works best. Find out more about the media you are considering, including figures regarding the readership or audience and how close they are with your target market.

For a better deal on advertising, negotiate

Rate cards are information about the advertising rates that media companies charge. It is common to negotiate the final price depending on the campaign type you are interested in. You might be able to negotiate a price cut, a repeat that is free or discounted, and a better place in the publication. Make sure that any print advertisement is placed in the best possible place. Keep this in mind:

Right-hand pages, particularly those in the beginning of the publication, catch the eye of the reader the most. An advertisement for greenhouses should appear on a page dedicated to gardening. If your coupon is included in your advertisement, place it at the margin of the page.

6. Monitoring and managing advertising campaigns

An effective advertising campaign can bring in orders. But make sure you have the resources to handle the response. It is important to determine the response level you expect and ensure that you have sufficient resources to achieve it.

To ensure that leads don't get lost, you may need a system. You could create a standard inquiry form that can be used by all people who receive calls. It is important to learn as much information as possible about the caller's needs.

Monitoring an advertising campaign

Ask the customer how they heard about you every time you make a sale or take an inquiry. This will help you determine which marketing strategies or advertising are most effective. You can check to see if there is a pattern in the inquiries regarding where and when your ads are displayed.

Use a unique code for each publication you use to include vouchers in your print ads. This will allow you to track where the incoming vouchers came from.

It is important to consider the sales that each advertisement generates, as well as whether there are good margins.

Some advertisements might delay results. While one person might order the next day while another may wait several weeks or even months, some advertisements can delay results. Consumers may not purchase more expensive products very often. Advertising may therefore be directed at keeping your brand in their minds. Advertising that aims to increase brand awareness is difficult to measure as it doesn't directly translate into sales.

7. Make an advertisement

Adverts should be targeted to the media used and the reader's interests. If you are selling gardening equipment, you might create a longer advertisement for a gardening magazine. This is because you can assume that your reader is already interested in the topic and is more likely to read the entire advert. You might also write a shorter advertisement for a general newspaper.

An advertisement that is effective should include:

A targeted headline is important. It should grab the attention of the reader and encourage them to continue reading.

Clear design is important. Avoid cluttering the layout with small fonts or complex typefaces. Your contact information should be easily visible.

Good copy, also known as copy, draws attention to the benefits and answers the question "What's in it For Me?"

Businesses have a responsibility to ensure that their advertising is honest, legal, fair, and truthful. Information on advertising codes can be found at the Advertising Standards Authority.