Advertising 101

The best place to start is to define what advertising is, for until you know what it is you won't know what it can and can't do for your business. Quite simply it is non-personal selling. It is allowing the media (whatever it is you choose) to persuade consumers via the advertisement you create that when they're in the market to buy what you sell, that they should consider you to do business with.


Marketing, Promotion and Advertising?

People use these three words interchangeably, though they are related, they are not the same thing. Marketing is quite simply everything involved in doing business with your customers. You may remember from college, "the 4 P's of Marketing" Pricing, Placement, Product and Promotion. of the 4, promotion is the absolute least important. If you don't have a good product, priced right placed somewhere easy to access then all the promotion in the world isn't going to make a bit of difference in the long run. Although, It can help strenthen any of the other three. For example, if your prices are higher than your competitors, but for a good reason(like quality or level of service) then promoting your superiority will help strengthen your price disadvantage. Promotion is thus defined as everything involved in letting the consumer know about you and your company. I know what you're thinking.... how does that differ from advertising? Advertising is merely one of several tools in the promotions toolbox. You also have personal sales (you, your sales people) and Public Relations


Advertising Is An Art

Anyone who tells you different is lying to you. There is no sure fire formula for success, there are no guarantee's and there's a fantastic chance that what worked for you last year will not work for you this year. Still with me? Good, because if you've been in business for yourself for longer than a year, then you should realize that all three of those statements are true about your business in the first place. Now, while there are no scientific formula's for success, there are some general rules that will keep you on the right track. The fundamental behind every successful advertising campaign is: "Say The Right Thing, To The Right People, Enough Times To Cause Them To Take Action" Repeat these words like a mantra while evaluating any advertising campaign BEFORE you spend a single dime on it. There are only three parts to this fundamental truism, which would make you think that they are all equally important. Not So! While it's true you need all of them to be successfull. One of them is more important than the other two and that is to "SAY THE RIGHT THING" This is the most important part of your advertising campaign, it can be the most difficult to accomplish and it is unfortunately the last thing small business owners think about and what they invest the least amount of time and money to accomplish. The reason this has come to be is that most business owners are reactive instead of proactive in regards to advertising. They wait until a Radio, or TV or Newpaper salesperson comes knocking on their door before they decide to advertise, and they get sold on the idea of being on radio or tv or in the newspaper before figuring out what it is there going to say about themselves and how their going to say it. This is a bad strategy. First figure out what you're going to say.


"Word Of Mouth Is The Best Form Of Advertising"

In our years of experience we've heard this numerous times from business people we've encountered. This statement is mostly true, the part that is incorrect is that "Word of Mouth" isn't advertising. It is promotion! which as we just discussed is closely related to advertising. The reason you'll hear over and over that "Word of Mouth" is the best form of promotion is two-fold. 1) It's free! Free is good. and 2) It's credible. A friend telling you about the great new Italian restaurant around the corner is a powerful personal testimonial from someone you trust. The down side to "Word of Mouth" is also two fold... 1) You can't get enough of it! and 2) You can't control the message. Businesses need to advertised themselves in addition to benefitting from "word of mouth" Coke, IBM and McDonalds are some of the biggest advertisers in the country. Do you really think there's ANYONE who hasn't heard of any of the three of them and has either used their product/services personally or at least knows someone who has? Yet they still continue to advertise heavily...to maintain their dominance. If you're business hasn't achieved dominance yet are you really willing to let people you don't know, to control your message?


Which media should I use to advertise?

This is a common question and an even more common point of contention amongst business owners. Many business owners are convinced that a particular media "doesn't work" the problem being that the particular media differs with each business owner. The reality is that any conventional (and most non conventional) media will work if used properly and will just as likely fail miserably if used incorrectly. I've highlighted the main media choices and how best to utilize them. They are broken down into three basic categories; Print, Electronic, and a hybrid category Internet.

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