Ways to advertise your business

Knowing what you want to achieve will make your advertising campaign more successful.

You may want to, for example:

• make customers aware of a new service or a new business
• increase sales of a particular product.

Your advertising campaign should support your marketing objectives, as set out in your marketing strategy. Outline the KPIs (measurable results) for each campaign. Examples of KPIs are:

• number of website visitors
• number of phone calls and email enquiries
• number of potential leads
• sales numbers
• cost per acquisition.

Make sure you can track, and report on, the KPIs you choose.

Read more about tracking your digital performance.

Your marketing budget should consider your business goals and how much money you have available. Your marketing plan determines how much you should spend on advertising.

As always, the right balance is essential. Remember:

• spending too much on advertising can be risky and inefficient
• spending too little on advertising can make your brand invisible.

View advertising as an investment. The return is not always immediate, but there are significant long-term advantages.

You need to know who you'll be targeting with your advertising campaign. Base this on your target segments.

Find out as much as you can about how your target audience uses media. This can include:

• what they typically read, watch and listen to
• where they go and how they get there
• what they search for and visit online.

You might, for example, find that your potential customers:

• read a particular magazine
• catch a certain bus to and from work
• are a part of the same social media group.

This will help you decide:

• what and how you communicate—your creative approach
• where and when you advertise—your channel selection.

As part of your creative approach, you'll need to create your unique selling points (USP). Focus on how your business is different and the unique value you deliver.

A USP is a short, snappy statement to promote your business. Think about:

• what you offer
• what customers want.

The catchier the better – you want your customers to remember.

Make sure all your advertising channels play their role to reinforce the messages.

Read more about defining your value proposition and USPs.

Find the best channels for your advertising by looking at your:

• campaign KPIs
• target audience
• allocated budget.

Typically, the more people who read a newspaper, watch a television show, or drive past a billboard, the higher the cost to place your advertisement. However, this also means that more potential customers will be exposed to your products and services.

Make sure the audience numbers are correct and relevant to your campaign:

• Ask for a media kit and a rate card to help you compare the channels you are considering.
• Check that the audience numbers are independently verified.
• Remember, the numbers relating to your target audience is most important.

Read about the advantages and disadvantages of different types of advertising.

As part of the campaign planning process, you need to book your media schedule – the where and the when.

You want more people in your target audience to see and hear your advertisements more often. Try to find the best balance between the:

• total number of people who saw your advertisement – known as reach
• number of times the advertisement is presented – known as frequency.

Keep a work-in-progress document, so you:

• can create effective advertisements across many channels
• have enough time to meet advertising deadlines.

Make sure you keep track of due dates to supply advertising material.

In Step 1, you would have made sure that you could track, and report on, the KPIs you chose. Now you can review the information you have available to see how well your campaign worked.

The purpose of this review is to:

• calculate your return on investment (ROI)
• find out which advertising worked best
• use the results to improve your future campaigns.

Find out how you can measure and analyse your advertising campaign.

Newspaper advertising is a form of print media that can help promote your business and reach a wide audience. It typically consists of:

• display advertisements, which are placed throughout the paper
• classified listings under specific subject headings.

Generally, the higher the circulation (readership), the higher the advertising cost.

To decide if and how newspaper advertising will work for your business, consider the:

• geographic coverage (national, regional or local)
• audience profile.

Magazine advertising enables you to connect with a highly targeted audience. For example, magazines may focus on:

• consumers with a particular interest (e.g. women's health)
• businesses in a particular industry (e.g. hospitality).

If your products need to be displayed in colour, a glossy magazine advertisement can be ideal.

People also tend to take more time to read magazines and keep them for longer. This means there's more chance of your advertisement being seen.

Keep in mind:

• Magazine advertisements are generally more expensive than newspaper advertisements.
• Magazines are usually not local media but distributed nationally. Consider if you'll be paying for exposure outside your target area.

Radio advertising can be an effective way to reach your target audience. It gives you the:

• option to focus on a specific region or local area
• opportunity to convey your brand personality through sound.

Keep your target audience in mind when choosing which station to run your advertisements on and what time of the day to run them.

Radio advertising can be a cost-effective medium. However, listeners may not easily recall your advertisement, so you many need to run them regularly.

Television advertising:

• is an ideal way to reach a large market in a large geographic area
• offers the unique advantage of combining visuals, sound, movement and colour
• is a powerful tool to build an emotional connection with your brand and persuade customers to act.

TV advertising is typically sold in units of time (e.g. 15 seconds or 30 seconds) and the costs will vary depending on the station, program and time.

It can be expensive when you factor in all the production and broadcasting costs.

Because of the broad coverage and high costs, television advertising might not be a good option for many small businesses.

Outdoor advertising is a way to connect with potential customers when they're outside and on the go. There are typically 3 different out-of-home advertising environments:

• roadside (e.g. billboards, bus shelters, kiosks)
• transport (e.g. airports, trains, buses, bicycles)
• lifestyle (e.g. shopping centres, gyms, stadium).

This visual advertising can be designed for high impact. Both traditional and digital options may be available.

Remember:

• The message needs to be short and sharp with a strong call to action.
• Prime locations are expensive.

Directories provide a cost-effective way to list your business. They can be printed or online. Online, location-based listing or directories allow you to:

• list on specialised directories (e.g. by category or location)
• keep your business and contact details up to date.

Check if there are free online directories for your local area.

Potential customers may use directories to compare options through online ratings and reviews.

Online advertising provides a highly targeted and highly effective way to attract new customers. It's particularly important as most customers do online research before making a purchase decision.

There are 3 main types of digital advertising at your disposal:

• display advertising
• paid search advertising
• social media advertising.

Read more about digital marketing and advertising and social media for business.

The channels and formats (e.g. video or images) will be based on the online behaviours of your potential customers and what you are striving to achieve.

Also remember that you'll most likely be driving traffic to your website. A well-designed website can increase your sales.

Monitor your business performance before starting the advertising campaign. This represents your baseline performance.

In the shoe store advertising campaign example, you should have some idea of:

• how many people visit the store each day
• existing product sales
• perceptions of your brand that need to be addressed.

After running your advertising campaign, you can compare the desired KPIs with the actual results.

Based on your advertising budget and the incremental revenue, you will be able to work out if the campaign resulted in a positive return on investment (ROI).

There are many simple ways to find out which types of advertising worked best:

• Ask your customers how they found out about your business.
• Motivate customers to mention/bring in a promotional offer.
• Use a separate phone number/email address to track responses.
• Monitor enquiries immediately after your advertising appears.
• Track changes in your digital performance.
• Capture customer postcode details to help prioritise locations.

It's best practice to do a post-campaign review. In addition to looking at the measurable results, this can be as simple as asking:

• What worked well?
• What could be better?

With these answers, you'll be in a much stronger position to refine and improve your next advertising campaign.

In the example, a learning may be that most customers went to the website first, but there was not enough information available. However, once in store, the offer delivered strong sales. So, when planning a future advertising campaign, it will be important to update the website and create a landing page.

Remember that your advertising may take time to generate results.